Up Next... Skypecasting

Davis Freeberg submitted linkage to a short story talking about Skypecasting Television. Essentially using Skype and Yahoo Messenger to rebroadcast video to the internet. While it isn't a PVR, it circumvents the regionally oriented programming that prevents the UK from watching our "Football" or us from getting Dr Who. It also raises yet another battlefront the content owners will need to contend with in the upcoming years.

Comments

This Ain't Yer Gran's PVR

[ackthpt]

While it isn't a PVR, it circumvents the regionally oriented programming that prevents the UK from watching our "Football" or us from getting Dr Who.

You can already get football from a variety of sites, at least one is hosted in China, no idea where the others are, you just have to put up with the commentary. Further, by Fox Soccer Channel and PPV you have access to more matches than you do in the UK, where IIRC 4 matches are televised out of the EPL schedule each match day. If you're wishing to watch Everton v Sunderland, or some other low end of the table match, you are out of luck.

It also raises yet another battlefront the content owners will need to contend with in the upcoming years.

Oh, yes. Expect all digital signals to have some encoded regionality which is intended to put the content owner in command. The major problem with these methods is they effectively kill foreign markets, because there's usually no distributor or the distributor asks too high a cost for content, which ultimately drives piracy.

Maybe some day they'll learn that you can maximize profit by maximizing access.