Media Frenzy
Can TV's and PC's Live Together Happily Ever After?

By RICHARD SIKLOS
The New York Times
May 14, 2006

HOLY Grails, swirling myths and big lies seem to be in the air these 
days - and we're not just talking about a certain heavily publicized 
movie opening this week that is based on a certain megaselling novel. 
Rather, consider the much-ballyhooed convergence between television 
and personal computers (a k a the grail), which seems to edge ever 
closer with every week.

Slowly but surely, it seems that TV programs and movies are finding 
their way onto the Internet through a growing array of distribution 
outlets.

Just in the last few weeks, for example, Warner Brothers announced it 
would make hundreds of its hit films and shows available this summer 
for paid download via the file-sharing site BitTorrent; Fox 
Entertainment has joined the other major networks on iTunes with 
downloadable episodes of "24" and "Prison Break"; TiVo announced a 
deal with the Web video outfit Brightcove that intends to give people 
with TiVo boxes access to Internet fare on their TV sets; and ABC and 
CBS have begun streaming replays of some of their most popular shows 
on their Web sites, offering a new advertising-supported way to tune 
in.

Even though no one seems to be making much money yet on these 
ventures and there are still chewy legal and rights issues to sort 
out, there is palpable excitement - a sense that the TV and movie 
industries are going to head off the pirates and file-sharing teens 
by making their products widely available online in legal ways.

In doing so, it seems the ultimate no-brainer that anyone with a 
fancy TV monitor and a broadband Internet connection will next be 
able to pluck their favorite TV programs and movies off the Web (and 
eventually choose to disconnect their cable or satellite provider, 
or, as I've written previously, at least force the cable operators to 
offer smaller and more appealing packages of channels).

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/business/yourmoney/14frenzy.html?ex=1305259200&en=a448180f023f9882&ei=5090



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