With so many options for watching programs and movies online, can you finally ditch your TV and/or cable subscription?
If, like many people these days, you’re tired of complaining about how poor TV is, filled as it is with reality TV programs, cooking shows, decorating guides and repeats, you may wonder why on earth you bother with your TV licence or your cable subscription, if you have one. Even freeview, which is, erm... free, costs some money up front and also requires the aforementioned TV licence. Like it or not, in some fashion, you’re paying for TV, even if you don’t like what’s on it. It’s not great, and we’ve all wondered if it’s worth it at some time or another. Well, what if you could do away with TV altogether? With the internet and the vast growth of streaming and download services, this must surely be an option, right? Let’s have a look and find out if you really could ditch the boob tube and get your televisual entertainment online. First, a very brief history.
Internet Killed The Video Star
Most readers will be well aware of the rise of the TV. Becoming popular in households post WWII and really hitting the mainstream in the 50s and 60s, the television quickly became the most desired appliance in the home. It was seen as both an entertainment breakthrough by audiences and an indispensable tool for anyone with an agenda, be it to sell products, influence voters or to simply be known for producing the best programs. The TV soon became a standard sight in virtually every home, regardless of income, and as the popularity soared, TV stations multiplied, and eventually TV services were augmented with satellite and cable TV, pay-per-views and even smart TVs with on-board computers able to access the internet.
TVs became cheaper as manufacturing costs dropped and the technology behind the TV changed, giving us flat screens, LCDs, plasma models and LED displays. At the same time, the home PC was also changing. Arriving in the home long after the TV, the PC took comparatively less time to dominate the domicile, and it also grew to offer increased capabilities, smaller and more affordable devices and displays and, eventually, even ventured into television’s territory.
PC TV
As PCs started to move closer to the TV in terms of popularity, the two technologies naturally merged. PCs could be fitted with all sorts of hardware to not only allow the viewing of TV channels, but also the recording and editing of them. Optical drives embraced DVD and Blu-ray movies, and PC monitors, being much higher resolution than most TVs, were perfectly affordable ways to make the most of the higher-quality movies released, for a fraction of the cost of a home entertainment setup.
The two technologies existed quite happily together, with TV studios producing series that people flooded to watch on TV, and the PC making the most headway in terms of movies and home videos. That was until the internet evolved, and with it came the ability to download almost anything you could want, including movies and TV shows. Of course, the origins of this didn’t start out as legitimate as they can be now, and the early days of watching TV and movies on your PC via the internet often involved illegal downloads, bootleg copies, home recording movies and so on. Despite being illegal, the downloading of movies and TV grew rampantly, surviving lawsuits and all sorts of legal attack. Eventually, companies realised that the internet wasn’t going away. Far from it; people wanted to get more and more of their entertainment online, and the removal of regional viewing dates and restrictions only made the online option even more attractive. TV and movies started to filter out online in legitimate guises, with services like LoveFilm, Netflix, TV channel services and much more appearing. These days, most TV channels have an internet streaming service, and movies are now rented and viewed online more than any other medium. The internet truly has taken over. This has advanced to the point that many users actually don’t even watch standard TV any more and do so purely from the internet. And you know what? This is very easy to do.
Downloadable TV
TV stations quickly cottoned on to the rise of video streaming and it wasn’t long before TV moved online, and most big TV stations now have online, on-demand services. The BBC has its iPlayer, ITV has the ITV Player, Channel 4 has 4oD, Channel 5 has Demand 5, and Sky has various on-demand channels. That’s just UK channels, and there are countless more for other countries.
This means there’s a huge amount of TV content all available online and, even better, it’s available to you when you want it, on demand. There are no worries about missing an episode of your favourite drama; just log on when you’re ready, and grab it. This saves on the cost of a set-top PvR/DvR, and because the content is streamed, it doesn’t even take up space on your system. It can use a lot of monthly data, though, so you need to be careful (see Data Hog boxout). Also, a lot of TV stations region lock their content, because it’s intended for viewers in a particular area and is tied to various legal and licensing reasons. This can be worked around (see Proxy TV boxout), but although it’s easy to do and we can explain how to do it, it’s technically wrong, so you do it at your own risk.
Regardless of your overall online TV use and which channels you watch, it’s clearly possible to get all your favourite shows online via legitimate means, so the standard TV services no longer hold as much power over the viewing audience. There’s also the illegitimate means to view TV shows.
BitTorrent is a method of file sharing that has grown to epic proportions, mostly because it’s an easy way to find pretty much anything you could want for free, especially TV shows, movies and games. With TV juggernauts like Game of Thrones being so heavily downloaded, most people will be well aware of this method of grabbing TV shows, and some consider it to be legitimate. The programs are on TV anyway, so what’s the problem?
The problem is down to advertising and the lack of official sanctions. Show owners don’t give permissions for people to distribute their content without contracts and agreements, and shows that are shared via BitTorrent generate no ad revenue for producers or channels. In short, it’s illegal but very hard to police, especially since BitTorrent users technically don’t share the whole thing but only small parts.
