Don’t quit TV yet – but start iView

I have been living without any of the major commercial channels for more than 3 months. The aerial signal quality had deteriorated over several weeks until all I could see was ABC and some SBS (on good days). I was actually too lazy to find out whether it was my Digital Video Recorder (DVR) acting up or the actual antenna or the slightly damaged coaxial cable (as it turned out, it was the antenna).

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Now during my forced abstinence from commercial TV I developed a habit of tuning into the fantastic ABC iView service quite a lot. And watched lots of YouTube on the iTouch. Which in turn ate up my download cap (cannot wait for the day when a real flatrate gets finally offered here in AU).
All in all still a very good experience and as iView is getting better all the time, I can only recommend tuning in. Channel 9 and 7 will be following suit and other DVR options are coming into existence. You don’t necessarily have to bend your antenna the wrong way to start watching what you want, when you want it.

Additional info: A study mentioned on Media Guardian claims Video-On-Demand will hardly affect linear TV advertising revenue. I cannot judge the validity of the study, though do see the point that time-shifted viewing (through DVRs such as iQ) slows the growth rate of VOD. As an early adopter I might sometimes overestimate how much the mainstream changes their ways of watching good old TV. It still has a lot to do with how hard ware is set up and used in people’s home.