Streaming – unavoidable adverts make US the product – do you agree ?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Our kid used to come home from school and say "Can I watch TV? Can I watch TV?"

Then our Firestick packed in and now it's home from school and straight to the bedroom to play with toys so I refuse to buy another one.

When the TV does go on we've been watch Alf on DVD, once everyone has gone to bed I've been rewatching One Foot in the Grave, both better than most the stuff available to stream.

Local charity shop has a whole wall of DVDs for 50p and there's a lot of them on eBay for £2 delivered. 

Streaming is one of those things where they made it attractive to begin with and now most people do it it's time to extract as much money as possible as few people will go back to more traditional ways of consuming content. 

Although there is competition there is a barrier to entry so you end up with a handful of companies and if they all do the same thing (such as upping prices and introducing ads) you don't really have a choice. 

Albermarle

Monanore said:

@forgotmyname

Hi again.

"It seems to record whatever is on the screen, records to the USB memory stick."

Could you tell me what equipment "it" is - that seems to be what I'm looking for.

Thank you.

It sounds like they have one of those cheap all in TVs, with an integrated DVD player. Probably not a very big screen.

I am not a techie but maybe the USB system works differently from the more usual HDD setup?

The difference is you can record ITV but not ITVx.  And ITVx has intolerably long ad breaks.

So the ad breaks on ITV x are longer than on ITV? I did not know that, I thought if you watched say Coronation Street on ITVX ( without a subscription) you just saw the same ads as the live TV . Have never really checked though.

Marvel1

I run all the ads first, skipping the video to the break points and I can then watch the show with no breaks.

Spelunthus

Why would you expect to watch TV programmes "for free" - they cost to make,and that needs to be recovered - through TV licence, subscriptions or adverts.   We have enjoyed may years of "advert skipping" viewing through our HDR - but that never worked for subscription channels. When "Freely" rolls out (essentially, Freeview via Internet), then broadcast TV will wind down and the HDR route will no longer work.   I would expect BBC to also change - with a Free to View Public Service, and premium streams supported by subscription.

Monanore

@Spelunthus - Thanks, I see. So my original post was right - that's the plan to make adverts unavoidable.  I wonder

a) what the timescale is for losing freeview

b) how they will sell it when people realise they won't be able to record anything. 

c) what the viewers tolerance point will be - I certainly won't watch any program with 10 adverts plus program trailers every 15 minutes - so that rather defeats the broadcaster's object.

d) whether there will be devices, approved or not, to record streaming conveniently.

Ectophile

Monanore said:

@Spelunthus - Thanks, I see. So my original post was right - that's the plan to make adverts unavoidable.  I wonder

a) what the timescale is for losing freeview

b) how they will sell it when people realise they won't be able to record anything. 

c) what the viewers tolerance point will be - I certainly won't watch any program with 10 adverts plus program trailers every 15 minutes - so that rather defeats the broadcaster's object.

d) whether there will be devices, approved or not, to record streaming conveniently.

a) It's anyone's guess.  They were going to switch off FM radio, but that's still going.  It may well suffer a gradual death as channels shut down.

b) Most people won't bother recording stuff.  You go to the catch up service and watch it on demand instead.

c) That's what the premium services are for.  Get it free with lots of adverts, or pay a monthly fee.

d) See b.  Plus the people selling the "content" to the TV streaming companies (the TV programme makers) will want technical measures in place to stop recordings being made.

forgotmyname

You need a TV with USB port(s) and a record option.  I didn't go out to buy one with that feature it just happened to be fairly good at it,
although the one I had to return seemed even better.

It's a Bush TV with inbuilt DVD Player, records whatever is on the screen and the files are MP4 which can be edited to remove adverts etc.
We had a box years ago that recorded live TV but it gave files that you could not edit.

horsewithnoname

Much of the stuff on the streaming services come onto “ proper “ telly at some point, then you can fastfwd through the ads. Or pick up dvds for buttons on eBay or wherever.