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Comment by mikeryan | Hacker News Reader

TV is "broken," because it doesn't give you the choice to watch what you want to, doesn't let you pause, doesn't let you rewind, doesn't let you watch something you missed.

Not sure your market or cable company. But in Berkeley (and SF) with Comcast under on-demand I have a section called "TV Shows", the "All Shows" section lists about 300 TV shows.Each with about 8-20 episodes. All On-Demand all with rewind, pause etc. The exception is it won't let me FF through the limited ads embedded in the streams.

Assume this was all current content. How much would you pay for this service? With Ads? Without? Because its not anywhere near the $10 price you're paying now for Netflix or Hulu.

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I've got no problem paying $40 for a season pass of a show I like on iTunes. I think I'd be happy to pay that via Comcast too, if they had a decent interface. (I am however _not_ willing to pay $9.99 to watch a 5-year old movie "on demand". Not worth it)

The part that the cable companies don't get is that customers don't want a buffet. They want a la carte.

And they want pricing that is related to the value of a movie or a show. I don't mind paying premium price for something that's still out in theaters. But once that's gone, drop the price, will ya?

Really? I think the 40 dollar pass is outrageously expensive. If I subscribe to just 2 shows, I've already gone over what I pay for cable. Sure, it's really nice to be able to watch it whenever I want, but 40 dollars is nuts.

If you watch two entire seasons in a month, you have a problem :)

I have money, and I want to watch Season 2, Episode 2 of the West Wing, which my friend just told me is worth watching.

I cannot give them my money, to watch it. I could wait a couple days for Netflix to mail me the DVD, but by then the impulse might pass.

TV is broken.

It's not ideal that you have to use a mishmash of services to get what you want when you want it. But there are multiple delivery mechanisms for a lot of popular content.

For instance, you could watch the West Wing Season 2 on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/the-west-wing-season-2/... Or Amazon Instant Video: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047N63NE/ref=tmm_aiv_titl...

...neat. Substitute another movie or show that you'd like to watch but can't.

How does this mean that TV is broken? Because you can't get instant access to every show ever created? That's not a TV problem, that's a you problem. That says nothing about TV. It does point to a weakness in distribution, but there are a variety of ways to get legally content these days: over the air, cable, satellite, online streaming (Hulu, Netflix), online purchase (Amazon, iTunes), buy or rent a DVD of a season of a show, etc... all of which can be played on a traditional TV.

If you want to make an argument, argue that distribution is broken. TV as a content production industry is still doing okay.

BTW - that was a good episode of the West Wing. While it was all done in flashbacks, you get to see the history of how people came to work in the West Wing. Donna's character particularly got more interesting after that episode. But you probably don't want to watch just that episode, it was the second half of a two-parter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0745640/

...the content production industry is not doing okay, because it's working "for hire" for people who are almost exclusively interested in advertising revenue.

If the people who produce TV shows had good contracts, they could also sell me their content directly - with no middle men. Or at least, different middle men. There's no technological reason they couldn't.

I agree that you're right that it's a distribution problem.

But there's a supply of video, and a demand for video, and people standing in the way of that market. The people standing in the way are eventually going to go away.

...that's my belief, anyway. Until then, when I have money and want to watch a show, but can't, TV is broken.

Sounds like you want instant gratification!

How about watching something else while you order the DVD?

...and if I have money, and I'm willing to pay a fair price, I should get it!

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