Watch TV Online for Free - NCAA Tournament Coverage
I was really excited to see that CBS at their CBSSports.com page is allowing anyone to stream the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament games for free. I remember last year there was the exclusive pass and you too could watch pixelated players shooting the ball. At the time I remember thinking that was something I couldn’t justify paying for. This year the drill was as follows: Anyone can access, but they only guaranteed good “reception” for those that had paid. I’ve enjoyed being able to pull up the games from the computer wherever I am in the house or out. (Even if it’s a game that they’re not following on our CBS affiliate.) That and a few other things got me to thinking about the state of online tv….
In recent years we’ve seen a lot of intellectual property struggles over music. In just the last year or two we’ve turned a corner where most of the major studios are now going to be releasing music for purchase online without the varying array of confusing digital rights management constructs. Truly a sea change has occurred in only audio in that sense. Licensing is still a sore spot for online radio streams, but radio online is expected and assumed. Most radio stations in our local area have a live stream online. Some are easier to access than others. (Some require a certain web player or require Windows and lock out Mac/Linux clients) The bottom line though is that it’s assumed that if you have a radio station you likely have an online stream. I know sometimes certain programs get blacked out due to licensing, but we’ve reached a point with radio where your coverage area for a station can be the world.
It’s interesting to note that with the radio streams online I don’t know of any (outside of radio SHOWS) that are subscription only.
TV has long been another creature. I remember as many as 10 years or more ago there were a couple of tv stations with online streams. For some reason though the idea didn’t “take off” quite the way it did with radio. Bandwidth of course is one reason, a good video feed needs about 6 times the bandwidth as the audio. Of course now that more and more people have wideband connections the bandwidth issue is more of an issue for the provider of the stream than the receiver.
Recently I’ve come across hulu, which let’s you stream tv shows and or movies online anytime. These are recent shows and it’s advertising supported. All free to the viewer (once you get past the cost of your internet connection and computer equipment…) All advertising supported, what a novel concept. That’s exactly what we’ve had for years from the broadcast networks. I’m suspecting that may be where we’re heading again. Here’s what I would like to see happen…. and I think is possible.
Cable networks realizing the opportunity their online streams would have to increase advertiser reach… decide to stream a fair quality feed of their content. I’m not expecting HD, at least not for free, but they can bypass the cable networks, bypass the satellite providers and give their advertisers what THEY want…. MORE eyeballs. Stream a decent quality feed for free. Then, for those that REALLY want high quality - for a few dollars a month stream an HD feed. That’s what I would LOVE to see and what I suspect might be economically viable. Would the HD feed have commercials - yes. What you’re paying for is QUALITY of image not a commercial free experience. (Subscribers also might have a members only streaming server that would give better QOS for the stream.)
On Demand versus the stream… with tv we are used to the concept of the stream - someone, somewhere selects the programming schedule and we tune in and out when the things we’re interested in are on. I think there’s a place for both on-demand content and “the stream” - sometimes we want to be incredibly lazy and just sit back and watch whatever has been chosen. (Think “shuffle mode” on your ipod or other music player.)
One of the things I’m looking to do with this site in coming months is to add pages detailing various online tv live streams and radio live streams. All that I will be listing are free online streams. (The first of those is at spanish language tv online. Others can be found through Watch TV Online.) I know and have known of many people that charge for similar information which seems somewhat strange. Now, if you could gather tv listing information for all these (and calibrate it to a time zone), THAT would be interesting.
