Wednesday, 27 July 2011 20:13

Ah but it was too good to last... Free TV/Movies soon to be VERY limited on the internet

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despdIt looks like the days of free internet TV are coming to a close as the big media companies work to push people back to the tether of cable or other pay services. This should not come as a shock to anyone at all really. After all none of the media companies want you to have access to these shows/movies in a format that they cannot control.  We have seen this type of move before with the Music Industry and with the current crop of media giants.  The movie and TV companies still have a problem letting go and giving people access over the scary internet.  The problem is one of money (it always is); the powers that be are a tad greedy and cannot see how they can make enough if they just allow access to these shows for free…

This is despite the fact that every show I have watched on internet TV (at least the free ones) has been loaded with ads.  Of course the movie and TV industry has suffered from a lack of understanding of the internet for some time. They still labor under the impression that opening up too much will suddenly open the flood gates and their multi-billion dollar a year industry will suddenly go broke.  We all know this is not the case but you can see this greed bubbling up in the way the industry is moving.

Netflix has just raised their rates in response to the likelihood that the movie studios will demand longer sale only windows on newly released DVDs and to combat the increasing use of recording enabled home devices.  Fox is going to push back content for non-subscribers (cable, satellite or Hulu) for 8-day. HBO has launched an internet portal that is only open to HBO subscribers (and may end up being a paid service as well).  These examples are only the tip of iceberg as we move through 2011. We have heard rumblings that aggregation services like GlideTV, SageTV and others are having their licensing rate raised; which will force some out of business or to require payment for services.

Yep, the days of the Internet as a free (legal) or at least inexpensive place for media content is quickly going the way of the dodo…  Here we thought the movie and TV industry was finally getting what people really wanted.

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Read 2764 times Last modified on Wednesday, 27 July 2011 20:22

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