Despite this, the BitTorrent method is how many people find their TV shows, especially when they live in different countries that air the show at a later date. People do this because they want to avoid spoilers and simply can’t wait to see their favourite shows. It’s understandable, even if it’s not legal. If you choose to do this, though, it’s yet another way to replace standard TV services.
Movies on TV are always good, especially for those who can’t get to the cinema, but it’s out of your control. You have to watch whatever movies a channel schedules and wait for a long time before they appear on TV in the first place. Enter on-demand services like NetFlix, LoveFilm, Amazon Prime and even Sky’s own on-demand movie channels. These let users watch any film they want at any time, even the latest blockbusters. Many such services require a subscription, of course, and movies are always more expensive than TV services, but there are some free options. For example, Paramount Studios has released a large collection of movies for free on its YouTube channel, The Paramount Vault (bit.ly/1IzAMgL). These movies are made available in their entirety, and there are some legitimate classics in there.
Free options are great, but the real action is on the aforementioned paid-for services like Netflix. These have exploded in popularity, and the amount of net traffic that’s taken up with people watching TV series and movies on these is pretty astounding. Some ISPs have had to adapt and bolster their infrastructure just to cope with the increased traffic generated by on-demand entertainment channels.
The cost of Netflix isn’t actually all that bad either, and it’s much cheaper than your usual cable TV subscription. For example, a monthly subscription to Sky TV’s ‘Original’ bundle, which doesn’t include Sky’s premium movie channels, is £20 per month (you currently get a free 32” LG TV too, which is nice). Netflix, on the other hand, which includes all of its content, is a mere £5.99 for the basic bundle, and nets you unlimited TV and films. It’s only SD, but the HD version is only £1 extra per month at £6.99.
Of course, Netflix doesn’t usually include such things as sports and a lot of everyday TV series such as soaps and other lifestyle programming (although there’s some reality TV and other content), but Sky’s packages also omit premier sports channels which, like the movies, come at an extra cost. Simply put, if you want cable TV for movies and big name TV shows like Game of Thrones, Marvel series and so on, Netflix is probably the better option. Internet TV wins again.
That’s the terrestrial TV stations, big name import TV series and movies taken care of, what about sports? Well, although we’ve focused on Sky TV’s more expensive cost here, we can’t forget that Sky also has its own online services, all accessible via your PC. You can get the full Sky package on your PC, complete with sports and movies. You’ll need a standard subscription to Sky, of course, but with it, there’s really no TV channel you can’t watch through your PC. This option alone can replace standard TV with internet-based streaming. The same applies to Sky’s major competitor, Virgin. Virgin Media has extensive streaming services, which also make the most of its TiVo implementation. There’s a companion app for mobile devices too, so you can keep up with your favourite shows on the go.
With so many on-demand streaming services at a pretty reasonable cost, we think you’ll agree that it’s very easy to ditch standard TV services. Even without a TV in your house, you can get access to all of your favourites via your PC and even on your mobile devices.
Region Locked
Replacing TV with the internet is easy enough, but there are problems to be found. In particular, there’s region locking. This is one of the biggest hiccups you can run into if you’re a fan of overseas entertainment. A lot of streaming TV services are region locked and cannot be viewed from regions outside the intended area. For example, BBC’s steaming services are unavailable outside of the UK. Try to stream then when on holiday, and you’ll likely be blocked. The same applies to US channels and many others.
There are ways around this (see Proxy War boxout), but without these tricks, expect to be met with disappointment. There are many reasons for this, mainly involving licensing and funding. When TV channels and shows are produced, there’s a legal minefield of licensing that has to be fleshed out, and often these agreements are region specific.
The most easily understandable reason is funding. Often, shows and channels are funded by viewers in the country they broadcast in, and making things available elsewhere would mean the channels not only loses money, but the general public from one country are essentially paying for others to watch this content. Take the BBC, for example. We all know the TV licence funds the BBC, and the public pays for the Beeb’s content. Without specific licensing, such as shows being shown on foreign channels around the world for an agreed fee, the BBC makes no money from other regions, and licence payers are effectively paying for other region’s viewing. Hence, the BBC’s on demand internet services are region locked and feature regionspecific advertising.
It’s obviously a lot more complex behind the scenes, but this simple example should give you an idea, so you can understand why region locks exist, as annoying as they are. Sadly, this region locking, while designed to ensure fairness to producers and public alike, simply promotes more piracy, as millions download TV shows every day to bypass these region locks.
Proxy War
Region-locked channels online can be a brick wall that stops people from viewing content not meant for broadcast in other countries, but it didn’t take long for people to figure out ways around this. Enter the proxy server.
Proxy servers, as you may guess from the name, are servers you can connect to, which in turn connect you to the outside world. As you’re connecting via a proxy, your actual IP address and online presence can be hidden. They’re used daily by businesses for security reasons, and home users often use them for the same reason, not wishing others to see their actual IP address.
