Why do people insist on buying things twice? Maybe not quite in the same format every time, but the same thing nonetheless. You've probably even done it yourself...
"Look, I've upgraded my entire vinyl collection to cassette. Hear how much better it sounds." "Look, I've upgraded my entire cassette collection to CD. Hear how much better it sounds." "Look, I've bought all of my favourite band's singles again, on this compilation album." "Look, I've bought exactly the same compilation album again because it has a different cover and two bonus tracks." "Look, my favourite band has remastered all my favourite albums - I must buy them all again." "Look, I've downloaded all my favourite songs from my teenage years off iTunes." "Damn, my hard drive failed, I'll have to download all my favourite teenage songs off iTunes again."
More recently we've started doing it all again, but with sound and vision. We'll pay to see a good film at the cinema and then pay for it again on DVD so we can watch it in our own homes. It may be a different experience, with added bonus extras, but underneath it's exactly the same story for twice the price. And then there are TV series. We pay our licence fee to watch them "for free" but, because we're a bit useless at setting the video recorder, we often end up buying an entire series on DVD so that we can watch it at our own convenience (or, more likely, leave it on the shelf for a rainy Sunday afternoon and then never quite get round to it). It all adds up.
And now the entertainment industry wants us to buy our TV programmes yet again, but via different media. Television replay services are destined to be big, so the major players hope, be it by satellite, by broadband or by mobile phone. They'll record all your television for you, to save you the effort, and you can pay them extra to watch just the bits you want to see. Like the newly-announced service from BT Vision, for example. An engineer will come round and install a broadband box, at a price, which will let you enjoy all the Freeview channels you can already watch. If there are no cute animal documentaries playing live then you can watch streamed meerkats for just £1.99. If the videos playing on the existing music channels are boring, buy a PIN code to unlock the video of your choice for 29p. Did you miss last night's Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on Channel 4? Don't worry, BT recorded it and you'll only be charged 99p for the privilege of viewing it. And just how many times can you watch Pulp Fiction in 24 hours? It's only £2.99 to find out.
"Did you see that great TV programmeaboutbloggers on BBC1 last night?" "No, I'm watching it on my computer next Tuesday."
It might all come to nothing. I mean, nobody yet whips out their mobile to watch the X-Factor on the bus down to the pub on a Saturday night, do they? And people won't really fork out £5 to watch an hour of the latest music videos, will they? As we become spoilt for choice, we're in danger of swapping quality for convenience. Paying for video content doesn't necessarily make it better than the stuff we can already watch for free. But we'll probably all fall for it, and the entertainment industry will rub their hands together at screwing us over once again. Pay twice, watch once - that's the future if we're not careful.
