BoingBoing: Public broadcaster + Bittorrent = massive public savings

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation experiments with distribution via bittorrent.

Thanks for the link, Hugh.

1 Comment

  • Allan says:

    It’s not just bandwidth. It’s also server space, maintaining a connection, and manpower attendance that is reduced to a fraction.
    I no longer have interest in watching television. As a medium.
    I was once thrilled to buy a 2.5 inch portable TV, then sit and watch it on the streetcar going home. Now it’s an iPod. And I’m not prisoner to a timetable for viewing the shows that entertain and inform me.

    Bit Torrent is the best delivery system for sharing files, and ultimately the only one that makes sense. So far.
    And file sharing has matured since the days of Hotline and BBS’s.
    At first it was predominantly software, then music, and now videos. People readily seek out full High Def copies of current movies. And virtually everything that can be digitized is there. Joan Didion’s “The year of magical thinking”, “Persepolis” both graphic novels as pdf.’s, and movies and TV shows going back to “Death Valley Days”.

    Standing in the NFB store downtown and looking across the counter at the DVD’s for sale, I said to the attendant, “I’ve downloaded every one of those, and saved them to disc. In fact, it’s come to the point where I don’t know why I bother anymore, since they’re always going to be there, like, on demand.”

    I have every Soprano, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Shakespeare, Trailer Park, every Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Top 100 Albums, and everything by Amy Winehouse.
    HMV has no pull to me except to get out of the cold and think fun for a few minutes.
    Thousands of recorded DVD’s of AVI files and Howard Stern.
    After a while, it all seems pointless.

    But there are moments of great enjoyment. Listening to Howard’s show, watching “Real Time With Bill Maher” and pondering the latest comment and post at Tea Makers.
    Life is good.

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