No limit in content is the safest bet online

For the last few weeks, my mornings in the office have started out pretty much the same: with the reporter who sits next to me telling me about the great stuff he watched on his iPhone last night.

Talking to me in the morning is always an iffy thing, but what did seep through is that his TVU app has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of shows you can watch. Derek uses it to watch shows from his home country.

Because it uses peer-to-peer based technology to stream video, there are no issues with latency either, meaning you won't have to wonder why the video keeps stopping and starting. This all sounds too good to be true, which usually means it is.

If there is any trend in online content, it is that companies that provide online content are increasingly putting up walls to prevent people in other countries from watching it.

I've noticed this recently with radio. I've been listened to KROQ and Indy 103.1 out of Los Angeles for the past couple of years. It's easy. KROQ is — was —even available through iTunes. But when I went to the station's website last week, I found a notice that CBS, the owners of KROQ, were ceasing to make their content available to people outside the US.

There are two likely reasons for this.

The first is that streaming copyrighted material over the internet usually violates exclusive distribution deals. Hollywood is having a hell of a time selling its television shows internationally when international viewers are flocking to US-based websites like Hulu.com, where you can watch a show online 24 hours after it was broadcast in the US.

The second is that limiting who views content helps advertising gurus better determine where ads should go online and how much they should cost.

Auto dealerships in Los Angeles, for example, are probably a wee bit miffed that they have to pay top dollar to advertise online when the viewership numbers, which are used to determine ad rates, are inflated by people like me who live on the other side of the planet and won't be buying a car in LA anytime soon.

So I'm only waiting for the other shoe to drop on TVU. The question is who will be the first to act.

Will it be the TRA, who bans the site because it interferes with the ability of companies like etisalat and du to make a profit? Don't think that will happen? I have one word for you: Skype.

But it could just as likely be banned in the US too (TVU is based in Silicon Valley) by the content providers who want to put the leash back on their content so they can actually make some money from it.

There is only one small problem with this. The way companies prevent people from accessing their content is by looking at the listener/viewer's IP-address, which lets the web site know which country you're from. But anyone who can use Google can figure out how to get US-based IP addresses for free in about 15 minutes. It's often free, it's certainly easy, and the number of companies providing this service is growing faster than I can count.

Now, if I was a corporate suit, I'd be talking about disruptive technology and the effect that unauthorised listeners and viewers are having on the bottom line. To the rest of us, it's called being in denial.

If the internet has been successful in any way, it is its ability to cut out the middleman despite the middle-man's attempt to continue to squeeze out a living.

If online content providers want to find a way to be profitable online, then they will need to find a way to market and sell to a global audience.

TVU has, so far, succeeded at this. Let's hope they can continue to do it.