Eric Friedman – Marketing.fm

I know I have said this before, and I am saying it again. Television is evolving, it’s changing and we all need to be prepared. What I mean is, I consume a majority of my TV content in two ways, neither of which is Live TV.

1) being my DVR (or TiVo) for all you haters and 2) shows i download from the internet. Both are areas of tremendous growth. The shows I choose to download are ones that I religiously watch.

I became interested in them for a few reasons (be prepared for alot of lists in this article):
1) Word of Mouth;
2) I saw the first episode and liked it
3) I have been watching the show since its inception and I am on season 6 and can’t get enough “Hour of Bauer”
4) I saw a promo and it really intrigued me. Which makes me think, the way I consume TV has really changed!

Downloading and “DVRing” has opened up a new forum for people to get what they want when they want and in perfect HD quality (none of this poor quality online streaming business). As of right now, I have downloaded all 3 seasons of Lost onto my computer and have religiously watched each episode on my tiny 9 x 12 laptop in nearly perfect DVD or HD quality. If I had the money, I would splurge for a really nice flat screen view these shows on. A few years from now flat screens will be the standard when buying a computer, and we will all be able to watch incredible quality on demand video that we download from the internet instantly.

The market for dowloaded video is expanding, Adams Media Research estimated that,

Annual consumer spending on video downloads via the Internet would reach $4.1 billion dollars by 2011. Last year, the Internet TV download market generated revenues totaling $111 million.

With numbers like those it’s no wonder that Apple has developed the incredibly expensive Apple TV ($300). Truth be told, I believe that Apple is making the right move, well atleast on the tech side of it. I think that a large majority of the tech savy TV consuming population will be downloading shows and watching them through a device such as Apple TV on their flat screens in the near future. As stated by Mark Weibel EVP of Marketing for Broadband National:

Most likely you’ll see the growth spurred by the introduction and sale of hardware devices that can convert videos downloaded from the Internet into signals that can be played on high definition television sets.

In fact downloading might be the only way I choose to consume my TV in the future. It’s even more “on demand” than DVR is and you dont have to worry about your system screwing up because it recording something else. There will come a time when you will be able to have regularly scheduled dowloads of shows that air on tv that day or night.

I think that shows like 24, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy could make a serious dent in the dowload market. I am curious too see the publics reaction to whether or not they think they should be paying for them. With an already overpriced Apple TV the hope is that the shows will not come at an additional cost.