Terry’s Weblog

I have a feeling that my grandchildren will not watch television or at least, not very much of it.

I’m seeing this pendulum swing that is just beginning really.  It started with video blogging who are really the new broadcast pioneers.  In reality, they are narrowcasters though.

I am finding, more an more, a reliance on my computer for entertaining me.  I spend a portion of my day now catching up with audio and video podcasts and reviewing videos on Youtube and seeing what’s going on in my RSS feeds.

What’s missing is the “live” aspect of internet video but that is rapidly approaching.  Youtube is looking to provide live feeds and sites such as Stickam have already gotten there.

Leo Laporte, in This Week In Tech # 135 talked about setting up a new video show to stream live on Saturday evenings.  The show is geared towards us technology geeks, but the format and technology invovled will be able to evolve for others to use.

While these are small inroads into the business of cable television, it is a dirt road that is leading to a highway.  We might just be a few miles/kilometers from the highway.

Imagine having your favorite personalities hosting their own shows without the interference of television networks and having to worry about a specific television station having the rights to carry the show!

This gets me excited because I feel trapped, in Canada.  If i want to watch a show online, I have to wait for a Canadian network to have the technology and infrastructure to do it since Canadians are blocked from viewing US television online.

While a PVR/DVR is great.  It would be even better if I had RSS feeds for each of my favorite shows and I could see when a new episode is posted and then go and watch it and I could watch it from my computer, my Ipod or any other Internet connected device.

This is the world I want to live in and the world I want to see evolve.

My grandchildren may never have to pay a cable TV bill!  They might have to pay for Internet like we pay for electricity, but still, it’s a huge shift in how we entertain / educate ourselves.