Revised article

(Here is mine and Matt L's revised article after our feedback from Jenny Grahame and some class members. We have tried to add more statistics and now have 10 footnotes in total, researching articles have also helped us as well as it has helped us get some information to put into the article which shows us both sides of the argument about TV streaming websites. We have now addressed partly whether it is legal and how it could be taking away the need for a TV in the average household, and how it could evolve in the future. The bold areas show where we have put footnotes and quoted from articles.)

Relevant exam questions

• ‘Discuss the extent of which the distribution and consumption of media have been transformed by the internet.’

- ‘The impact of the internet is revolutionary. Discuss.’

key questions for students to think about

• How has the internet and evolutions in web 2.0 changed the way people interact and show their work, has it made a difference to small scale media pioneers, or people trying to gain a career in media?

(They can now upload videos to YouTube, and these can be seen worldwide, this is different to 10 years ago when the only way to get noticed would be to hold live events or social gatherings.) Think of some more examples for help in the ‘media in the online age’ exam question.

• Definite competition from online TV distributors (TV catch up, BBC iplayer) as opposed to watching television at home, will this technical revolution eliminate TV as a necessity in the home? In the future, TV could be watched purely online.

• The uncertain future of print journalism if everything is printed online. Are any other media distributors facing the same fate? Could everything eventually be digitalised?

How are TV streaming websites, such as BBC Iplayer, ITV player and tvcatchup.com changing the way we watch our media? Think about programmes, films etc.

From the use of the internet, media has evolved more than we ever thought it could, one example being able to now watch television at no set date. Online TV program streamers, such as BBC iplayer (here you can watch programs from any channels on the BBC up to a week previously) 40D (same concept, any program from channel 4) and ITVplayer (same concept once again, any program from ITV channels) all allow substantial freedom when it comes to watching television. Youtube is also a big competitor for video streaming, for example the length in time it would take to view all content on YouTube would be 412.3 years (March 2008) Also, Youtube could now be taking away viewers from television even more, ‘YouTube now allows users to upload HD videos and recently launched a service to provide TV shows and movies under license from their copyright holders.’

These TV streaming websites above are providing a challenge to television especially, despite the fact they are not taking the television audience for programs away, they are diverting the audience to an online method of watching the programs; this could create a problem for television in general, perhaps even to the point where a television is no longer necessary because everything can be watched online. A good example of this is as follows. "On the 10th of October 2009 internet history was made, as for the first time an English national World Cup Qualifying game was shown exclusively online. It is interesting for two reasons: firstly that it came about as a result of the collapse of a satellite sports channel (Setanta), and secondly; it shows the shift towards endusers willing to pay premium to watch sports content on their computers".

A strong leader for the online streaming craze is the ever growing popular website called TVcatchup, This was thought up by a group of friends who thought watching TV on the internet would be an interesting compromise. This was three years ago (2007) and since then the site has grown and grown; the latest figures were 758,000 members. In January, 1 million viewers a week streamed a total of 2 petabytes of live TV over TVCatchup. That’s the equivalent of 40 millions four-draw filing cabinets filled with text. That’s a lot of TV, ‘the equivalent of 26.6 years of HD-TV Video watching.’Which is showing that how the viewer watches TV is changing forever.

But is this way of watching TV legal? I decided to go onto the TV licensing websites to see the legality of these websites. I have been searching through their website and I have discovered that this form of live web streaming doesn’t not need a TV license if “You’re covered by the homeowner’s TV License if they have one, provided you live in the same building. If you live in self contained accommodation such as a separate flat or annex you need your own separate licence.” This shows that, providing you have a valid TV license and you live at the address that a valid TV license is present, you are allowed to stream television live without any legal obligations. If you want go to university after your A Levels, then it’s also legal if: “Your out-of-term address is covered by a TV License AND You only use TV receiving equipment that is powered solely by its own internal batteries AND You have not connected it to an aerial or plugged it into the mains.” TV Catchup is totally different to just watching films online, as this is illegal, but TV catchup follows the same licensing rules as usually TV and you can be caught very easily.

‘A quirk of tv licence’s outdated legislation is that it only covers live broadcasts. That means for on-demand services such as the BBC iPlayer that show content after it’s appeared on live television, you don’t need a licence – a point made by the BBC in their guidelines for watching programmes on a mobile device.’ These TV streaming websites may be legal due to the fact they are not live TV, but controversy has arisen in the claims that ‘The success of the BBC's iPlayer is putting the internet under severe strain and threatening to bring the network to a halt, internet service providers claimed yesterday.’ They want the corporation to share the cost of upgrading the network — estimated at £831 million — to cope with the increased workload. Viewers are now watching more than one million BBC programmes online each week.

Nonetheless, TV streaming websites are popular as shown by the above statistic, and we can only estimate their popularity will grow. Perhaps in the future, media in the online age will now mean a TV is not a neccessity in the average household. According to a BBC article written last year, ‘Freesat viewers will be able to catch up with Christmas specials, including Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing, following a deal that will see the BBC Iplayer launched on the digital TV service next month.The service, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, is also planning to launch ITV's catch-up TV service, the ITV Player, in the first half of 2010. Freesat will be the first free-to-air service to launch the ITV Player, allowing viewers to watch on-demand programming via their TV set rather than a computer.’ With increasing extension plans, we can only estimate that media in the online age has begun to make considerable changes to the way we live our lives. No longer will TV need to be watched at a certain time, or even on a television. ‘The Freesat iPlayer offering will provide 450 hours of BBC on-demand programming per week, including Top Gear, EastEnders, Life, Gavin and Stacey, and Christmas special The Gruffalo, for viewers to watch for up to seven days after the programmes have aired on TV. A full public launch is planned for early 2010.’