Thread: VOD Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
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Old 26-09-2018, 13:25   #365
OLD BOY
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Re: Linear is old tech - on demand is the future
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chad View Post
I'm not fussed how the content is delivered as long as I can continue to watch the type of content I enjoy. My concern is that before we know it you'll need multiple subscriptions to multiple services just to keep the status quo. For a nonlinear future to be a success all services need to be available on all platforms, simple to use and available under one monthly payment. There also needs to be a free alternative. We have nearly 13 million freeview / freesat "customers" in the UK who are resistant to move to any form of paid content. I'm sure I read a recent report that showed the majority of households in the UK with Netflix or Amazon Prime also have a pay TV subscription.
Yes, I am wondering about what will happen with subscriptions for streaming services. Almost certainly, there will be multiple choices in the future, but remember, they are all very cheap when you compare them with satellite and cable channels. You can pay £60 per month for a huge number of channels but you end up with nothing to watch. And yet for less than a tenner you can get a huge choice of programmes on just one service - so huge, in fact, that it is difficult to know where to start.

This is why I think what Virgin, Sky and BT have started to do by incorporating streaming services into their packages is the right way for them to go. Once we have a decent choice of these services, I can see subscribers being offered packages of streaming services, either as well as or in place of pay tv channels. I don't think many would be able to afford both.

Think of how much choice you will be able to get once all these global companies start offering their global wares. We would have the choice of Netflix, Prime, Discovery, Disney, Now TV, Hayu, HBO, the new BBC/ITV/Channel 4 venture, and others we don't even know about yet, all for £60 or less if we took them all, I would imagine. On top of that, for viewers who prefer to dip in and out of a particular kind of TV programme on a more occasional basis, there will be a whole range of pay per view stuff available, including Google Play and Startzplay.

Of course, sports programming would be on top of all this price-wise, as it is now, and we have yet to see whether the new streaming services would be able to offer that at less cost than Sky can, given the prices they would have to pay for rights. The complaints about the quality of streamed sport should be addressed over the next few years and the BBC have been trying to get on top of the latency issues, claiming that they have now found a solution.

These are exciting times, and although many will not care about how their TV is delivered, it will become apparent just how easy it is to watch programmes at your own convenience without commercials. Having done that over a period of time, most would not want to go back to scheduled linear channels.

I believe that pay tv channels will be replaced by streaming services first and Freeview channels will be the last to go. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
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