Posts by Jarno van der Linden
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Shockingly, Freeview has a listing of what's on freeview over there.
-
Comedy Central have just implemented region locking on the online full episodes of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Noooo!
There goes my friday evening.
-
An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy
If I may act stupid for a moment: What if they don't? What penalties would an ISP face?
-
I have been thinking about the reasons for torrenting international TV shows rather than watching them on local broadcast TV. The biggest draw for me is getting it the same day (or near enough) as the world premiere. Following a TV series, combined with the internet, has become an international social community event. Seeing an episode even a few weeks later means one can not participate in that community.
Other advantages are the lack of ads, and the ability to view on demand."Buy the DVD" satisfies some of those desires, but fails on the time issue. Furthermore, the price of a DVD is set with values such as the expectation of watching it multiple times over many years, while many TV shows are far more transient in my life, often with only a single viewing.
There is also an apparent lack of harm in illegally downloading a show. The broadcaster doesn't have a clue whether or not I am viewing TV. I timeshift the ads away when I do. The distributors get their money from the TV station (who in turn gets money from advertisers). Exactly no money is gained or lost by any of them if I watch a torrent for free, instead of watching the tele for free.
Can a broadcaster have a system that meets my needs, with the added benefit of being a legitimate alternative to bookmarking the TV show section of The Pirate Bay?
Here are some interesting numbers:
Last year approximately 4 million people in NZ watched TV for an average of about 3 hours a day.
TVNZ operating revenue for 2008 was about $340 million.
Let's make a wild guess and say that TVNZ got half of the viewing time, 1.5 hours a day per viewer, or about 550 hours/year.
That makes for an income per viewer of $85 a year, or 15.5 cents per hour, or between $3 and $4 for a typical season.So what I wish to see, is a pay-per-download system, where for $3 or $4 a season you get to download the latest episodes within 24 hours of world premier, no ads, at a quality at least equivalent to torrents. No DRM, no custom players, no time restrictions, as none of those are used on normal broadcast either. As an extra bonus, those downloads will be served from within NZ instead of being slower and expensive international traffic.
Unfortunately it would require the cooperation of the distributors, so that the broadcaster can acquire the shows per-view, and I suspect not enough distributors would go for it at that pricepoint.
-
Meanwhile the NZHerald is to excited about the start of parliament that they are jumping in all directions at once:
Maori to oppose Govt's controversial employment law
6:07PM Wednesday Dec 10, 2008
The Maori Party will support the Government's controversial employment law which makes it easier for workers to be sacked in their first 90 days of work. -
What struck me about the pointlessness of it, was that the magic of holograms is that they are a 3d image in front of you. I'm sure it looked incredible for everyone in the studio.
Yes, looking at empty space must have been thrilling. It was purely a greenscreen trick, like putting a weathermap behind the weather presenter. No one in the studio saw anything except on the monitors.
Hmmm, I suppose that means that a major news network deliberately deceived the public on election night.
-
Meanwhile, on this historic day with history in the making, we'll cut away halfway through McCain's speech for 5 minutes of random drivvel from the studio, followed by Wheel Of Fortune.
Great going TVNZ! Truelly the home of news.
-
My mad idea for the day: date and geotag all the clips on NZ On Screen, then mash it up with Google Maps. Given sufficient material, you can then see what any part of the country looked like at any point in time.
-
I too am afflicted by Brown Syndrome. Fortunately I'm also a classic example of an introvert, so I'm not often put in a position to do a nameless intro.
Things also get a bit weird when you can remember someone's screen name, but not real name. And following some murder mystery drama on TV is interesting as you don't have a clue who of the half dozen suspects they are talking about.
Judging from the responses here, I'm starting to think that it is the people who CAN remember names after a single introduction who are the real freaks.
-
I wonder what the American taxpayers are going to get in return for this proposed "bailout".
A financial system that is still capable of giving them mortgages, 401K, capital for businesses to grow and provide jobs, that sort of thing.
I'm also a bit bemused by the distinction between taxpayers and companies/banks/investors, as if those are not taxpayers and operate is some separate universe completely isolated from the rest of the populace.