TV

Going to start off by saying that this is really my first blog. I haven't shared it with anyone so if you are reading this you probably accidentally found this. If you like what I write then awesome, if not I will try harder next time I suppose.

A lot of the research that went into this are things I found while researching for my classes. What this is is my ranting of what I believe the future of cable television needs to be. First I am going to talk about Zattoo. Zattoo is a free (with the exception of taxes you have to pay for depending upon the country you are living in) service that allows you to watch cable channels over the Internet. All you have to do is download their software and you get access to a variety of channels.

It is however not available in the United States yet. Why not? If it was I might actually watch TV more often. Tonight was the first time I turned my TV on in months (I actually can not remember the last time I turned on my TV). Every show I have watched has been streamed over the Internet lately. Everything I want to watch is online so that is what I do. The only bad aspect of this is I lose out on discovering new shows. I generally hear about shows then look into them instead of keeping my TV on and letting it entice me with programming I haven't seen before. My TV doesn't have a remote control and even if it did, I enjoy my computer too much and don't care for having to look at two different screens. It'd be convenient to have the show I am watching, twitter, and pidgin all on one screen, hence the streaming shows over the Internet.

It'd be great if Comcast or Verizon did something like this. Then again, knowing both companies they'd probably charge you more for Internet if they made something like this available, both have dropped their Usenet access for subscribers recently to cut costs.

Moving along, TiVo introduced interactive advertising 4 years ago, which in terms of technology means it is already a dinosaur. The linked press release reads,

"Enhance the TiVo customer's experience by allowing them to select the tag and 'telescope' from the traditional 30-second ad while pausing their program to view long-form content, requests for information, or recording opportunities which will enhance the viewing experience."

This interactivity is so effective that in November 2008, Dominoes teamed up with TiVo to give subscribers the ability to order a pizza while watching TV. The viewer can be so lazy that he or she does not have to pull up the Dominoes website or even call them to order the pizza, they can just order it while watching TV. Why haven't we seen more of this? It is a four year old technology. This just exemplifies how TV has been given an awesome opportunity to keep up with the Internet, but is doing nothing about it.

So let's combine TiVo and Zattoo together now, a hypothetical Frankenstein if you will. Imagine being able to stream 24 hours of your favorite cable channel online and being able to interact with what you are watching. This is what TV needs to do. Viewers still want the ability to just turn something on, even if they aren't going to watch it, just for background noise. If something catches their eyes they can then pay more attention to it. The success of America's choice shows (Dancing with the Stars, American Idol) only exemplifies the point of viewers wanting to be more involved with what they watch. The technology for this is there, so why isn't it happening? Interactive, online cable is what TV needs right now, if not as a permanent solution, then as a temporary one until they can think of something better. Instead of viewing the Internet as the enemy that is taking their ratings away, stations should be using it as a tool to do their daily routine, like every other Internet user.

Does any of this make sense, or am I the only one who thinks this is a good idea?