Proxy servers have another use, however, and that’s to disguise a user as someone else. This includes giving a user another IP address and even making it look like a person is from another country. You know in movies when hackers bounce a signal around the world to make a trace harder? Here it’s a similar thing. By using a proxy server, you can actually live in the UK, but you can make it appear as though you’re in the US.
This trick is easy to execute thanks to all the various proxy sites and services around, and it’s become the main method of bypassing region-locked channels online (aside from BitTorrent, of course). Using a proxy service like this, you can fool on-demand channels into thinking you’re in the correct region, thus unlocking the content.
Now, this is another legal grey area, and although not considered as serious as piracy, it’s generally frowned on, so you use this trick at your own risk. You’ll find all sorts of proxy services using a simple web search.
Officially Licenced
A common question people ask with regard to streaming TV services involves the need for a TV licence. We’re always told we need a TV licence to watch TV in our homes, and there are serious ramifications for not having one. How does this actually work with the move from traditional TV to online services, though?
As anyone who lives in the UK knows, TV licensing is far from simple, and many people have their own views. However, as stated on the official TV licensing website, an easy distinction to make is live or pre-recorded.
By live, we mean TV being shown live in real time, not just actual live TV shows such as sporting events or phonein talent contents. Basically, if you’re watching or recording any service that’s offering TV channel content that’s showing on TV at that time, you need a licence. If you’re watching on-demand content, which you watch at a later date when you like, a licence isn’t needed.
It can be confusing, especially with the determination of live, so here’s a simple example. Do you need a TV licence if you use Netflix to watch TV series that have been on TV in the past? No, you don’t. If, however, Netflix was showing the latest episode of Game of Thrones at the same time it’s being broadcast on standard TV, then yes, you’d need a licence, because it’s current and ‘live’.
You would even need a licence if you only use a mobile phone to watch live TV, so it’s not simply because you own a TV set; it’s all about the kind of TV content you watch. Even if you pay a separate charge for a subscription, you might need a licence.
It’s complex, so be sure to check at www.tvlicensing.co.uk, because internet TV still requires a licence in many instances. You may be able to ditch the TV, but not the TV licence.
Data Hog
Streaming services are fantastic, and they’ve radically changed the way we consume entertainment, to the point we can replace normal TV entirely. However, one thing that’s easy to forget amid all of this easily obtained digital entertainment is data usage.
Most ISPs will enforce monthly data limits, and even those that offer unlimited data per month will usually have fair usage policies that’ll throttle your bandwidth should you use too much in a short time.
For this reason, you need to be aware of how much data you’re using when you’re watching TV shows or movies online. In no time at all, you can use a surprising amount of data, and if you’re not careful, your monthly allowance can be gone long before your next recharge. Therefore, it’s important to keep a close eye on usage.
It can be hard to know how much data a service uses, because different providers use different players and video formats. Some are more compressed than others, and different video lengths will obviously use more or less data.
As a simple guideline, let’s take one of the most popular services, Netflix. As per Netflix’s own information, a medium (SD) service will use around 0.7GB per hour. If you’re a stickler for detail and resolution, though, the high-quality, HD option will use around 3GB per hour, and the Ultra HD setting will eat up a whopping 7GB per hour. That’s a lot of data, and if you consider that’s per hour and the fact binge-watching shows is now a thing, your data usage can be zapped in no time.
What can you do? Apart from monitoring your usage and rationing it out, eliminating those eight-hour slogs through The West Wing or The Wire, you can choose lower-quality video. Some may instantly scoff at this idea, but it’s not as bad as it seems. Although there’s a noticeable drop in quality from HD to SD or even the lower sub-SD option (which uses around 0.3GB per hour), it may not matter. If you’re watching older TV shows, for example, there’s only so much these can be scaled up anyway. Most TV shows look perfectly watchable in lower quality, and it can be best to save HD for visually intensive movies and the like. Doing this will save a lot of data and give you many more hours of time.
YouTube
When you think of online TV services, YouTube isn’t the first one that pops into mind, because it’s a service that features videos created by anyone and everyone. Instead of professionally produced shows or movies by big budget studios, YouTube puts the power into the hands of anyone with something to say, and in this regard, it’s just superb. YouTube may well be the future of TV and entertainment, but for now, if you want big name TV series and movies, there are better options around.
That said, YouTube does feature various sections for catching up on TV, and as we’ve already mentioned, studios like Paramount have made movies available via the service. There’s also an increasing amount of impressive user-created content appearing all the time, with some genuine pop culture icons and famous stars emerging from the traditionally vlog-heavy site. One thing’s for certain: you should never underestimate the power and potential of YouTube.
BlinkBox
If you don’t want to be hit with a monthly subscription and prefer to get your entertainment à la carte, TalkTalk TV, formerly BlinkBox, may be for you. Instead of a fixed subscription, this service operates like high-street video rental stores like Blockbuster, with a pay-as-you-go pricing system. You pay to rent or purchase content on an individual basis, and whole series of TV shows and some of the latest movies are available. Sadly, probably due to licensing issues, the very latest episodes or series of TV shows aren’t always available, but it’s still a good service if you only wish to use online TV casually.