Traditional TV and the Scratching Record

February 18th, 2008

Last night, I scrambled home to get to my Tivo. I wanted to record the new The Simpsons episode. I made it to the television in my living room with about five minutes to spare. Then, it dawned on me. Why am I trying so hard to watch TV the old way? Traditional (non-live) television is dead to me.

I realized that it was futile for me to worry about what time a show airs and where I view it. I had pieces and parts of this already in my media consumption lifestyle, but now I have all the options at my discretion. Many years ago, I got Tivo. That took away the time factor, but it still land-locked me to the television in the living room. Two years ago, I got Slingbox, so I no longer needed to be in the house to access television — it works over the Internet. This year, I merged the two. A Tivo to record my shows together with a Slingbox that accesses them over the Internet. It’s neat, but requires plenty of know-how.

But, this rigged-up solution still relies fundamentally on video content. I don’t control that — no matter how hard I try, I just don’t have the time or energy to create my own television studio and distribution company. I tried, but it got to be too time consuming. I feel it is easier for the big companies to handle that responsibility.

So, why is traditional television now futile? The Internet, baby. Thanks to video-based, high-end websites with direct access to the studios and their content, I can get the same experience on-line. The only trade-off I make is HD (high definition), but sometimes content is just more desirable when it is convenient, not high quality. I don’t really care if Kitchen Nightmares is in HD if I can access it online and watch when, where, and what episode I choose.

Hulu.com did it for me. I realized last night that I can watch the latest version of the Simpsons online without Tivo or Slingbox rigged to my house. There are several other websites like it. iTunes is really making me curious lately too. It’s a relief because I no longer worry about the hardware configuration and focus on the content I want to view.

So, in the end, content wins. It always does.

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