If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

I was reading a book called "Super Crunchers" (a book on industrial use of data-mining), and it mentioned a company called "Epagogix" which predicts movie profits (also covered less tersely by Malcome Gladwell - http://www.gladwell.com/2006/2006_10_16_a_formula.html).

In Super Crunchers, it describes a meeting between Epagogix, some potential investors, and some Hollywood heavyweights. The investors quizzed the movie guys on why they didn't want to buy in - the movie guys said that even if Epagogix could get 100% accurate, they wouldn't use it. If they used it, they would lose some of their own influence, and so they wouldn't get invited to the right parties. The investors loved that response, because it meant that the market was ripe for disruption. Epagogix wasn't so happy, though.

When broadcasters control a channel, they don't just get to tax it. They get personal perks as well.

You might think that the purpose of toll boothes is to pay for roads. People who work in toll boothes might think it's the other way round.

TV channels are the same - you might think execs are there to ensure only good shows get access to limited screen-time, but they think that limited screen-time exists to keep them in a job.

The giant elephant in the room is being overlooked: Advertisements have a lifespan measured in months, weeks, or days. Television content can stay relevant for decades.

Imagine it's the year 1997. Aliens from the planet GNU have gone back in time and provided us with bittorrent, and technology making dial-up modems a million times faster (but they still drop their connection if your mom picks up the phone). You just torrented and watched the latest Seinfeld episode, "The Muffin Tops", and have forever changed your muffin-eating habits.

While watching, you saw ads for Apple's "Think Different" campaign, McDonald's Arch Deluxe, and that "Da Da Da" Volkswagen commercial (which is now stuck in your head). You go out and buy the car, buy a Mac, and buy a Big Mac because the Arch Deluxe tastes like crap.

In 2007 you watch The Muffin Tops again. The old ads from 1997 are still embedded in the file. Apple's ad seems weird since the logo is all rainbows. You drive to McDonald's to get an Arche Deluxe because now you're an adult and it'll taste good, but they don't have it anymore, so you cry and drive home to sign a petition website to bring it back. Nobody ever reads it. Along the way your Volkswagen breaks down and you remember how that terribly sounding ad tricked you into buying such an unreliable piece of junk. You get a lift from the aliens, but they charge you one anal probe for the ride. Now you hate Apple, hate McDonalds, hate Volkswagen, and hate that the aliens didn't have the common decency to at least warm up their metal tools before use. Ouch.

i don't really see the point. i can't imagine the transfer protocol matters. otherwise, putting ads that have less capability than web streams (because they're contained in a local file) seems like a red herring. content companies have tried streaming and they've simply decided they don't like the internet.

it seems to me that content available online experiences immediate devaluation. why am i going to pay more to place an ad during your content when i can target the same audience for pennies elsewhere online? why am i going to pay the same for syndication or for physical media?

streaming license costs will continue to rise until they reach equilibrium with existing revenue streams with the corresponding rise in access costs, or decent quality streaming will cease to exist (legally). likely the latter will happen simply as a result of the former.

Well, there's the whole "I'd rather buy it than pirate it" thing. Plenty of people want to buy content, it's just that the content makers are stuck in old-fashioned business models.

My issue was with jrockway saying "why should I download a file with ads for free when I can download it for free" and then saying that the solution is to charge for it... when it will also be available for free.