How do you watch TV? Is it even ...on TV?

I'm hooked on a news series on NETFLIX. Called House of Cards it's the story of a "Ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood." Think of it as The West Wing, minus the idealism.

Kevin Spacey, arguably one of the best in the business stars. He's also Executive Producer. Robin Wright and the rest of a terrific cast make for great entertainment. NETFLIX obviously believes in it because they've invested $100 Million in the series.

What makes the viewing experience different:

• It's on a streaming video channel which you can watch on your iPad or TV through various devices. You do have to subscribe to NETFLIX to view the series.
• All 13 episodes of the first season are available for viewing at your convenience. Watch when, where and on what you want. I used to watch Entourage the same way. Why subscribe to en entire premum channel when you just want to watch one series?

As someone who is old enough to remember being the first house on our street with a TV, and just one channel that signed on at 4pm, this sort of thing always amazes me. Technology empowers us, including how we watch TV. I watch House of Cards on an iPad mini with Bose headphones. So am I even watching TV? Long answer: No, I'm consuming video content on a mobile device. Short answer: I'm being entertained on my own terms.

There is no difference between watching a program on a 60 inch big screen or an iPad mini because it's not the size of the screen, it's how close you are to the screen.  So kicking back with my iPad a foot or so away from my eyes and the awesome sound from those Bose headphones is as good as any home theater experience.

Of course while I'm watching the show, I'm not watching traditional TV, nor the ads that still run on the bulk of TV whether it be off-air or via satellite or cable. The way we watch programming is changing with the rapid evolution of the technology we use to consume it.

It's empowering and an important step forward for us.

We as consumers are achieving a long-time goal, "A la Carte" programming. Just watching and paying for what we want to watch. Like at our house, if you subscribe to a satellite or cable television service, you buy program "bundles." You buy a package of channels, maybe watch 10 of them but are stuck paying for another hundred channels you never watch. It makes sense as consumers to pay for just what we consume, right? Up to now, those who control content distribution have prevented us from doing that.

To be fair to satellite and cable companies, they're victims to some extent of major programmers who say "If you want to carry this channel from us, you have to also carry these other channels. Take it or leave it." We as subscribers ultimately end up picking up the tab. A growing added cost for us are the so-called regional sports channels. Many cable systems have no choice but to provide them  at extra cost to us, even though we could care less about the teams or sports covered. It's about to change and here's why:

• We can get an amazing amount of digital channels, many in HD using a simple off-air antenna.
• Companies like NETFLIX are providing a huge and growing number of programs like House of Cards via the Internet.
• Technology like Apple TV is yet another video content pipeline. Ditto for YouTube, already producing several series, they've just announced a new country music channel.
• Many networks themselves are providing their shows on-demand. Watch how, when and where you like.
• We're willing to give up a little, to gain a lot AND save a lot. Heck, I'm willing to give up ESPN if they don't stop creating financial and fan-killing monstrosities like the Longhorn Network.

Consumers have a funny way of getting what they want, and these days are more than willing to shop around for what meets most their needs and save the most money. Outlets like NETFLIX get that.

When I told my wife about YouTube's plans, she said it's time to cancel our DISH Network service, or at least cut way back on it. I don't think she was kidding.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Raising the bar on Dumb in Washington DC and Austin, TX.

Good morning, two stories have me scratching my head and wondering why people who should know better, just act stupid.

1. The President's latest jobs plan and the announcement thereof. Anticipation has been building for weeks. The President wanted to announce it before a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, September 7th. Fair enough but it's the same night as the GOP presidential debate at the Reagan Library.  The White House of course, knew this all along.

Speaker John Boehner officially gets to decide who speaks in the House of Representatives, although as a rule, you don't turn down the President of the United States. But the President put Speaker Boehner in a bad spot, who in turn asked the President to address Congress, and oh yeah, "We the people" on the 8th instead. It's my House and I'll cry if I want to.

Late night night it was announced the President will now deliver his speech on the 8th. All this creates another issue, the 8th is the opening night of the NFL season. Green Bay vs New Orleans. Cheese, Gumbo and rotten politics. Pass the Tums please. The White House says the speech will end before the scheduled kick-off, my guess without enough time for a response from the GOP.

Frankly, the GOP should have agreed to Wednesday, then just backed up the debate until after the speech. What an opportunity! Run clips from the speech, then have the GOP have at it. Don't like the President's plan? Then tell us how you'd do better.  I think we'd be well served by this sort of thing.

But no, cheap political partisanship by both sides is once again put ahead of the best interests of us folks who live on Main Street, USA and who of course, pay the bills. Wasn't August wonderful? September and beyond, not so much.

Shameful.

2. Let move on to college football. Earlier this year, the University of Texas announced an exclusive broadcast partnership with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network. All orange all the time. Great expectations Texas-style. This disclaimer: I'm a proud Longhorn Dad and we've lived in Texas twice. Everything is bigger in Texas, especially football. We heart the 'Horns.

All good right? Nope, quite the opposite. The season opener has Texas hosting Rice at Austin. Broadcast rights are exclusively on the Longhorn Network. One problem. As of now, other than a few tiny cable outlets, no major satellite or cable provider has reached an agreement to carry the network. Not even in Austin.

So we have a television network that makes it impossible to watch the team it was designed to cover.

LHN and ESPN are demanding lower tier coverage on all carriers and want (according to one report) 40 cents per subscriber whether or not they actually want to watch LHN. When you have companies like DISH Network or Time-Warner, you have customer bases of tens of millions of people and, well, you do the math. Those costs have to be passed on to those customers. But who cares about them?

So here we sit on Thursday morning, game day is two days away and it's quite possible most Texas fans around the country won't be able to watch their team on TV, since TV was invented.

LHN is urging fans to put pressure on the program providers. Flood the phone lines and their social media pages demanding they carry LHN! It hasn't worked.

Come on Texas. Put your money where your swagger is and while you're at it, put your fans first. If LHN is so good, offer it up to carriers at no charge and go out and sell advertising to pay for your $300 million investment. As an aside, most start up networks actually pay carriers to be included on their channel line-ups.

So here we sit, stuck in the middle again. In Washington, the people's needs are put last. In Austin, the fans needs are put last.

It's wrong, but sadly these days, business as usual.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations