Watching TV online
Dianne Holloway wrote an article today about the experience of watching TV shows online. For the most part, she is right, the experience is degraded from watching it on TV and you probably would only consider it if you missed a show and wanted to catch up. But she did not explain the other side of the coin because the experience can be quite nice and I want to encourage other networks to do what ABC is doing in providing streaming HD for some of their shows. Here is the email I sent to Dianne in response to her article:
Hello Dianne,I enjoyed your article about the state of online viewing of missed episodes. For the most part, that’s why we view shows online, to catch up on shows we missed. Although MOST shows are of lesser quality than we would find on the tube, the convenience and ability to catch up is worth it.In the case of Thursday night, the story is different and I feel you left out this important point in your article. My daughter and I watch Ugly Betty religiously, it’s a bonding thing; but our entire family of five enjoy Survivor at the same hour on Thursday night as well. We opt to watch Survivor live and my daughter and I will watch UG days later at our convenience.Now ever since I got my relatively modest 32″ HD TV, I’ve become a HD snob and avoid regular programming whenever possible. The experience is so much more enjoyable. I don’t sacrifice that with Ugly Betty online because it is one of the shows that ABC makes available in streaming HD! My daughter and I snuggle up on a bed or couch and take in UB on my widescreen laptop, wirelessly, in beautiful HD! Having the picture just 2 feet away in HD is actually pretty cool. If you haven’t experienced this I recommend it. I even have an extra long VGA cable that I can plug-in to my HD TV and it’s as if we were watching UB live in full HD, on-demand! It’s a great experience and one worth sharing with your audience.There probably aren’t that many folks with HD TV’s that don’t pay for HD programming through their cable/satellite, but I happen to be one of them. We only have basic cable with no HD stations; but I receive ABC,NBC,FOX,CBS,PBS over-the-air in HD. I hope the other networks copy ABC and we start seeing more and more streaming HD shows online.Regards,Alan Kleymeyer
One thought on “Watching TV online”
The main factor (that you point out) is that it is not computer and networks that are restricting viewing quality, it is management. In reducing value (by purposly distributing low quality versions) instead of adding value the networks are going to render themselves obsolete. I can see someone creating a show and lining up advertisers and self distributing and cutting out the networks altogether. The networks are in a very bad position.