Seven to trial hit TV shows over net | The Australian

Of course the big test would have been to see if people were ready to pay good money for old Australian TV content, U.S. iTunes style, but free is even better!

Seven to trial hit TV shows over net | The Australian

"Executives at Seven are preparing to make hit shows such as Dancing With The Stars and All Saints available to be downloaded over a broadband internet connection for free."

So there's the Aussie content sorted out. Now, how do we get around the issues of overseas content flooding the P2P networks I've mentioned previously on this blog?

"Seven is also eager to strike a deal with US media giant Walt Disney, with which the network has an output agreement, to enable US hits such as Desperate Housewives and Lost to be able to be downloaded through Seven's joint-venture online portal, Yahoo!7."

Sounds fun. Doesn't quite get around the issues of ridiculously late scheduling compared to the U.S. broadcast dates, but it does allow people to get access without a lot of mucking about. As regular readers of King Leonard - The Weblog will know, we're big fans of the "path of least resistance from complete boredom." To that end, if people can easily locate and download content without having to stuff around with BitTorrent or eDonkey then 7 are a step ahead already.

"Under one model being considered, all of the shows would be embedded with advertising and available online soon after each episode had been broadcast on Seven. One source said trials were likely within a year or earlier if broadband speeds quickened."

Then, BOOM!, the whole thing falls in a heap.

If iTunes can get away with a 320x240 resolution clip and expect people to stick it on their TV sets, why on Earth do we expect local audiences to only accept a full-screen program? Start small why you've got it. Get bigger when Telstra pulls their finger out. If you keep putting things off we'll be hearing that things have been put on hold until ISP's can handle HD streams.