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YouTube Co-founder Calls For Global Access To TV Online

Posted by Soulskill on from the incumbents-are-annoying dept.

An anonymous reader writes "YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley says internet users should be able to legitimately watch content from anywhere in the world at any time. He says the days of national TV networks controlling the global online rights to shows has to end. 'I think the business models are breaking down and the companies that are going to win in this new world are the ones that make it as easy as possible for the consumers to consume the content wherever and whenever they want.' Hurley also says YouTube will be bidding for more online live sports."

7 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by djupedal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is just another chapter in the old 'information wants to be free' refrain. And while I'm down with that, I don't think there is much more to be done, as I've lived on three continents, and found it trivial to find broadcast content from other regions around the world if I just made the effort. Now if they are talking about bundling it all up and creating a delivery service, let me remind how expensive and controlled cable can be in the US, so if I had my druthers, I'd be more inclined to again bring things together on my own, say in the spirit of the guy in Cuba that used a pringles can to pick up CNN from the States, back in the day :) And really....there is a long list of countries that have strong feelings about what content is available to their citizens, from Singapore (small) to China (big). A full-on WeAreTheWorld channel isn't going to cut it, I think.

  2. Information shouldn't be free by mozumder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Free information is the death of all culture. It leads to the homogenization of society. It is why people are complaining about the stagnation of the arts since about 1995, when the internet started to become widespread. You ever notice how people's sense of style now is the same as back in 1993? Compare this to the massive stylistic shifts between 1953 to 1963 to 1973 to 1983 to 1993. Each decade was vastly different from the decade before.

    This cultural & artistic stagnation is because information is free. It is because everyone in the world has access to the same information, which is not good.

    Acquiring information should have a cost associated with it. Before the internet, you actually had to find a record shop to find obscure bands, costing time and effort. Now, there is no cost associated with this horrible consumer lifestyle associated with free information, and everyone has access to the same information, giving privilege to none.

    People should NOT have the same information as everyone else. People should be divided and separated, as this inequality is what causes art to happen.

    Life should be unfair. It is better that way.

    1. Re:Information shouldn't be free by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is a very clever post because I can't decide if it's sarcastic or not, but I'll bite.

      Why shouldn't someone in rural Nebraska or Korea have the same right to an obscure band as someone who lives in NYC with access to record shops stocking obscure content? "Giving privilege to none?" Gimme a break.

    2. Re:Information shouldn't be free by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So if you live in Hyder, Alaska you're only expected to listen to Twangy's Good Ol' Boys (specializing in CCR cover tunes?

      well if you're a goo 'ol hipster then yes.

      on the other hand internet allows you to listen to twangys even if you're a finnish dolt - or new c64 remixes. the variety is through the roof in reality.. there's more sub cultures than ever, but no "new" mainstream fads. this makes it of course harder to be against mainstream and that annoys the hell out of some assholes.

      you know what pop music used to be in Finland in 60's? fucking translated pop songs - seriously, a way to make a finnish hit: just take the italian/american/british song, copy it and change lyrics to stupid finnish lyrics.

      ever heard a version of bowie's space man that has lyrics like "why doesn't my girl-prince* come already?" *yes, prince, not princess. fucking confusing.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Information shouldn't be free by blackest_k · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you want everyone in the world to be the same and destroy all cultures, then, sure, go ahead and make information free.

      you say that like that's a bad thing.

      It won't make everybody the same but it might help bring home the realisation we are pretty similar in many respects. I don't think it'll be worldwide main stream tv which will achieve that, more the efforts of ordinary or maybe extraordinary people. talking across cultures.

      I don't know what happened to slashdot polls but it would be interesting to see how many countries our friends are from. I suspect there will not be many people on this website who doesn't have friendships outside of their own nationality.

      If we want to do away with some of the lousy things we do to our own species then we first must break through the barriers of our nations borders.

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
  3. Copyright is already coercion by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Copyright is already coercion of the public. If YouTube is asking for coercion, it's asking governments to replace coercion that serves incumbent middlemen with coercion that serves the public.

  4. Not all middlemen are equal by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The argument is that it would serve the public to replace the middleman that that geodiscriminates with the middleman that does not.