Election Coverage on the Internet & TV

What could possibly be the problem to put our standard television stations airing – on the Internet?  This is called “covergence”.  You know, when radio, television, cable and internet all come together to offer the lowly “paying citizen” a choice in programming?  Why might the great powers that be -remain so offended by this wonderful notion? 

Day in and day out, a lot of people are busy watching their computers, busy trying to switch between news programs on their television, or busy just channel surfing for the next great thing.  Why are the media moguls, cable operators and the like so afraid of this behavior?  Think we might actually get a choice in what we watch for once?  Billionaire John Malone, of Liberty Media is dead set against free access to the internet from his programming.  Maybe he just doesn’t want to add advertising, maybe he is just lazy, maybe he just wants to be the next Ted Turner and this concept doesn’t fit into his “buy more, pay more philosophy”.   Everyone wants VOD.  You know Video On Demand!  Pull out your credit card and go crazy.  This is what you call VERY INCONVENIENT access to entertainment and sports.

Back in 1998, Nagano, Japan held the Winter Olympics and Seoul, Korea held the Summer Olympics.  Our cable provider Comcast…at the time….offered a complete Olympic package for $109 dollars.  We could watch the Olympics 24/7 anytime we wanted….live!  This was before Tivo of course!  It was a good deal and we bought in and never looked back.  This for all intent and purposes was the original VOD concept.  We made one phone call and made one payment and we were done!  Right now our current Cable provider Time-Warner is futzing around with the NFL network and refuses to add the NFL Network to its Sport Tier.  Time-Warner wants us to pay “separately”….and big money of course!  With the many good things about Time-Warner…they along with Mr. Malone are having a tough time getting out the 20th Century and into the 21st!  Most of these guys want us to pay a fee to watch a clip from My Space or ask for advice from Google!  The next thing will be to charge us to pull up the Menu of available programs!  Yikes!

Hey, we love Tiger Woods and will watch him play every time he participates, but we don’t want “to pay” for the Golf Channel…even though we get it as part of our package.  We don’t want QVC….but we get it.  We don’t want VH1 every day either….but we get it.  We don’t want the Cartoon channel….but we get that too.  We don’t want Arab News Channel in Arabic….but we get it.  The point is that “Ala Carte Pricing” for the Internet, Cable or Pay Per View has to fair and equitable.  It has to be easy to access….and it has to make sense.  The FCC and Chairman Martin have been fighting the good fight to put this byzantine process into a logical, simple and fair process.  Write the FCC and let them know that you support….whatever you believe in.  One thing is for sure…..stuff has got to change.

There is nothing wrong with re-broadcast of standard commercial television fare….as long as it continues to include those pesky “commercials”.  If cable with all those programmers want to play….tell them to get out there into the market and sell advertising to support putting their shows into the Internet   – “Convergence Market”.  It would certainly be great to watch your favorite sports event, day-time mellow drama or movie while blogging and chatting with your significant other while paying your electric bill.  Ain’t the 21st Century amazing?  As the financial health of our planet melts down and the price of everything we know…soars astronomically…..the least that the cable companies and commercial broadcasters can do is:  Be logical.  Not just everything we do has to include: ” The Stagflation Index”!  Can’t there be just one thing that we look upon with pride and say?: “It’s great being American!”