So my father bought me Rock Band for Christmas for my Playstation 3, which I’ve been playing as often as I can (read: when the neighbors are out). It comes loaded with about 50 songs that you unlock throughout the game, but even after finishing all of those, you’re still not done. On a weekly basis, roughly three new songs are released for download. So, theoretically, if you have hard drive space, you can add content to your game on an infinite basis. The game constantly evolves and grows.
And it got me thinking about the problem/conundrum with television: namely, getting the programming you want when you want it. There’s On-Demand, and there’s DVR, and a host of other features, but by and large, you’re still tied into a system by which a major cable company dictates content, via negotiations and contracts with individual stations. It’s far from awful, but it’s equidistant from ideal.
What if the Rock Band format was the model? What if you did away with channels and simply focused on content: ie, episodes of a program? Right now, The Boob Tube Babe and I pay something like $120 for a package that includes HBO and a host of second-tier cable stations. Overall, I’d say we have access to about 120 channels. But I don’t value my package in terms of number of channels; I value it in terms of shows I can watch.
Boiled down that way, we watch maybe 20-25 programs on a decently regular basis. This includes everything from serial dramas we absolutely refuse to miss (Lost, 24, Heroes, etc) to those shows we catch up with on weekends with the luxury of fast-forwarding through commercials (some of my G4TV geekery shows, all of her HGTV shows and her 856 wedding-related shows that she still watches even though we were married five months ago, although yes, she stopped buying all the magazines, she’d want me to point out). I’d be fine watching those 25 shows, regardless of access to the channels on which they are featured.
Now, I’d pay for those shows, same as I do now. They’d come in to some box that has a terabyte, 2 terabytes, etc, of memory, and that streams to both of the televisions in my house. Plus, I can download pilot episodes of shows that look interesting. Databases such as those that suggest books on Amazon and movies on Netflix tell me what people who watch the programs I do also like to watch. I sample, then decide, then buy. Done and done.
Course, this is all a pipe dream, more from an economic perspective than a practical one, but boy, sounds good, doesn’t it?
How “Rock Band” Predicts the Future of Television
So my father bought me Rock Band for Christmas for my Playstation 3, which I’ve been playing as often as I can (read: when the neighbors are out). It comes loaded with about 50 songs that you unlock throughout the game, but even after finishing all of those, you’re still not done. On a weekly basis, roughly three new songs are released for download. So, theoretically, if you have hard drive space, you can add content to your game on an infinite basis. The game constantly evolves and grows.
And it got me thinking about the problem/conundrum with television: namely, getting the programming you want when you want it. There’s On-Demand, and there’s DVR, and a host of other features, but by and large, you’re still tied into a system by which a major cable company dictates content, via negotiations and contracts with individual stations. It’s far from awful, but it’s equidistant from ideal.
What if the Rock Band format was the model? What if you did away with channels and simply focused on content: ie, episodes of a program? Right now, The Boob Tube Babe and I pay something like $120 for a package that includes HBO and a host of second-tier cable stations. Overall, I’d say we have access to about 120 channels. But I don’t value my package in terms of number of channels; I value it in terms of shows I can watch.
Boiled down that way, we watch maybe 20-25 programs on a decently regular basis. This includes everything from serial dramas we absolutely refuse to miss (Lost, 24, Heroes, etc) to those shows we catch up with on weekends with the luxury of fast-forwarding through commercials (some of my G4TV geekery shows, all of her HGTV shows and her 856 wedding-related shows that she still watches even though we were married five months ago, although yes, she stopped buying all the magazines, she’d want me to point out). I’d be fine watching those 25 shows, regardless of access to the channels on which they are featured.
Now, I’d pay for those shows, same as I do now. They’d come in to some box that has a terabyte, 2 terabytes, etc, of memory, and that streams to both of the televisions in my house. Plus, I can download pilot episodes of shows that look interesting. Databases such as those that suggest books on Amazon and movies on Netflix tell me what people who watch the programs I do also like to watch. I sample, then decide, then buy. Done and done.
Course, this is all a pipe dream, more from an economic perspective than a practical one, but boy, sounds good, doesn’t it?