Conventional wisdom is that the visual entertainment media are nowhere near as stupid as their brethren in the music industry.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve seen the Net coming. They’re not going to make the same mistakes the record labels did.<\/p>\n
Then there’s that old saw that content is king.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a fiction spread by the makers of entertainment which is further disseminated by writers and talking heads who feel self-satisfied repeating it.\u00c2\u00a0 DISTRIBUTION is king, never EVER forget this.<\/p>\n
Let’s make it simple.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re the new Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 If no one can hear your material, you’re never going to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the fear the labels foresaw with the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d lose their control over distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be you had to be aligned with a major to get your records in a store, even more important, get PAID! But if anybody can put their wares up online, if anybody can get paid at the iTunes Store, the majors lose a lot of their power.<\/p>\n
We’ve been hearing about the merger between the computer and the television for over a decade.\u00c2\u00a0 The truly educated are doubting this will ever happen. Because the experiences are so different.\u00c2\u00a0 Surfing your computer is active, watching your TV is passive.\u00c2\u00a0 But there is a big challenge.\u00c2\u00a0 How do you get the content from your computer on to your beautiful HD screen?<\/p>\n
The content companies don’t want you to.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not licensing for Apple TV, even though Steve Jobs says Apple considers that product a "hobby".\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t even want Cablevision to deliver programs on demand.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all about preserving their business model.<\/p>\n
But the TV companies do see they’ve got to make a Web play.\u00c2\u00a0 And now you can stream seemingly every network show online not long after it airs.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes in incredible quality.\u00c2\u00a0 Some might say you lose that experience of being part of mass culture by not watching a show when it’s first broadcast.\u00c2\u00a0 But the truth is so few people watch any of these shows today that almost none are mass cultural experiences.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything is niche.\u00c2\u00a0 Except maybe the Super Bowl and "American Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 If you can find the time to watch a show on Hulu, that’s just fine by many.<\/p>\n
And it’s not only the current shows.\u00c2\u00a0 There are archives of oldies all over the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re willing to go to the dark side, you can get literally everything on BitTorrent, even the pay cable shows.<\/p>\n
Okay, so this is today’s reality.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re paying somewhere between $25 and $75 for your broadband Internet connection.\u00c2\u00a0 And another $45 to $110 for your television cable access.\u00c2\u00a0 And the country’s in a recession.\u00c2\u00a0 And maybe you’re a student, or you’ve lost your job, and you’re looking to save some pennies.\u00c2\u00a0 What if you could just stream those TV shows from the Web on your flat panel, any old TV.\u00c2\u00a0 You could cancel your TV cable and save real money.<\/p>\n
But we all know the TV and cable companies would never let this happen.\u00c2\u00a0 And they didn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, entrepreneurs made it possible, without even asking.<\/p>\n
That’s what Boxee does.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only does it send Web broadcasts to your regular TV, it even does so via Apple TV, a process entertainment producers have not authorized.<\/p>\n
Experts say Boxee is legal.<\/p>\n
The main complaint of the cable companies?\u00c2\u00a0 THERE’S NO BUSINESS MODEL!<\/p>\n
Can you say "Napster"?<\/p>\n
P.S. The product, in Alpha release, now being utilized by 200,000, although we know how fast products like this can grow, was developed first for Mac OS X and Linux.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the company started off where the cognoscenti live, where the risk-takers\/early adopters play.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be everything started on Windows. The Mac world hasn’t been first with third party developers since the 80’s.\u00c2\u00a0 However, never forget, this is not a business product, not something Dell commoditizes and corporations snap up in droves.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, Boxee is for the home.\u00c2\u00a0 And home penetration of Macs is positively staggering.<\/p>\n
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