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TV or More TV?: That is the Question Now That You Can Watch Your Favorite Shows on Your Computer, Cell Phone or iPod

Posted on: Sunday, 30 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Diane Werts, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Apr. 30--Wanna watch TV? That simple decision used to mean settling into the living room sofa watching something currently being aired by the broadcast networks. Then cable and VCRs gave us what seemed huge leaps forward in channel choice and time-shifting options.

But that's nothing compared to the way viewing technology is exploding almost continuously today. Now the desire to watch TV can jump-start a litany of choices.

Like where to watch - at home, at work or school, in transit.

How to watch - via the TV set, the computer screen, a portable device like an iPod, even a cell phone.

And when - as the show is broadcast; catching up with on-demand via digital cable; searching out an online download or stream; waiting for a show to be released on DVD.

Who knew an easy time killer like TV could get so complicated?

Changing the way we watch

At least that's the way it seems to many viewers who haven't gotten past their VCR clock flashing 12:00. Now they're hearing almost daily about new developments in TV technology that promise to change the way we watch. Every time yet another Big Announcement heralds the high-tech future of viewing, the mushrooming options seem yet more intimidating.

"You know the word caffeinated? It's like we're gadget-nated," says Phillip Swann, a media analyst whose TVPredictions.com site keeps track of evolving TV technology. "There's an infrastructure in place to create a perception that these things are taking over the world," Swann says. "It's because the people who come up with these things are so hyped up on gadgets and technology, everything that gets launched is the Next Big Thing."

But is it really? Should you jump on board to avoid getting left behind? Or should you not believe the hype?

The ball really started rolling in October, when Apple released its video-capable portable iPod and ABC offered downloads of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," commercial-free for $1.99 per episode. That was the first volley from Hollywood to provide prized current network content in an easily accessible way on a new format with a sky-high "cool" factor.

That put an official imprimatur on what some tech-heads were already doing informally, if not illegally: file-sharing video content, such as current TV episodes, over the Internet - the same way music fans had swapped song MP3s online in digital form with tools such as Napster. Such underground downloading was hard for legal rights-holders to police on the Internet's wild-West frontier.

"That's part of the reason why Walt Disney Company moved forward with an Apple iTunes deal," says Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media at Disney-ABC Television Group. "A lot of piracy was happening, and we as a company had to take a mindshift and say, we cannot deny that this technology is changing the way that people are consuming media. And we need to be able to partner with someone who's trying to legitimize platforms."

With video iPod content tied into the online behemoth iTunes Music Store, ABC's move brought episodic video on the Internet to the attention of millions of computer users who may not have been plugged into previous tools, or even aware that such TV content existed online. To tap the growing interest, CBS tried its own tack last fall, offering fee-based Web screenings of new "Survivor" episodes immediately after their airing, while NBC and a slew of cable channels joined ABC on the iPod bandwagon, where content could be watched either on computer or the portable device. Networks also tested Web viewing as a promotional tool. This spring, NBC made its new Dick Wolf drama, "Conviction," available as a free iPod download prior to its premiere. In the biggest news yet, ABC announced a Monday start for a two-month experiment streaming recent episodes of "Lost" and other series, for free with embedded commercials.

Making this technically possible was the pervasive penetration of home broadband service via cable modems and high-speed phone lines, which could move digital information fast enough to enable high-quality video worth watching. Nielsen/NetRatings reported that by 2005, 68 percent of home internet users had an "always on" broadband connection. That shift away from slower dial-up modems made downloads from iTunes a matter of minutes, rather than hours, and meant that video streamed from a Web site could better approximate TV quality, even if only in a small window on the computer screen.

Where the eyeballs are

TV's name brands began creating broadband video "channels," often aimed at a younger, more Web-friendly audience. In 2005, MTV launched its Overdrive Web channel with videos, interviews and concerts, while Nickelodeon gave kids TurboNick. Others tried online fee-per-month subscription services: Court TV Extra offered streaming trial coverage, CNN Pipeline provided four online streams of news. AOL hyped its March launch of In2TV, with dozens of vintage series such as "Kung Fu" and "Welcome Back, Kotter" available for ad-supported viewing anytime. Google and Yahoo jumped in with video search engines to help users find what they wanted to watch.

