not rich, just expensive

Interesting question. I think the issue of TV on Demand online is more complicated than previous online movements, such as shopping, music, etc. The issue is that currently the majority of TV is still broadcast in the tradtional sense, which doesn’t work well in an IP, P2P environment such as the internet. As such, you start running into limits of network capacity that you don’t hit with other forms of media in such a short space of time.

I think, realistically, until the infrastructure is there, and is ubiquous, TV as a purely “online” medium won’t happen. Somewhere like Japan and Korea, where the entirely country is optical fibre network already, then sure. But not in the US or UK. Yet. I think it’ll be 10 years before it is fully realised. But hey, here’s hoping!

juliaallison:

The WSJ asks: “Could television be the next industry to become Internet roadkill?”

I’ve been saying - well, for the past 18 months, at least - that in five years (seven to ten MAX) television would completely merge with the internet, creating an on-demand space that relies neither on set-top boxes nor cable nor the traditional parameters for “shows” (ie, 30 minute run time, advertisements intersperced at regular intervals, upfronts in May with a fall launch - all of that isn’t necessary anymore, and will be phased out).