Modern Myths

The Internet TV world has been full of wisdom. Let me run past you some of the nuggets that I've heard down the years:

"It's the web, so people want short clips"

Duh duh... If you give people short clips, they'll watch short clips, if you give them programmes, they'll watch programmes, and you'll make a lot more money from the ads

"Downloads are what people want"

Nah...4OD and the Beeb's iPlayer both started with downloads and now have backtracked onto streaming content.

"Content has got to be DRMed"

Actually, there's no proof that DRM has done anything but stiffle the growth of online video.

"Pay-per-view is the right business model"

If it's good enough and not available elsewhere, maybe. Otherwise this is a hiding to nothing. People are rarely happy to pay for content unless obfuscated into a bundle a la Sky.

"P2P is the way forward"

If you wish to live in the land of cliches and diminishing returns... P2P is the red herring of the Internet TV world, promising the earth and delivering nothing.. Both the Beeb and C4 have practically dropped Kontiki and its bandwidth stealing model.

I'm sure that there will be some more modern myths soon..

Comments

Anonymous said…
Such authoritive comments from someone that understands so little. Impressive.
Anonymous said…
David C McCourt. 'We know TV does TV well'... Nutter.