TV is a product of technology and keeps evolving, so this isn't all that surprising, but the change is seismic, however. Looks like this is the beginning of the end of traditional over the air TV in general, ie the end of Freeview, and Sky will also go streaming only. I have mixed feelings about this.
We'll gain choice of content (as if we don't have an overload of it already), but we'll likely have to pay to skip ads (Sky already charge a fiver for this on their new streaming service) and it's likely to massively fragment the market with a different app for every channel, or provider of channels, with its own subscription fees. We're seeing this already. It's possible that one general app or platform could be developed to cater for all the channels, but I think the chasing of profits and branding will prevent this. This will also make it a pita to switch between them, where before all one had to do was enter the appropriate channel number on the remote control which took seconds.
My pet peeve is that the back / forward navigation while watching a program isn't likely to be as good. With any current DVR, one can move relatively smoothly back and forth through a program, stopping at the precise spot that they wish, even a second or two back or forward. In my experience, all streaming services like YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Paramount+ limit one to skipping a set time interval at a time, like 5 or 10 seconds. Fast forward or reverse isn't the same either and again is limited.
Another significant irritation is that the video quality isn't consistent, either. On a DVR, it always plays at the recorded or broadcast quality, if watching live. With streaming, it often starts at a lower quality, sometimes much lower, looking terrible, and slowly builds up to full quality with nothing that the user can do to speed up the process - I'm looking at you Netflix and Paramount+, especially. On top of that, it can drop quality as it's playing and then slowly return over a minute or two. This is due to bandwidth management by the provider and happens even if one's connection is plenty fast enough to transmit the data stream too.
These issues make streaming far less functional and user friendly compared to how a DVR of any brand or platform works, making for a frustrating experience, and what's annoying, is that there's no technical reason why streaming couldn't work the same way as a DVR.
www.theguardian.com
We'll gain choice of content (as if we don't have an overload of it already), but we'll likely have to pay to skip ads (Sky already charge a fiver for this on their new streaming service) and it's likely to massively fragment the market with a different app for every channel, or provider of channels, with its own subscription fees. We're seeing this already. It's possible that one general app or platform could be developed to cater for all the channels, but I think the chasing of profits and branding will prevent this. This will also make it a pita to switch between them, where before all one had to do was enter the appropriate channel number on the remote control which took seconds.
My pet peeve is that the back / forward navigation while watching a program isn't likely to be as good. With any current DVR, one can move relatively smoothly back and forth through a program, stopping at the precise spot that they wish, even a second or two back or forward. In my experience, all streaming services like YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Paramount+ limit one to skipping a set time interval at a time, like 5 or 10 seconds. Fast forward or reverse isn't the same either and again is limited.
Another significant irritation is that the video quality isn't consistent, either. On a DVR, it always plays at the recorded or broadcast quality, if watching live. With streaming, it often starts at a lower quality, sometimes much lower, looking terrible, and slowly builds up to full quality with nothing that the user can do to speed up the process - I'm looking at you Netflix and Paramount+, especially. On top of that, it can drop quality as it's playing and then slowly return over a minute or two. This is due to bandwidth management by the provider and happens even if one's connection is plenty fast enough to transmit the data stream too.
These issues make streaming far less functional and user friendly compared to how a DVR of any brand or platform works, making for a frustrating experience, and what's annoying, is that there's no technical reason why streaming couldn't work the same way as a DVR.
BBC preparing to go online-only over next decade, says director general
Tim Davie outlines vision for a world of ‘infinite choice’ where broadcast TV and radio are being switched off
