• Date: 19th Feb 2011
• Category: Technology & The Web
• Comments: 0

Something is still missing in today's modern Internet enabled world. Entertainment still sucks. I'm not talking about concerts or theater. I'm talking movies, music and games. No I'm not talking about the content either (although that is debatable too). I'm talking about the content delivery.

The Current State of Media Delivery

We have made so many advances with the Web and cloud computing but we still rely on old school methods of delivering our entertainment. DVDs, BluRays, Pay-per-view TV etc. What's wrong with these content delivery methods you ask?

Well it's not that there is something horribly wrong with these methods. The point is that the Internet will open up so many more opportunities and advantages than ever thought possible. Content owners will be able to make more money than ever before. Content viewers will be offered more value for money than ever before. The entire system will be more efficient. Let me show you how.

The Benefits of Streaming Entertainment Via the Internet

• World-wide access: You will have access to all your movies, music, games etc. from anywhere with a reasonably good Internet connection
• Security: If your house burns down you will not lose any of your media
• Television becomes social: Most people like Facebook. Most people like TV. Throw these two ingredients in a blender and ta-da! Social television. I'm not a big fan of this idea. I think Facebook is already taking up too much time in my life, but I can see other people using this feature. Friends commenting on movies or shows that they decided to share with each other. Ahh who am I kidding? I would probably use it too.
• More effective advertising: Imagine you are watching an ad on your TV and you are interested in the product that is being advertised. Currently you need to stop watching TV, open up your web browser and search for the product that is being advertised. Sure you can still find that product with little effort but it is not effortless meaning some people cannot be bothered getting off their couch to look it up. This leads to less effective advertising. Now imagine being able to click on the ad and receive instant information about the product on your TV. That's a huge selling point for corporations and businesses!
• Less advertising: Hopefully more effective advertising will lead to less ads on TV. That's hopeful but I'm not betting on it. What I am betting on though, is that advertisements will not be forced on us the same way they are now. Instead of showing them during movies or shows, they could be shown in more subtle ways. This may take time to catch on but you cannot expect Internet users to suddenly accept an influx of forced ads. We are exposed to ads on the Internet, but most sites now understand that if you annoy your users with ads (e.g. splash screens, huge banners etc.) they will leave.

The Drawbacks

• You no longer own your content. You trust an organisation to stream the media that they own. You simply pay for the access to that content. If they go bankrupt you may lose everything.
• Privacy. Whoever positions themselves as the market leader in this field will no doubt use the data that they collect about customers to their advantage. This may be to show more catered advertisements or other potentially unethical actions.

What is Holding Us Back?

It's not really the infrastructure. Most of us in the developed world have access to broadband speeds fast enough to stream SD quality movies at the very least. Those living in the U.S.A, Korea, Japan and most of western Europe can stream HD quality movies without problems.

What is holding us back is corporate greed. Those corporations controlling the access to this content. They are taking forever to catch up with the ways of the Internet. Why? Because they still make a lot of money doing the same things they always did. These companies are in no rush to change. They fail to understand that they would make way more money than they currently do if they opened their eyes. Or they understand but are afraid of the risks involved with change.

The technology is there but how is it going to work? Who will solve the problem? Is it going to be Google in corporation with Sony taking over the market with their Google TV? Maybe it is going to be Apple, Hulu or Netflix? At this point I don't think that it is going to be any single one of these companies. They will all contribute in some way. Actually they already are contributing. Steve Jobs talked about this on the D8 conference claiming that the problem is the "go-to-market strategy". 

What surprises me is that there is little talk about the biggest issue at hand, one I touched on earlier.

Content Ownership

I'm super excited about the day that I can get rid of all the different boxes in my house and just have one thing that does everything. Goodbye set-top boxes, gaming consoles, DVD & Blu Ray players and all the remote controls that come with you. Goodbye to all the discs taking up entire cupboards in my house. Hello to minimalism and the future. It's going to be so awesome!

Except there's this one tiny, little problem: With all those discs gone, how do I know if I own the movies that I purchased? The answer is: I don't of course.

Not only that but what if I use one company's system and then decide that I don't really like that company anymore and I want to switch to a new one. Surely I can "transfer" my media library, right? Maybe.

Those are some serious issues and question that still need to be answered. One possible way to circumvent the whole issue by using a completely different model to users acquiring a media library over time by buying media. If the purchasing model was ditched in favour of an ad-based or subscription based model then users wouldn't lose anything because they weren't tricked into thinking that they own it in the first place. Then again these business models may not suit content owners. Maybe they see more revenue potential in a model where users are required to purchase rights to view their content.

Summary

There are a lot of issues at stake here. It is a complicated situation and that is probably why we haven't seen a solution yet. We are definitely moving in the right direction though. In the meantime stop watching so much TV and go outside for a walk.