Concept in Definition ABC

Television is no longer what it used to be, revolutionized by new technologies, but the future that awaits you promises to be even more different, more "à la carte", since viewers will choose at all times what is what They want to see.

It is, in fact, a possibility that already exists, but is still little used for what it promises to be in a future, and used above all by the youngest, since older viewers prefer the methodtraditional from watching television, changing channel and seeing what is programmed at all times.

Video on demand (video on demand in English, VoD for its acronym) consists of the possibility of choosing at any time what you want to see from the given content.

For example, the series (we live in a golden age for these) are mostly followed through VoD instead of passively waiting for the chain of turn schedule the episodes in a time slot that suits us because, who else, who less, had missed an episode that was broadcast on a day when he had a commitment social or professional.

The greatness of video on demand is that it allows us to see what we like when we want.

The technology what has made the VoD possible has been Internet. If we think about it, any online video service, such as YouTube or Vimeo among others, is video on demand, since that we see them when we want and, in the case of having a mobile device and connection, also where we want. In this way, leisure accompanies us and adapts to our schedules.

One of the main engines of VoD in film and "professional" content has been Netflix.

This video on demand service, currently available in most countries of the world with few exceptions (such as hermetic North Korea) began as a rental service of movies in DVD at home, sent through the postal mail.

With the emergence of broadband and the improvement of Internet technologies (both software and hardware), Netflix made the jump to an online service, thanks to which you can watch movies through a app on any device.

The handicap of the VoD is that at every moment we have to choose what to see.

That is, unlike traditional television, in which we only have to choose what is being broadcast at all times, in video on demand, the viewer takes an active role, having to choose what he wants watch.

There are moments, of fatigue, in which even this operation of choosing content becomes tedious. For such moments, it is advisable to have previously chosen a series of content that we may like.

The VoD has even reached pirated content, that is, movies and series that can be obtained for free on the Internet.

A good example is Popcorn Time, an application available for various software platforms that allows you to choose which movie or series we want to see at all times, without having to pay anything and using the content that the users themselves post on the net.

In this case, it must be taken into account that the published content violates, in most cases, property rights intellectual.

Photos: Fotolia - Piotr Marcinski / Lensw0rld

Topics in VoD