Darjeelink - Alexis Perrier

Goodbye TV goodbye, it’s been fun

While France is wondering how to make a quality public TV without ads, web apps are blooming everywhere digging TV’s grave.
First you have Peer to peer networks with millions of tv shows downloaded all over the world. TV shows make for 50% of downloads on P2P networks according to a survey by TorrentFreak. The most popular episode of “Heroes” was downloaded 2.5 million times one one of the biggest P2P network.

Then you have nearly all the major American TV channels and the BBC putting more and more of their content online. BBC World is streaming their content online for instance.

You also have entertainment web sites like Joost or Vuze that offer their own programs. And of course you have ITunes where one can download the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and many other shows not available on your local French TV. And lets not forget youtube and dailymotion.

Today, a new site has arisen, further digging the grave of the TV screen. Newsclipper.org allows you to watch all the video clips from major News channels such as CNN, Fox, The BBC, ABC, CBS and ESPN. The web site also allows you to embed the video in your own blog or web site which is not possible from the CNN web site for instance.
Onar Vikingstad, a 27-year-old Norwegian Web developer who created Newsclipper.org explains the reason for his creation :

What I wanted to create with NewsClipper was a site that consolidates all news clips from the major TV news networks in one location. No more having to run around to different carefully managed and controlled individual websites. Basically it lets you view the latest news clips from the major TV networks in one location, without having to go to their slow sites overloaded with ads.

(source : TechCrunch)

Turn off your TV used to be a big motto in the 90’s. I know I haven’t watched French TV for the past 2 years, nor have my children. All these new web based TV alternatives are allowing me to open up to the world and get a grip on what I really want to see. Getting back to programs that are pushed to my screen by someone who decided what would be more popular feels like a thing of a distant past.