Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

I agree about the quality, but if you scroll through the Netflix menus these days, more often than not, you are getting Netflix's own shows and films.

Netflix had to go down the quantity route in preparation for when it loses much of its third party content. There used to be just House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black, now they've got tons of their own stuff.

Can anyone name every single Netflix original now? I bet they cant.

---------- Post added at 21:21 ---------- Previous post was at 21:13 ----------

I would expect our broadcasters to show more UK stuff that foreign services, even though one of the main broadcasters is foreign owned. But how many of those 32k hours of programmes are decent dramas, comedies, factual shows? The vast bulk of original stuff is cheap reality shows, celebrity chefs (still going strong...) panel shows and other stuff that is made in bulk and cheaply.

I've just noticed that my Fire TV stick has the Apple ap on it now in preparation for their full launch next month. If Apple, Amazon and the other big American tech/media giants start investing in UK made content, as some like Netflix are already doing, our own broadcasters don't stand a chance of survival in the long term, in my opinion.

---------- Post added at 21:29 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

It's worrying for those of us who need to watch our pennies. In the not too distant future, we could end up with "poor man's tv" ie a handful of linear, ad invested channels filled with pretty much the same crap that is on tv now and "rich man's tv" where all the decent dramas are on all the streamers, many of which will require subs.

I still think linear tv will go on for some time yet, especially the main broadcast channels, but it will be the cable/sat channels that will feel the effect of the streamers the most over the next 5-10 years.

Everything goes full circle. Before satellite tv, there was only a few tv channels and in the streaming world in the future, it may go back to that.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Laughable introductory rhetoric there. It’s easy to imagine life without linear, even life without television!

I can’t imagine life without economics though and that’s always where your argument consistently falls down.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

For an argument to fall down it has to stand up in the first place, even briefly. ;)

Take the latest pronouncements from Old Boy’s armchair, for example. He’s flipped through this week’s TV guide, mentally compared it with all the other TV guides ever published in the last week of October, and produced an obviously rigorous and statistically significant finding in support of his thesis.

Or not.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

tbf, he did provide substantive detailed evidence to support his proposition... ;)

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Oh, here we go, popping his head up just to start another argument, you don't know where to stop do you, are you a troll?
As for his argument, as you put it, falling down, has any of the streamers gone bust yet?

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Does Eleven Sports UK operation count? Or is it still ploughing on with no content? I’ll be honest it’s so far off my radar I don’t know, but happy to use it as an example that supply does not equal demand.

As for your trolling remark probably best to leave moderating to the actual moderators. Incidentally, the two posts between your post and my post above were both posted by moderators of the forum. None appear to have taken issue.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

All you ever do is come on here when OB posts something, and more or less take it apart with your boring economics argument, imo OB is posting what he believes is happening in the streaming industry, he posts links to articles posted by people more in the know than, imo, you are, but you continue to put his points down, and imo that's just arguing for the sake of it, if you are so brilliant with economics, why don't you apply to one of the big streamers offering to sort out their financial issues?

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Thanks for your insight, but economics and finance are two different things.

I don’t think I can really be described any more “arguing for the sake of it” when I quoted a post that included the immortal line:

I’m not aware of anyone on the forum who feels that strongly about linear television. The closest would be Old Boy’s wife who insists he spend £100 a month on a combined package including linear content despite, in his own words, there being nothing worth watching.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Eleven Sports has more or less gone bust.

OB believes streaming rules and linear to will die. This may happen in the future but I seriously doubt it will happen as soon as he thinks.

What I am unsure about is why anyone thinks the demise of linear TV will be a good thing for the consumer?

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Interesting article here on preparations for 5G.

https://www.rxtvlog.com/2019/11/wrc-...-assigned.html

In particular, the passage regarding terrestrial channels preparing to give up their frequencies in favour of internet broadcasts is confirmed here, for those who have been doubting it.

UK broadcasters and regulators are already preparing for the day digital terrestrial television loses its frequencies, with the BBC readying itself for an all-IP future and Ofcom policy-making as far back as 2013 planning for the release of TV frequencies in 2030.

Five years ahead of my prediction, hey!

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Is that this prediction OB or the many others before that.:D

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

Tell me which predictions you are talking about, Den, and I'll try to answer your question. I said linear channels are likely to have disappeared by 2035. This seems to imply that the Freeview channels at least will have disappeared by 2030, to free up the airwaves for 5G.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

It implies nothing of the sort , it's merely the distribution method that will change.

Funny linear is still mentioned here

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

“Mobile phone lobby to make case for more bandwidth” - it’s hardly news, is it Old Boy?

If you actually read the 2013 OFCOM document it merely refers to the possibility of using UHF frequencies in the “long term” of which the date 2030 features consistently throughout as an entirely arbitrary date. Further away than 2020 which is medium term (now actually a mere few weeks away). There’s also many assumptions made and outlined throughout the document and it’d be interesting to see if they held up through to 2020.

Considering it took from 1997 to 2012 to switch of analogue television I’d not be holding my breath for 2030. That said, it doesn’t preclude live linear channels from broadcasting over 5G, satellite, cable or fixed line internet in any case.

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The DVB-I ecosystem
While DVB-I refers in particular to the forthcoming specifications for service discovery and programme information, the ecosystem extends to other DVB specifications. DVB-DASH was recently updated to include a low latency mode, while a specification for Multicast Adaptive Bit Rate streaming will be finalized in early 2020. Both are key to achieving scalable, efficient delivery of linear content over broadband networks.

This looks magnificent.

Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
 

When most people refer to 'linear channels', they are talking about existing scheduled broadcast channels and I was using that commonly understood terminology.

Strictly speaking, of, course, 'linear' channels embraces live broadcasts, and of course they will continue, just as the BBC i-Player is able to provide live broadcasts. If we didn't have the ability to do this, we wouldn't have any live sport anymore, which would be unacceptable.

My point was that the idea of having, say, ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 etc is unlikely to continue when the existing transmission system is changed to IPTV. Everything will be under just one ITV banner or maybe grouped completely differently, as Britbox does.

Of course, we will still get our programmes and it is, as you say, a different means of transmission. However, everything will be presented differently and you will just be able to pick the programmes you want to view, which brings the choice of what to watch and when to the viewer instead of the scheduler. Obviously, news and sport will still be shown live, which goes without saying, really.

---------- Post added at 08:11 ---------- Previous post was at 07:46 ----------

You are right to say that 2030 is not cast in stone, but it cannot be. Things are moving so fast, it could be before that, or if there are unforeseen technical difficulties, it could be later. However, what cannot be denied is that Ofcom policy-making as far back as 2013 was planning for the release of TV frequencies in 2030. That being the case, my prediction that existing scheduled TV channels will have disappeared by 2035 cannot be far off.

For the sake of clarity, I am not saying that 'live' broadcasts will disappear, simply that they will be streamed instead. I really do not think the broadcasters will want to perpetuate the clumsy scheduled system that we have now. On demand viewing is growing in popularity and is really taking off now. There will be such a small demand for viewing in the conventional way by 2030 that broadcasters will seize the opportunity for change when existing broadcasting measures cease.

Maybe there will still be some Pluto-type options available for those who like that sort of thing, but I doubt that will prove to be a mainstream method of viewing.