The Future of TV

To anyone whose job it is to think about these things, what I'm about to say falls into the bleedin-obvious category, but it isn't my job to think about these things, and probably isn't yours either, so I'm gonna say it anyway...

the future of television is UKNova.

Or something very similar.

I've mentioned it a few times here before, but UKNova is a bittorrent site that specialises in UK television content. Ignore the, erm, bit about bittorrent, that's not the important part. The important part is it's a library of old and current television programmes accessible to anyone with a broadband connection. The scope of it is amazing, here's some of the things I've downloaded recently:

A BBC documentary on food additives, 2005
Fry and Laurie on Wogan, 1992
Vintage Billy Connelly footage, 1974
Oliver Reed's infamous appearance on After Dark, 1991
25 Years of Brazilian Football, an ITV doc, 1983

A diverse selection, you'll agree, and only the tip of the iceberg. What's even more amazing is that this content comes from a small group of dedicated enthusiasts. In a very crude way, this is on-demand television. The only drawback is that it's slooooow, it takes about 2 days to download a 1 hour programme.

I and many others would happily pay for a faster service. And the folks at the BBC, especially, have realised this and are now looking into monetising all that old content sitting around doing nuthin and picking its nose. They have plans to make available all of their programming over the net and if you're overseas (ie not British taxpayers) they'll charge you for it. As broadband becomes more prevalent and the distinction between your PC and your TV becomes blurred, the net will become a significant channel for TV companies to distribute its content, and a handy revenue-generator for dear old auntie.

Remember, you heard it here second.