Online TV
Everything is moving to the Internet. Take for example, how phone
calls have evolved from being expensive to being almost free. A
10-minute direct-dial phone call from New York to Los Angeles used to
cost $4.50 in 1970 ($25.24 in 2010 adjusted dollars). In 2010 that same
phone call using the Skype Internet-based telephone service costs $0.00
(Comparison only includes per-minute charges).
The Problem For Broadcast TV
Television is now following a similar evolution, albeit in a roundabout
fashion. Broadcast TV started out as free to its viewers. With just a
few channels in any given broadcasting area, advertising rates were high
and very profitable. But then Cable TV, and later Satellite Dish TV,
arrived with dozens of channels being made available to the average
viewer. This caused advertising rates per viewer to start falling like
phone rates.
Online TV Review
This presented a problem for Broadcast TV since their economic model did
not let them compete well against Cable TV or Satellite Dish TV who
charged monthly viewer fees. At first, viewers were willing to pay these
monthly fees since they could get 10 times more channels than Broadcast
TV could supply.
Revenge Of Broadcast TV
Now as if in some kind of ironic twist of justice, TV broadcast stations
are finding a way to profit with low advertising rates and not charge
their viewers any monthly fees by putting their shows and commercials on
Internet TV. This works for a couple of reasons. First, they now have a
worldwide audience for their shows (and commercials). And last but not
least, their viewers tend to be much more highly targeted. For example,
science fiction fans can watch from 5 to 10 previous episodes of their
favorite shows on the Sci-Fi channel (SyFy.com) website for free in HD.
Viewers benefit by Internet TV in two ways. First, viewers now have
access to literally thousands of channels worldwide -- more than Cable
TV and Satellite Dish TV combined. And, all channels are FTA
(Free-To-Air) which do not charge any fees whatsoever to watch them. In
the past, you could only access FTA channels with your own Satellite
Dish setup, which cost thousands of dollars, and required you to know
how to set it up and point it at the right satellites. Internet TV is
totally different.
Internet TV Is Getting Popular
In April 2010, it was reported by TechCrunch.com that over 800,000
households have already dropped their cable and satellite subscriptions
in favor of Internet TV. They also forecast that number to increase to
1.6 million people soon. For the complete story, search for "800,000
Households" at the TechCrunch.com web site.
Internet TV is still in its infancy, and currently requires a computer
to access it. This was also true of Internet phone calls using VoIP
(Voice over Internet Protocol) in the beginning as well. When handsets
became available that integrated VoIP hardware and software directly
into the handset, computers were no longer needed to make a VoIP phone
call. So it is probably only a matter of time before our digital LCD and
Plasma TV sets get direct Internet connectivity as well, and we will be
able to watch our favorite Internet TV shows on them directly.
Getting Rid Of The Monthly Fees
With the current sluggish economy, people are looking for any way to get
rid of their Cable TV and Satellite Dish TV monthly fees that just seem
to keep increasing like health care premiums. Internet TV is fulfilling
that demand, and with just a converter box and cable you can watch and
hear it directly on your digital LCD or Plasma TV right now.