Here’s a cool article about the future of TV.

How Battlestar Galactica killed Broadcast TV (http://www.mindjack.com/feature/piracy051305.html)

Here’s a quote from the article. My comments, for what they’re worth, are below.

Widespread piracy of television programming has short-circuited this process, connecting the producer directly to the audience. As yet there are no viable economic models connecting the television producer directly to the audience. Industry pundits talk about audiovisual downloads through some system like Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and perhaps we’ll see something like this in the near future, but this works against the simple fact that people do not expect to pay for television programs. People will pay for movies, when they choose to pay for movies, but they won’t pay for television programming. Not if they can get it for free. The audience is not at all involved in the economic value chain of television production; that’s been the rule for a half-century. It’s reasonable to presume that any attempt to change the economic behavior of the audience is doomed to failure.

I’m a big fan of Battlestar Galactica (BSG) and I watch it every week. But never on TV. I haven’t seen a single episode via broadcast TV. I began, as the author above mentioned, downloading each episode with eMule - an open source P2P program.

I really can’t stand to watch broadcast TV with all the commercials. It interrupts the flow of the story and is just a plane nuance. But, until recently a necessary one. As the author mentions. The economic model is based on producer, distributor, sponsors, audience.

But the author doesn’t think that there is any way to eliminate the middle man - distributor and sponsors. He doesn’t think that people will pay for a TV show. Of course he wrote that before iTunes began selling episodes of BSG the day after they aired.

I could still download each episode from Bit Torrent or eMule or something similar. But that takes time. Once the episode runs it takes a few hours for someone, usually a few people, to make their copies available. Then they begin to spread, slowly at first but picking up speed exponentially as more and more people have the bits to share. In my experience with a variety of shows that I watched in this manner I would say that on average I could watch the show in question about 36 hours after it aired - give or take. But sometimes I would download a file that was frakked up and have to start over. It didn’t happen often but it was a real nuance when it did.

Now that iTunes and Google are making TV shows available I have a reliable source to download from. And for $2 it’s a bargain. Not only do I get the show that I want to watch, without commercials, but I also get something that I can watch repeatedly if I want. But you know what is best about all this? I get to support the creator of the show. I’m voting with my money and telling them that I love their show. I hope that enough people are downloading to provide a revenue stream that will allow them to keep the show running indefinitely.

Battlestar Galactica is coming to an end and Season 4 poster reflects it. Katie Sackhoff says that there is nothing to read into it, but where’s the fun in that? So lets geek on!

view larger image

Things I’ve noticed. First for the obvious:

• Tyrol is holding a knife that he’s staring at. Maybe he’s having a hard time coming to grips with his newfound Cylon-side? Ya think?
• D’Anna, Number 3, is pointing at Six. That could mean lots of things.
• Starbuck is back in Anders’ loving arms. Well Anders is a Cylon and who the hell knowns what Starbuck is. Well, I have my theories - below.

Maybe not so obvious:

• It looks like Baltar’s book My Triumphs, My Mistakes is sitting in front of Lee Adama.
• There are two glasses of water on the table. But a chalice between Lee and Tigh.
• There is something on the floor behind Starbuck.
• Adama and Roslin don’t look like they were actually in this shot. They look like they were CGed and added in later. And they are the only two who have a slight glow around them. It’s more noticeable with Adama than Roslin.
• There are 4 books on the table.
• What is the design on the table cloth? Red and white stripes along the top and bottom with a blue background in the middle with two yellow circles. Could the circles be the icon from the Temple of Jupiter? I don’t see any details in the circles but it’s hard to tell.
• Everyone except Adama, Roslin , Lee and Six are focused on something. Those four are the only ones in their own world.
• Helo and Tyrol are the only ones who don’t have both feet on the ground. Sometimes that has been used to foreshadow death. Boomer’s right foot is obscured by the table leg.

Who’s missing?

Da Vinci’s Last Supper had 12 apostles and Christ. This photo only has 12 characters. Is Christ missing? My theory on the matter is that Romo Lampkin is the Christ figure. He’s the 5th and original hybrid Cylon.

The opening credits always end with “…and they have a plan”, referring to the Cylons. My wife and I joke “No they don’t. They’re making this up as they go along.” Clearly we have seen the Cylons change their opinion on matters. They admitted that the attack was a mistake, etc.

So maybe the plan doesn’t refer to the Cylons that we know but the five remaining Cylons. They are the ones with the plan. The humans and known Cylons have been following a plan, influenced by the four - Tyrol, Tigh, Anders and Tory - and of course the mastermind Lampkin.

Where does that leave Starbuck? Perhaps she is the goddess Aurora. I can’t wait to see where that goes.