"If you're a marketer, you need to be where the eyeballs are," says David Katz, head of sports and entertainment for Yahoo! Media Group, who came to the Internet company after directing interactive ventures for CBS. "Clearly, there is a shift of usage and time spent moving to the Internet." In other words, TV today isn't being supplanted by the Internet, or iPods, or even cell phones, where wireless providers have lately been promoting TV content on video services such as Sprint PCS Vision and Verizon's V CAST. So far, these platforms have relied more on short clips and other media "snacks" than on the full-episode main courses at which TV excels. For now, living-room viewing is being supplemented and, the networks hope, bolstered by all these new devices. "It actually drives more traffic to our network shows," says ABC/Disney's Cheng. The iTunes venture, where "Lost" is typically one of the video bestsellers, "has not taken away viewers at all from our shows, but actually increased our viewership." NBC also noticed a TV ratings uptick after "The Office" appeared on iTunes.

Increasing loyalty

CBS' digital media vice president for wireless Cyriac Roeding agrees the new delivery platforms help to satisfy TV viewers in different ways. "Even those people that are really 'CSI' lovers, they don't make every episode," Roeding says. "So if they have a chance to catch up with it on a cell phone, for example, or on the Internet, it actually helps us to increase the loyalty of this audience segment."

That's why in the wake of last fall's video iPod excitement, CBS partnered with the largest U.S. cable operator Comcast to bring some of its hit shows to another new viewing platform. Cable TV systems had been trying to expand their digital cable services by trumpeting video-on-demand (VOD), the anytime viewing option with VCR-like functionality. But content available on VOD had tended to be fringe cable series, with the occasional big draw like "The Sopranos" for HBO subscribers. TV's big network hits were conspicuously absent. Then in November, CBS made episodes of "Survivor,""CSI" and other hits available on-demand to Comcast digital cable homes right after airing, at 99 cents for 24 hours' easy access through their cable remotes. NBC prepared to do the same in May, and Comcast says ABC and Fox are about to come on board. And let's not forget Howard Stern creating his own on-demand subscription channel last fall, selling his fans unfettered access to his explicit content.

Measuring usage

But are on-demand and online really the seismic shift in viewing that media coverage seems to portend? How many Americans are actually using them? Or iPods? Or cell-phone video? Quantifying any of these new delivery platforms remains difficult. Apple does not make iTunes sales numbers public. But Nielsen, which already tallies usage of both television and the Internet, will expand its sampling coverage to include on-demand viewing starting this month, according to Nielsen Media Research's Sara Erichson, general manager for national services. She added that the company is also working on prototypes for measuring usage of "many, many devices," including cell phones, iPods and streaming on the Net.

The current flurry of high-tech innovation seems to be outpacing viewer desires and the ability to follow the fast-moving developments. "Basically, some products are being pushed forward," says Swann of TVPredictions.com, "not so much because consumers are rising up demanding it, but because the technology could create it."

Sorting out the possibilities is just beginning. "The future is to combine these media and bring them together in a well-functioning way," CBS' Roeding says. "It is about creating something that makes sense together rather than these individual platforms that might be hyped one day and are gone the other."

Blurring the line

Yahoo's Katz says his company now has an entire team "whose job it is to combine the broadband space with the living room and the wireless and to create the plumbing and the connectivity between all these worlds." He notes: "If you look at high-definition TV sets, they all have Ethernet jacks in the back for you to put a high-speed connection in. ... That then kind of blurs the line. Are you getting content from a network? Are you getting content from a Web site? Does it really matter to you?"

Not if you can watch what you want, when you want, where you want, and how you want. Predictions king Swann thinks the promise of on-demand and the Internet lie in remote servers' ability to store limitless programs. "I don't mean things done in the last year, I mean things done for the past 30 years," Swann says. "There's too much revenue to be generated out of things that have already been produced. Everybody has a certain specific interest or niche, and you can accumulate all those niches of content." Meanwhile, viewers will never have to miss a current show, not with handy new options of watching through computer windows and portable devices like cell phones.

