Television Internet Access - Let's Dump the Regulatory System

A recent study by NPD has shown that 18% of consumers in a survey access internet content daily over their television set. Some 25% access internet content that way several times a week.

That's a startling statistic. Although it shouldn't be. Pundits have been predicting the end of television as we have known it ever since the beginnings of the internet. That's because the internet is such a logical replacement for the conventional means of delivery of content that people have viewed on TV's. But the  move has been extremely slow, despite the proliferation of ways to connect televisions to the internet. There are set-top boxes, games units like Wii, and more recently, built in wireless HDMI type capability. As these devices and tehniques continue to enter the market, their use will grow.

But the holdup hasn't been technology. Rather it has been the incredible web of government oversight and regulation that is now so outdated as to be laughable. Laughable if it wasn't holding us up with something that is so simple and causing us to spend so much more for television content than we need to, particularly through the cable companies. Of course, those cable companies have been fighting for their lives for years. but they are supported by this web of regulation, through regulators like the CRTC in Canada.

Isn't it time we did a major revamp of the old system? Maybe it's time to completely throw out that system and start over with one that's built for the age of the internet, not for the late stages of the industrial revolution.

For a commentary on the NPD study, check this link.