Breaking free from the TV-networks and entertainment industry...
From
the beginning it had us all spellbound, people were in awe when they
saw the first moving pictures silently projected across a large screen,
it was the birth of a new cultural upliftment for the masses.
At
the start of this new revolution of entertainment, everybody had to go
to a cinema complex to go watch the latest release of either a movie,
short documentary, or news event. As all things go, it evolved into more
sophisticated presentations, silent movies being accompanied by live
music, then later sound was added to the film projection itself. But
still people had to go to these large venues to watch the latest new
movies.
With
the advent of television — entertainment, news, and information were
brought straight to your home into your living room.
Broadcast-technology has provided the ability to transmit multiple
TV-channels over the airways and made it possible to be received by a
simple VHF aerial, attached to your rooftop, that connected to your
television by a coaxial copper cable. An incredible achievement in human
history!
Then
came the large TV-networks, producing and distributing content that
conformed to their views and norms in order to spread their own
propaganda, politics, and world news.
The great TV-network wars had began...
The great TV-network wars had began...
These
network wars were extremely well illustrated by the satirical TV-series
"Max Headroom" which was broadcast in the early 1980's. Some of you
might remember the series but if you don't, just enter the following
"Max Headroom" into your favourite search engine, or ours namely Groot, then you will see how it depicted the TV-network wars and what they did to drive up the viewer ratings.
Currently
as I sit here writing about it, they are still at war with each other,
all just to increase viewer ratings in order to sell advertisements...
crazy isn't it!
But
still with movies, you had to go to a cinema to watch, which later on
these television networks would then broadcast, but only after a few
months or even years of their first release.
With
time came digital television, piping in directly into your home,
movies, TV-shows, and all kinds of entertainment from all the different
TV-networks and movie studios. The stranglehold of the Entertainment and
TV industry was broken. People now had free choice of what to watch in
their homes, but at a price.
It
gave you the power to choose what to watch and when to watch it.
Digital television became a collection of entertainment from all the big
TV-networks and Hollywood studios. As time went by, even these new
digital content distributors started to enforce their pricing
stranglehold onto people, just like the TV-networks had done before
them.
But technology and its ever growing ambition to take over the world brought us online internet. (Thank Goodness)
Now
that information is freely available on the internet for anyone to
access, it was only a matter of time before it would happen to the
entertainment industry too. It only took 30 years for us to get there,
better late than never I guess, but now we have complete access and free
choice to watch and stream what we want from anywhere in the world,
straight to our computers, laptops, and even mobile phones!
This
then brought us, just like in the beginning, a whole new era of
entertainment access. Online streaming had began. New online
entertainment tech-companies have sprung up to be the first to provide
us with original and licensed content like movies, TV-shows, news etc.
Companies like NetFlix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, just to mention a few.
This new online streaming industry has become a success all over the
world.
All over the world people have started to cut their digital and analogue TV subscriptions and signed up to these new content providers, breaking the monopoly that the TV-networks and Hollywood studios had over us.
All over the world people have started to cut their digital and analogue TV subscriptions and signed up to these new content providers, breaking the monopoly that the TV-networks and Hollywood studios had over us.
But
like all villains, the TV-networks and Hollywood companies have come
back with avengeance to entrap people into their domains and keep them
there. At first they enforced GeoBlocking or else better known as
GeoFencing onto the streaming companies to limit content distribution.
This did not work as well as they have hoped, people have started to use
VPN(Virtual Private Network) software to circumvent the Geofencing they
imposed onto the streaming sites. (See our blog post on how to use a free VPN to get around these restrictions)
When
these methods of content restrictions failed, they resorted to
withdrawing their licensing agreements for their most successful shows
and movies from online streaming companies.
Major
Hollywood companies and TV-networks have been quick to create their own
streaming sites and provided people with exclusive content only to be
found on their sites. Companies like Disney and others are now
withholding their content, even refusing to licence prime movies (e.g.
Pirates of the Caribbean), and TV-shows to other companies in order to
dominate the industry and create complete vendor-lock-in.
The more things change, the more they stay the same... remember the TV-network wars?
But
like all things rebellious and ambitious, there are those who will
always fight to bring back freedom of choice and content. With such
tyrannical even despotic and overbearing dominance and villainous
actions in the online space, new streaming sites and devices, like the
Kodi box and software, have sprung up to provide people with the freedom
of choice.
What
is now known as stream-ripping, content has now been taken, copied,
redistributed, even licensed where available, from these large OverLord
companies and are being provided through third-party streaming sites to
everyone on the internet, for a price or even for free, while some ask
for donations where possible. Online oppression and heavy-handedness
will always be fought tooth and nail, or is that by server and router,
to gain back freedom!
Well... this is where I shamelessly tell you about our own Stream-TV
site where we provide anyone and everyone that accesses it, with all
the best streaming sites and content that is available on the internet
for free. Our own site is just a portal or directory to these
third-party sites.
You
will find most of the content are from linear TV-channels, most of the
well known streaming sites, and even the best movie providers. These
lesser known sites have taken the best content found all over the net
and other sources and brought them all together for your enjoyment and
freedom of choice, as it should be!
So there you have the future of our television and entertainment activities in a nutshell...
Online-Streaming is... Freedom of Choice!
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