The relevance of TV

			Hulu To Require Viewers To Have Cable Subscriptions The NY Post reports that Hulu, the video streaming service with over 30 million users, has plans to force those users to prove they have a subscription to cable or satellite TV if they want to keep watching. Quoting: "The move toward authentication is fueled by cable companies and networks looking to protect and profit from their content. The effort comes as entertainment companies continue to face drastic shifts in home viewing habits. Overall spending on home entertainment edged up 2.5 percent to $4.45 billion in the first quarter as a surge in digital streaming — which rose more than fivefold to $549 million — offset a continuing collapse in video rentals, according to Digital Entertainment Group. ... Hulu racked up some $420 million in ad revenue last year and is expected to do well in this year’s ad negotiations. But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making cable subscribing more attractive."
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A buddy of mine heard me talking about this and didn't believe me. He said that this would be dumbest move hulu could make. I agreed with him. It is a dumb move. I also believe that the people in charge of the industry are in their seventies and don't get the modern market.

His thing was that he wanted to watch TV on whatever device he had handy. He didn't want to wait for things. He wanted access to everything and was willing to pay for at least the good stuff. He didn't want to have to buy cable TV and pay for competing channels all through the year just to get a couple of good shows.

My television viewing habits consist of watching whatever is on when I'm in the mood. This used to mean lots of channel flipping. It now means surfing while something is playing on another tab of my browser. It would be great if a stream could detect when I'm not watching and only listening and save me the bandwidth.

The music industry has had to change to a model that lets people get the songs they like on the devices they use. The TV industry is next. Heaven forbid they do what Capitalism is all about and provide a good or service that people are willing and able to pay for. Hollywood needs to pay attention as well. TV thinks they are too big to fail when in reality, they are becoming too irrelevant to matter.

This is just the way things work. The establishment keeps doing things the way they got to work in the first place. New people come along and think "Why isn't someone doing it this way? Doesn't that make more sense?" and horn in on the establishment. It is called adapting.

At the moment, I watch several vlogs for my nightly entertainment. I could list several here. I have become highly interested in these people's lives. It is like a soap opera. The best art is, they are real people. I can follow them on Twitter and Facebook. I can email them tips on dealing with Linux and such. It is interactive. This is real reality TV. That crap the executives vomit on the screen is crap.

The establishment can afford more lawyers and lobbyists. The upstarts typically have the people beatinga path to their door.