June 14, 2007
Sky reveals future of on-demand television
Sky TV has given a little glimpse into what could be the future of on-demand television. Its announced that it's making all six seasons of US series 24 available via the Sky Anytime on PC on-demand service. That's 144 episodes of Jack Bauer action available to download legally over the net. YAY! Tech.co.uk reports.
"Sky is also making available the first two seasons of smash-hit Prison Break as well as other Fox shows Standoff, Journeyman and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
The question is: could this be the way that on-demand television works in the future? Instead of an online seven-day catch up service, could we soon see television companies making all episodes of their shows available for download?
Like many things, it could all come down to cost. And at the moment Sky's on-demand service is far more expensive than it is to simply buy the shows on DVD. Season One of 24 will cost you £60 ($118) to download-to-own via Sky and yet you can buy the whole series on DVD for around £18 ($35) online.
If you like it, you can keep watching and pay more. If not, you can stop watching. That's the advantage with the episode-by-episode downloading. It's more expensive in the long-run, but at least you're not committed to paying for the whole lot in one go.
... Seasons One through to Six of 24 will be available to own for £2.50 ($4.90) per episode, or to rent at £1.50 ($2.95) per episode. New episodes are available the day after their main TV broadcast." YAY! - that's what we want - but now make it work on Macs too!
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