Via PVRBlog, Mark Pesce has a wonderful two part piece on BitTorrent and how it is effecting television distribution. I’m still not certain what the future of television will look like, but it’s pretty clear there are going to be a few big winners and few big losers as a result.
I think the missing piece of the puzzle, which Alexander from eHomeUpgrade has mentioned a lot recently is a DRM technology that is platform independent. If there was a standard, ubiquitous encoding technology that was easy to implement on any platform and allow transfer to most devices, it would be a win for producers that don’t want unrestricted duplication without getting some stipend for their work, but also a win for consumers that can have access to more content legally.
You only need to try to get Tivo with Tivo2Go to transfer a show to a PSP (Sony Playstation Portable) to realize things just ain’t right.
Via EHomeUpgrade, the MPAA is filing lawsuits against BitTorrent directory providers who list links to downloadable files to television programming. According to MPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman:
“Every television series depends on other markets (such as) syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy. Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen.”
I’m not sure why a BitTorrent directory website is any different than google except that google is big enough to fight back.
Copyright issues aside, BitTorrent of television shows is a great resource for downloading and viewing programming your DVR didn’t catch. For some series that require context to get emotionally involved in the show, downloading old episodes let new potential viewers catch up and become regular viewers, so in some ways it stimulates more viewing as opposed to hurting their investments.
That being said, it’s still not the optimal way of getting old programming content and instead of hiring a bunch of lawyers, I wish the MPAA would acknowledge the demand BitTorrent has unearthed for old content. It’s not rocket science to provide the content online with DRM safeguards, and if there is truth to the theory of the long tail, there is a huge market by providing access to every episode of Joanie loves Chachi, let alone every episode of Lost, Alias, or American Idol. I’d be happy to pay a monthly fee to be able to more easily download old episodes of shows that I missed the first time around.
I believe a ubiquitous and easy online service at a low monthly cost would likely be more effective than litigating to stop the distribution of television programming via BitTorrent. Of course, then the MPAA would be making money for the industry instead of spending it on lawyers.
Via PVRBlog, there’s an interesting new piece of software called Videora for finding and downloading television shows off the Internet. It scans RSS feeds and will track what television shows are available for download over the Internet.
Over the holidays, I had a chance to do some trial downloads using BitTorrent (although not using Videora) and it’s becoming increasingly easy to find and download television shows. A trial case for me was the show Desperate Housewives, which my wife and I missed while it was getting a lot of buzz around town. With a simple DSL connection, I was able to download the first 6 episodes, recorded in HDTV format, overnight. The remaining issue is getting those downloads to play on a television, and while that is difficult to do for a Tivo-only household, it’s trivial to do if you already have a MCE2005 or home built DVR.
Just for kicks (and because my wife was a fan), I tried doing another test of episodes of Northern Exposure, which I don’t think is broadcast as re-runs anymore. Finding episodes of old shows turned out to be problematic via BitTorrent (although another package eMule, was able to find some episodes online).
My take on the technology is that at the moment, this solution is pretty good for catching a show that you forgot to record, but the group memory of older shows is lacking. With MP3 downloading, people keep content virtually forever, but the same can’t be said for television programming.
Of course, there are legal considerations about this technology and undoubtedly there will be a lot of litigation. It’s hard for me to consider downloading a show that was broadcast on a channel that I pay to receive any different than having it directly recorded on my Tivo. It gets a little less ethical to download a show like the Sopranos when one doesn’t pay for HBO, and downloading a DVD movie seems a clear violation of copyright law.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves.
Additional Info:
Om Malik Has More on Videora
