LO2: Distribution in The Online Age

 LO2: Distribution in The Online Age

• Download - Having a copy of the product: seen in Netflix by way of downloading episodes or films to watch when not connected to the internet - to watch whenever wherever for convenience (offline). Takes time and takes up storage.

• Stream - To use a media product (e.g. watch a TV series) whilst connected to the internet without having to take up device storage but uses data when not connected to the internet. Is highly convenient when streaming at home due to wide categories on sites like Netflix or streaming music on something like YouTube music to listen to anything at the cost of data if not connected. More beneficial than downloading when at home connected to the internet. Accessible. However, streams can cause the content to buffer or glitch.

• Simulcast - When a media product can play on two different media at the same time such as on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge which plays music live on the radio and is able to be physically watched online as well as listened to. Simultaneous broadcasting: broadcasting in two places at the same time. Mark Kermode puts his reviews on radio and uses a camera to allow a screen to watch it live. Demonstrates technological convergence to reach a wider audience and gain more profit due to giving audiences more choice for how they view a product.

• VOD - Video on Demand: accessing video content 24/7. Examples of these would be Sky Go, BBC I Player, ITV Xtra, Disney +, Vidyard and Netflix. 

• Time Shifting - when downloading or recording something which has played at one time and watching it at a different time than when it was aired. Services which use satellite TV to time-shift via fast-forwarding and rewinding content such as Sky.

• Debate ('Fragmented Audiences' - Livingstone 2002) - The theory that audiences have become less social due to the ease of access to media discouraging people from watching together e.g. a family coming together to watch the tv in the living room to watch a TV at a certain time, now due to Web 2.0 people can access content on blackbox devices, the impact is that audiences no longer will conjoin together in the living room together to watch one singular show. Death of the Schedule due to people rarely watching cable network together whenever series are being broadcasted live.