TV Everywhere: Cable’s Attempt to Avoid Extinction
Cable TV’s days are numbered. I say this in the way I say the phonebook’s days are numbered. Sure there are some people (of the *cough* older *cough* nature) that still frequent the physical yellow pages, but I can’t see the number of users doing anything but plummeting soon. No, I have no numbers. I’m using my super-keen 21-year-old intuition… which is as good as gold.
Seriously though. Think about it. Take a gander at your tv-watching (including past tv series) habits the past 1-2 years. If you’re anything like me, the last tv series you watched live was season 5 of 24… which was back in 2007 I do believe. Since then I have watched all 3 seasons of Arrested Development, 1 season of 24, 2.5 seasons of Lost, 2-3 seasons of the Office, both seasons of Pushing Daisies, 1 season of Scrubs, 3 seasons of 30 Rock, and 1 season of *cough* Glee *cough*… all with limited/no commercial interruption. This is off the top of my head, and it doesn’t include current seasons of Modern Family, Community, or 30 Rock. Setting your “Wow… this guys wastes a lot of his life watching TV. Think of all the good he could have done!” thoughts aside, you may be interested to know that I watched 98-99% of those series on either DVR, Hulu, DVD, or Netflix. I can hook my computer up to my TV with relative ease to watch missed/older episodes on Hulu (using my iPod Touch as a remote/mouse/keyboard), and I can turn on my Xbox 360 and stream seasons of Lost and other movies. I’m not attempting to flex tech prowess. Current technology just makes it easy. If it weren’t for sports, I wouldn’t have cable (or DVR). No questions asked. If I could pay for the ESPN channels and have access to the major networks for major sporting events only, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I hate advertisements.
Looks like cable tv-providers are more aware of this decline in cable tv use and are a lot closer to entering the internet streaming market than I thought. I just received an email from Time Warner asking me to take part in a survey to see if I was qualified for a “TV Everywhere” trial/beta. Since I’m the perfect candidate (young, I pay for cable, and I’m a super tech-hipster 
), I did indeed qualify. This service provides internet streamed cable, and it supposedly gives more convenient access to tv shows (and movies?). It also allows cable companies to provide more content, too. I’m interested to see how this service will compare to the interface and streaming speed/quality of Netflix and Hulu. Due to my bias against Time Warner (admit it… they’re not exactly cutting edge), I suspect it will be slow, bulky, and not have content I’m interested in. I should be getting an email soon allowing me to give it a whirl. If I’m “able to” (surely I’ll have to abide to some privacy agreement), I’ll share my thoughts once I’m up and streaming.
Agree with me? Think I’m an idiot and don’t know the facts? Want to tell me a story? Want to leave me some stupid spam advertisement? Leave me a comment below.
