And hopefully, this means…
MORE SPORTSMAN’S/OUTDOOR CHANNEL CONTENT AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
Seriously guys, we’ve had downloaded TV shows for what, five, ten years now? Get with the program (pun intended). Podcasts are nice, NetFlix is nicer.
Netflix might be a possibility, but the big problem with making media available for download is the Cable TV and Satellite providers, who are the primary customers for this programming, aren’t going to appreciate if the content providers try to cut the middle man out. I doubt most Cable TV content providers could survive on revenue from Internet media and Netflix. The more content is available online, the less we need the cable companies to be anything other than Internet providers. The Cable companies don’t like that. I think they are dinosaurs, but they still control access to the vast majority of American TV sets.
as a long time cord cutter… I would love it. Will not pay for all the crap, but I’ll pay for bits and pieces, so I can watch when I have time to watch.
As much as I’d like to see gun programming on NetFlix or Hulu (Hello NBC: You own a big chunk of Hulu, and you own 3 Gun Nation. Make it happen.), I’ll be ecstatically with paid downloads from iTunes or Amazon Prime or what have you. I just don’t want to pay $80+ a month for a cable package when all I really want is the 1 or 2 quasi-obscure channels that I watch and 300 others that I don’t.
Another cable cutter here. I’d gladly pay for a show or allow an advertiser to pick up the tab (as often happens on Hulu anyway).
Cable companies are in a rough spot. They’re the main provider for most people, but as the bandwidth opens up, less and less people will need them. This means that at some point, the bundling of channels will no longer be profitable enough which will screw a lot of people who can’t get high speed interweb tubing to their house.
Which… is kind of bullshit. If you have cable to your house, you *have* the physical linkage that can carry 1’s and 0’s.
Which is so often the case with 99% of the gun programming out there that ISN’T on download.
“GUNRCOOL MAGAZINE PRESENTS “CELEBRITY IBEX HUNTING” FEATURING WHIZBANG RIFLES SPONSORED BY BLAST-O-MATIC AMMUNITION” seems to be most-common the show title template out there.
Look, I understand that the person who pays the bills gets to call the tune, but you start to wonder about the security of the firewall between the editorial and commercial sides of the coin with a show title like that…
but as the bandwidth opens up, less and less people will need them.
They and AT&T have an answer for that problem: capping the amount you can use per month, generally with expensive overage charges. For me and my family, for whom AT&Ts U-Verse (their TV offering) is not and for the foreseeable future won’t even be an option, it’s 150GB then 10$/50G over.
Being the neo-Luddite I am when it comes to TV (as in no cable or dish), I hope Kevin’s wish comes true. It is my wish as well.
I remember asking Michael Bane in 2011 when shows like Shooting Gallery and Best Defense would come out on DVD. I wasn’t even thinking of a download at that time. He said probably not anytime soon. He said the management of Outdoor Channel just didn’t want to go there because of the cable companies and their desires for exclusiveness. I hope this merger means change in that attitude.
If cable or satellite were run like a’la carte menus I be interested in them. As it is, you have to get the fluff and buy the upper tier just to get one or the other of the shooting channels.
I hope this happens because FIOS has changed some of the content packaging. I get Oprah but no Outdoor Channel any more. Love it! NOT.
I hope there are changes as well. We’ve been putting every bit of content we’re allowed on DRTV, but if I had my druthers I’d have my shows available on the Internet quick like bunny.
And while I will crawl across broken glass to help my advertisers because they make it all possible, they have ZERO say in the editorial content of my productions. Even product placement is contingent on my approval, and if I have any concerns I buy the product and test it myself. To the best of my knowledge, my shows are the only ones in the genre that routinely talk about and use products not from sponsors, and my sponsors honor and respect that policy. Not only do I use my sponsors’ products when I can, I often consult on how to make those products better. BTW, we have been offered a LOT of money for an editorial spot and with the full support of OC Advertising I turned it down.
We’re in the process of selecting the firearms of the year for SHOOTING GALLERY; out of the 4 likely winners, only 1 is from a sponsor.
Rant mode off!!!!!
Michael B