Convenience is what all the new developments come down to.

"There is a time to lean back in the living room and watch something together," CBS' Roeding says. "There is a time for me to watch something on a very tiny screen on the cell phone if I love my show and I don't want to miss it. And there is a time when I go to the Internet to find specific content."

That means TV as we know it isn't so much being transformed as cementing its own appeal. Swann is dismissive of other forecasts that viewing will change drastically with these new options of interactivity or portability. Back in 2000, he wrote the book "TV dot COM: The Future of Interactive Television," in which he predicted the tube would be used to personalize content, to "play trivia, order pizzas and access sports statistics. And that's proven not to be successful," he admits. "I have learned my lesson. I was buying into some of the hype." He warns today's viewers not to.

Going where it never went before

Here are some highlights

of TV's move to new platforms:

1997

Online: C-SPAN offers live Web coverage of the House of Representatives and the Senate. PBS' weeknight "NewsHour" begins streaming.

2001

Video on demand: HBO on Demand allows digital-cable sub- scribers to watch hits like "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" anytime with VCR-like functions on their cable remotes. Cablevision launches Mag Rack service of original video-on-demand content for specific interests.

2003

Cell phones: Sprint's MobiTV streams "real-time" TV in November, as critics bemoan delays, limited video quality.

2004

Online: The WB enlists AOL to stream "Jack & Bobby" series premiere online in advance of TV debut. Fox.com premieres "24inside," a Web-only talk show about the hit series. CBS.com streams online talkfests covering "Survivor" and "Big Brother."

2005

January - Online: Google Video enables search of TV content on the Internet.

February - Cell phones: Verizon's V CAST video service launches with "24: Conspiracy," original two-minute "mobisodes" from the creators of the Fox series.

April - Online channels: MTV Overdrive delivers videos/concerts through six broadband "channels." Court TV sells Extra subscription service ($6.95 per month) of streaming trial coverage.

July - Online watershed: AOL's streams of

six global Live8 concerts are viewed by 5 million computer users and praised by critics over MTV's TV coverage.

October - Portable viewing: Apple's Video iPod debuts with 2.5-inch color screen and downloadable TV content including "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" ($1.99 per episode). NBC Universal joins up in December, adding classic content ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents").

November - On demand: CBS makes "Survivor" and three other shows available anytime to Comcast digital cable homes (99 cents per episode). Subscription channel Howard Stern on Demand offers uncensored clips and programs refreshed daily ($9.99 per month).

December - Online: CNN launches CNN Pipeline streams of multiple news feeds ($2.95 per month).

2006

January - Online: NBC premieres unaired episodes of "The Book of Daniel" on the Web. Trio channel moves from cable TV to broadband delivery.

April - Cell phones: Motorola demonstrates technology to move home DVR content onto RAZR phone.

Emmys: First award for nontraditional delivery platforms goes to Live8 on AOL.

May - Online: ABC to begin free ad-supported streams of "Lost" and three other series.

On-demand: NBC hits will be available via Comcast, which says CBS and Fox shows are on the way.

-DIANE WERTS

Coming up

'Unglued from the Tube: The Changing Ways We Watch TV" continues this week in Part 2.

MONDAY: Video-on-demand - Digital cable lets you schedule the shows, including many not seen on regular TV.

TUESDAY: Video iPods - The portable viewer arrived last fall to much ballyhoo. Is it worth watching "Lost" in the palm of your hand?

Plus: In Impulse, the Review Crew gets unglued from the tube

WEDNESDAY: Online - ABC streams current series over the Internet this week. There's now lots to watch on the Web.

THURSDAY: Cell phones - Video on the go, and live TV, too. But is this mobile screen ready for prime time?

FRIDAY: DVD - Delayed gratification via binge viewing. Some fans now wait to watch till they can see a whole season at once.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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