BBC to go online-only: the streaming revolution has already begun

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.

 

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Arantor

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It's not only the decline of watchers causing this; the government would love for the existing OTA broadcasts to go away because that's a valuable space in the spectrum they could auction off for profit to the mobile companies to use.

And of course, the Tories want to not have to fund the BBC any more because they don't see its value.
 

Retro

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Ah yes, I'd forgotten about the angle of the tories raping and pillaging the country for fun and profit. I'd forgotten about that.

Thankfully, it's looking less and less likely that they'll get in at the next election. But they might just trash the country first. Damn, why did the great unwashed have to vote them in, in the first place?! :mad:
 

Arantor

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Damn, why did the great unwashed have to vote them in
Because Gordon Brown dared call an individual a moron, under his breath which was captured on a mic he thought wasn't live. That and the fact he wasn't fixing the country fast enough after 2008 (despite being the principle reason it didn't get *so much worse than it could have*)

That, Nick Clegg's toadyism in 2010, and the most ardent smear campaign I've ever seen pulled by the mainstream media in this country in the run up to 2019, out of such sheer unbridled fear that an old man will call them on their scummy attitudes and end the gravy train.

With changes like this to the BBC, one must always ask where the money is going.
 

Retro

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I guess those could be factors. I mean more generally, what's up with this country's love affair with the tories who consistently rip them off? Why can't they see it? It's exasperating.

I saw somewhere that explained that in the last 100 years, the tories have been in power for something like 70 of them, maybe it was even more and that's crazy. Mind you, if Labour were in power for this long, would they be any better? I suspect they might become just as corrupt.

I think proportional representation is what's needed to keep these parties in check and more honest.
 
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