I don't think I even have my TV set up to receive commercial channels. My pattern is to buy new seasons of things I know I enjoy once they become available on DVD - so if I've seen some Battlestar season 1 I'm quite happy to buy season 2, 3 and 4 on spec. I don't download much because quite frankly my backlog of unwatched DVDs makes a mockery of acquiring new media.
What this means is that I'm not seeing new shows. Which sucks. The logical solution would seem to be for, say, YouTube to set themselves up as an international TV station and feature new content with either embedded ads or banners/images on the site. They license the content in the same way as any other station and stream it. Possibly also offer it for download, with the ads embedded. I realise this would mean changes to current licensing arrangements around issues such as exclusivity but it would be a pretty much overnight solution to the problem - no good reason to go to possibly unsafe torrent sites when you can get the same content in the same media safely.
The industry made a noise about people videotaping from TV - it's the same content, at the same price, only timeshifted, and it's clear that your hommemade media does not directly compete with a nicely packaged official release. I'm not sure I see what the difference is with downloads of free-to-air TV.
no subject
What this means is that I'm not seeing new shows. Which sucks. The logical solution would seem to be for, say, YouTube to set themselves up as an international TV station and feature new content with either embedded ads or banners/images on the site. They license the content in the same way as any other station and stream it. Possibly also offer it for download, with the ads embedded. I realise this would mean changes to current licensing arrangements around issues such as exclusivity but it would be a pretty much overnight solution to the problem - no good reason to go to possibly unsafe torrent sites when you can get the same content in the same media safely.
The industry made a noise about people videotaping from TV - it's the same content, at the same price, only timeshifted, and it's clear that your hommemade media does not directly compete with a nicely packaged official release. I'm not sure I see what the difference is with downloads of free-to-air TV.