Zeebox set to put ze bomb under Aus broadcasters

If live tv is so bad that people are not concentrating on the stuff they do want (the programme) what makes people think they will stay around for stuff they don't want?

Here's my suggestion: Tiny ARM-based storage device which can stream in pretty much any format. Paid-for, ad-free content. The price drops if you are willing to join in a p2p cloud rather than direct-download. This can supplement the ad-infested FTA version so people can try-before-they-buy. Make a browser plugin which can do meta-data to the device, allowing bookmarking, chapters, skipping etc. Add a login facility for restricted access: you probably don't want your 5-year old watching GoT.

Given that any content will hit the torrents and fileshares anyway, you probably won't be losing revenue by not using DRM, but you will lose revenue if you make access too hard or too costly.

The main issue would be security - you don't want user's devices hacked. Burn a tiny utility into ROM which goes out, grabs the md5 sum of the image and checks it and then flags up a warning if it doesn't match the official images.

Its easy, it bypasses the entrenched cable providers and assuming most people are happy with sharing a bit of bandwidth, doesn't require the Beeb's, Apple's or Google's bandwidth to provide content.