And I’d say TV is still in the same state it’s always been: mostly junk, but with some good stuff that you often have to search or pay for.

I agree with you about sports. But the idea of paying sixty or seventy dollars a month to watch sports on the weekend is ridiculous. I’ll take my chances of finding something interesting on the radio.

But the idea that everything has to be broadcast just because live stuff needs to be is soon to be dead. The ideal experience would be a menu of on-demand content available and a menu of upcoming live events.

With this system, you could implement two tiers of payment, as well. You could do a la carte (i.e. pay per view) or a rather costly (as if cable isn’t already too expensive) monthly subscription fee. I think this flexibility would appeal to people like me who can’t justify the subscription fee.

Paul:

You can’t really take what Gillmor says literally. What “TV is dead” really means is that it’s clear that the old TV business model is in the process of being replaced by something else. Just like when he says “Office is dead,” which gets people all riled up. Office is not dead yet. But for some people (like me) it is, which probably wasn’t the case five years ago.

I wouldn’t say TV is dead, nor that the Internet has or is trying to assume its’ role (tho I’m sure it’ll happen; anything I like invariably ends up dead, like non-Intel computers), but I will adamantly back the claim that modern TV sucks bright red baboon bum.

I miss the days of good TV; you know, the kind that did NOT involve cop and / or lawyer dramas, medical dramas, airheaded talk shows, horrible recreations of once-good series (if I ever find the meathead who sullied Dr. Who, I swear I’ll…. OOO! Grr.), and the all-inclusive, all-stupid, craptastic “reality” shows.

Since those are all that TV has become, I suppose it’s dead to me; so I use the Internet instead.

But, you know, you just can’t good scrambly-porn — or the CBC’s infamous random 3AM Saturday “surprise” airings — from a URL. Ahh, memories. :-)

P.S. – Audrey, sports aren’t the only events (live or not) that are way better televised. Having worked in the cable industry at the time of the big transition to digital, one thing I learned is that at our current stage of technological advancement, streaming video will never replace broadcast signal. It’s too poor quality. Probably will be for some time. Oh, and don’t get me started on the total lack of standards… ;-)