A Better Direction

Now that DirecTV and Viacom are arguing we've lost a handful of channels that actually got used in my house.  You know, with the 380 available options there is usually no more than 2 decent things on at any given moment.   The 17 or 26 or whatever number of channels they removed did matter because they often were one of the two choices (mostly for the kids).

My question is this.  Does losing these channels result in DirecTV breaking their contract with ME?  They don't think so.  Not at this point.  They said that they are still technically in negotiation with Viacom.  Instead of cancelling my stupid contract they gave us a $10 discount per month and threw a bunch of movie channels at us for free.

I'm still not happy.

In fact, next Spring we will be cancelling DirecTV and replacing it with an over-the-air antenna.  Free TV.  We had talked about this over the past few months anyway, but DirecTV has helped push us this direction even more.

I'll miss watching SPEED channel for Formula1 and NASCAR but here's where I see television going. . .
Viacom knows they have power in being the owner of the content.  DirecTV is only the pipe to get it to the customer.  The internet is becoming a more realistic option for delivering that content every day.  Have you ever been to Hulu.com?  You can pretty much watch what you want on there.  Hulu is owned by the content providers (networks).  In addition, several networks offer their programs on their websites.  So with the growth of technology the "pipe" isn't as necessary as it once was.

In the next five years I believe we're going to see more and more options to watch what we want on the internet.  I would pay SPEED a fee to be able to watch the Formula1 races on their website.  Let's skip the middle man and let me give my money to the content owner.  Who is DirecTV without the content providers?  Nobody.  They are space junk waiting to fall back to Earth in a flaming heap.

The content providers know this and can start to muscle that power a little more now.  The cable and satellite companies better get ready to change their business model.  You've already seen it happen in music, books, and newspapers.  Do these "pipes" really think they are immune to the future?

They can resist all they want, but this is the new direction for television.  A better direction!