[Stuart]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Again, you are posting what is now, rather than what is to come.

The problem with posting what is to come is that what is to come changes. As such, no one knows what we will be watching 10 years down the line for sure. Sure, the "experts" are telling us that we'll be watching streaming services, but 10 years ago, they were telling us we'd be watching everything on HD-DVD. Look what happened there.

First of all, the Government is committed to extending good broadband speeds to the whole country. So the 2MB issue you mention will not be a problem forever.

Let's wait and see how well that goes. The Government have been saying they will improve rural broadband for nearly a decade now, and don't seem to have achieved much so far.

I've heard more than once on these forums people saying that when they were tired, they just wanted to watch what was on. And yet, if you want to watch something you are actually interested in, you still have to look up in the TV magazine or EPG what is on, or channel hop. Yesterday, when my wife fell asleep in the middle of something we were watching, I just went to Netflix and chose 'My Lists' and there was my pre-planned selection just waiting to be viewed. Chose 'Damages' and it was all done about 15 seconds after going into Netflix.

That's my point. You had to pre plan your selection, and even then you had to make a conscious decision to watch Damages. I'm talking about just hopping through the channels, seeing if something catches my eye and looks interesting. No conscious decision involved. I've discovered many programmes that I've gone on to absolutely love just by channel hopping. It's very shallow of me to say this, but I discovered Buffy The Vampire Slayer because I was channel hopping, and saw Sarah Michelle Gellar and thought "Wow, she looks pretty". It's likely I would not have discovered it had I relied on a text description such as those provided by Netflix.

Frankly, I think people are putting problems in the way - I do understand that people are resistant to change. But the confidence expressed that things will remain as they are forever astounds me!

I'm not really resistant to change, or On Demand video services. I frequently watch things on Netflix, Amazon or the various channel on demand services.

Incidentally, it's pretty easy for the TV industry to force people to change to a newer technology, just as your Mum had to when her VHS recorder became obsolete.

All they need to do is have all programmes in 4K!

That is unlikely to happen soon. Not because the consumer will resist it (although there are signs consumers are starting to resist new technologies - look at how 3D fared), but the programme makers might slow it down. They are *starting* to upgrade to 4k cameras, but may still want several years more use out of the editing suites and other infrastructure they have that is limited to 2k.