Simon Andrews points to a news item about BBC trying to develop a monster TiVo with capacity of 3.2 terabyte. Consumers can pick and choose what news programs they want to save and watch at a later stage. BBC is calling it Pandora/Promise.TV, and is part of BBC’s efforts to experiment with technologies that will keep them relevant for lot longer. It is still at prototype stage, and be long before it will be ready for prime-time.
> Promise.tv is NOT just a giant PVR. Promise.tv is, in effect, an entirely impersonal PVR. It is non-discriminating allowing any viewer to watch any programme at any time over the stored seven day period. (Check out Promise.TV)
I have to admit, this is pretty interesting development, something US cable companies should consider. However, there might be some legal (and copyright) issues around this in the US, whereas BBC can get away with it, because it owns much of the content. Time Warner (my employers) had something like this in the works called Mystro TV but had to shelve it because of rights-related issues. If this model works, it could come in handy for folks over at PBS, who can use this technology to develop an alternative revenue stream. All PBS programs for $4.99 a month – who wouldn’t want that. And with Google hosting all the video… possibilities.
It seems the premise here is that storage will get cheaper faster than connectivity. Seems like a safe bet at the moment.
Not to sound like a shill for Comcast (that’s MJ’s job, I have my issues with Comcast, Inc. Worldwide fo sho), but their on-demand service is pretty nice. Seems that this would be a lot easier to do server-side than client-side.
The BBC in the UK, the CBC in Canada, and a growing number of public radio stations in the US are really starting to “get” the internet as a real content distribution method that enables the user…
Ideally the technology isn’t limiting in how it is viewed; ie, not tied to a proprietary plugin or to a specific player such as Real’s product.