Sponsor's Message

The lead story on most of the local wires today is Don Brash's speech which seems to have unfortunately focused on the negative rather than the positive.

I for one would much rather have seen him tell us how he was going to re-reinvigorate the nation and hike its performance - rather than just take aim at the easy target of beneficiaries.

What a tragic waste of time.

But enough of politics for this week!

What interests me far more (and is far less depressing) is Google's move into the area of indexing TV programmes.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

When I first read this I thought "wow, don't tell me that they're going to provide a comprehensive index of all online TV programme content in streamed media format?"

Of course that's not the case - those who own the rights to most TV programmes are as short-sighted and net-phobic as the movie and recording industries.

Sure, there will be some streamed stuff that Google will index but the vast majority of material will simply be fan sites, official sites and additional information about programmes that are only available by way of broadcasts.

What a shame.

Given the huge amount of TV material that is illegally exchanged through P2P networks and usenet newsgroups, it must be obvious to the producers of this material that there's a massive market out there just waiting to be tapped.

I'd love to be able to fire up my browser and download a VCD/SVCD image of the odd programme that I forgot to record last week (or last year for that matter).

Yes, I'd pay a small fee to do so -- probably more than the broadcaster would have got (per head of viewer population) from the ad-revenue that the screening of that episode.

Quite honestly, I can see the day when this type of on-demand rerun becomes readily available -- but it will require one very important thing that doesn't currently exist:

I'm talking about a billing gateway that allows people to pay for all the various bits of subscriber and pay-per-view content they buy online. The ideal place for this gateway is at the ISP.

If you could have any of this type of non-free content available at the click of a button and simply get the charge added to your monthly ISP bill then I think the resistance to paying for content would fall significantly.

This also represents a valuable new revenue stream for ISPs who would get a commission on every dollar worth of content sold to their users.

But, what's needed for this to work is a central billing system that integrates nicely into an ISP's own systems. This is not impossible, nor even particularly hard -- but it will take time to appear and require the investment of much time and money, both in development, marketing and tying up the content.

Of course I hear you all saying "but TV broadcasters won't let their stuff onto the Net without good strong DRM."

Sorry, I think they (and those who agree) are wrong.

What's the point in demanding strong DRM on content you publish to the Net when you've already broadcast it free-to-air where it's readily picked up by anyone with a TV tuner card and enough hard-disk space to archive a copy?

The vast majority of people will pay a buck or two to download a legit copy and, having paid for it, will probably feel that others should pay for it too -- rather than get a free ride on their two bucks.

Now if we can only convince the TV content rights-holders to wake up to this then everyone would be happy -- and I could download new copies of Dr Who episodes that were nicked by burglars before Christmas.

Aardvark Forums
The forums are back up at: www.aardvarkforums.co.nz/forums, have your say on today's column

Unfortunately you'll have to re-register because we're starting the new year with a complete reinstall.

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!