The obsoletion of cable.
November 8th, 2008Netflix has had the instant watch over the internet for quite some time now, but this ability has been somewhat on the back end. Smarter users would simply hook their computers to the TV, but this was hardly how I would have my parents go about watching tv. Now that powerful network ready hardware is finding itself connected to more and more TVs, Netflix has seen the light and decided to create ways to use these machines to watch the online content. Tivo’s, blue ray players, devices purposely built for Netflix and Xbox 360’s will have access to the plethora of content available by the end of the year. This is exactly what the cable companies have feared all along.
Why would I pay 40 dollars a month or more to have access to channels when I can simply watch the same content on some combination of Netflix’s online archive of movies and TV shows for 18 or so dollars a month. I would have instant access to an array of content that no current cable based video on demand service comes close to in content. Granted this would limit me to tv shows that have been released to DVD, but I would still be able to watch newer episodes for many tv shows elsewhere on the internet like Hulu.com. I would expect the HD content available on these services and sites to increase in availability. Granted the quality of the video will be lower than what would be available on a cable channel, or a blue ray dvd, but this is hardly a drawback when compared to the advantages, and since I would have a real Netflix account I could just borrow the blue ray if it really mattered.
The biggest drawback to this is strain on your internet connection. Which brings me to my earlier theory. Why would a cable company provide a service that theoretically obsoletes their main money maker? So, they are attempting to implement ways to make such an option impossible or prohibitively expensive through limits on the bandwidth. Now, I have little problem with a company acting in its own best interest. When there is competition in a free market, this is often not a problem for consumers. A companies best interest is usually to sell the best product available at the lowest price. When there isn’t competition, or is minimal competition, this doesn’t work. In such cases regulation, or public ownership is unfortunately necessary (this is true of nearly all highly geographically dependent services)
When I move out of college housing which provides free cable, I believe that I will exercise this option. For live TV events, mainly football games, I will simply employ an antenna. With digital broadcasts, a decent antenna should allow for the same quality I currently enjoy on cable. This option will only remain available with inexpensive high speed access to the internet with inexpensive cost per byte transmitted. This doesn’t have to be the current standard of a flat fee for unlimited byte transmission, it just has to be inexpensive even at a large quantity of transmission.
