The Evolution of Televison

antijoke

antijoke

antijoke

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This follows on from the Digital Britain thread, as they were talking about TV shows and why people download, and it got me thinking about the evolution of TV and what could be done.

Would you be happy with the demise of the television service as we know it? Eg. BBC/ITV/Five etc and a digital distribution service introduced on a world wide scale with subscriptions that allow you to watch/record what you want and when you want it with nil adverts?

Or another digitial distribution service introduced alongside the current service for people who wish to have such freedom and availablity?

It really does baffle me that a service like this on a subscription basis (what with more and more people becoming tech savy and having devices that allow streaming media like the PS3 for example) hasn't been unveiled (especially when you consider we are moving towards gaming on demand services like Onlive, surely it's only a matter of time until something similar is done for TV).

It could be just like your Sky TV package where you subscribe to the content you want or do it on an indivdual program basis.

So what are you thoughts?
 
I think the issue for me is having to choose... Not such a problem with films because there's a lot of hype around a film release, i'll read some reviews and then go to cinema/buy/watch on virgin.

But with everything else, I don't want to have to read up on what's a good series, what's funny, etc etc. I'd rather just turn the tv on, find something I think looks interesting, and if it's not then I just flick over. All this with regular news updates in between... Whilst a complete digital distribution service sounds like fun I don't think it could ever replace standard tv.
 
I have watched television like this for 53 years, I like it just the way it is (albeit if there were less adverts it would be better).

One tele we had in the 70s had the controls built into the wall next to the settee. There were no remotes to speak of. Also hardly anybody actually owned their own tele until about the early 90s. They were always rented.
 
anticonscience said:
This follows on from the Digital Britain thread, as they were talking about TV shows and why people download, and it got me thinking about the evolution of TV and what could be done.

Would you be happy with the demise of the television service as we know it? Eg. BBC/ITV/Five etc and a digital distribution service introduced on a world wide scale with subscriptions that allow you to watch/record what you want and when you want it with nil adverts?

Or another digitial distribution service introduced alongside the current service for people who wish to have such freedom and availablity?


So what are you thoughts?
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yes i think this is a good idea. a Sky + type service for everyone is definitely the way forward. you watch what you want when you want. you could have the choice of not having ads for a premium i suppose, otherwise pay less and just fastforward throught them :p

as for the BBC, well i think it's great resource, we could still have the fee but at a much reduced rate, maybe £50 a year. get rid of all the glitz, stupidly high paid talent, the dozens of stupidly high paid managers etc etc and it could be done easily. then i wouldnt mind if it was still compulsary.

atm all i have is free view. its not too bad but i would love Sky + . thats more money though. the extra money i saved if the license fee was cheaper would allow me to subscribe to our new fictional digital service.
 
Like yourself anticonscience I'm also surprised at the lack of true on demand tv. We should now be in the position to sit down and decide we want to watch the latest episode of, for example, The Pacific without having to worry about previously recording it. I know there are services like the BBC iplayer and variations upon the theme which are a step in the right direction but they are not enough. I would happily pay a subscription fee equal to that of a Sky package cost for a service that would allow me access to a catalogue of programmes which I can watch when I choose to watch them.
 
I've not had access to a telly since 1998. While I know what an i7 is, please go easy on me on TV :-) What I'm told, is that when analogue broadcasting gets switched off in 2012, we will lose the 5 terrestrial channels. They'll still be there as digital TV stations, along with new digital TV stations but my understanding is that they won't be simply tuned in as channels 1 2 3 4 & 5. Is that right? Yes, I am technical (that's why I use OcUK), but I will need to adjust if I'm to use a contemporary TV remote.

I do remember going to a friend's house in the mid 90s, where they had satellite TV. This was tuned into channel 6 on their TV, while the VHS recorder was tuned into channel 8. If someone could please explain how channels are addressed on digital, that would be ace.
 
BT Vision already provides a huge variety of on-demand content and seems to be what you're asking for. I spent some time playing with it over Easter and was pleasantly surprised quite how much content was available.
 
I think Virgin are heading in the right direction with their take on On Demand broadcasting, but it does need a whole lot more and a lot more new content and complete content (eg. Virgin only offer The Sopranos season 3 not all of the seasons).
 
Monserrat said:
I do remember going to a friend's house in the mid 90s, where they had satellite TV. This was tuned into channel 6 on their TV, while the VHS recorder was tuned into channel 8. If someone could please explain how channels are addressed on digital, that would be ace.
Click to expand...

It's pretty-much the same as they are on a normal analogue TV; BBC1 is still 1, Five is still 5. Difference being that you've got far more channels past 5.

You've also got an electronic programme guide (much like Sky Digital), so you get an info bar along the bottom of the screen showing what's on now & next on that channel, as well as a full-screen guide which lets you scroll through all the channels and see what's on (usually 7 days in advance).

This should give you a decent rundown of what channels you can get and the order of them:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/TV-Guide
 
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