網(wǎng)絡(luò)電視：放下遙控，拿起鼠標(biāo)！

YouTube誕生不久，“視頻共享”就和“非法下載”一樣成了娛樂業(yè)界眼中的洪水猛獸，這方面的官司層出不窮，上傳用戶和各種監(jiān)控軟件斗智斗勇……然而，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的平民化與及時(shí)性突破了大多數(shù)傳統(tǒng)媒體的限制，越來越多歌手和樂隊(duì)愿意將新作發(fā)布在網(wǎng)上給粉絲試聽，甚至邀請(qǐng)大家票選出最喜歡的歌曲作為其新專輯的主打單曲。歷經(jīng)幾年拉鋸戰(zhàn)，繼音樂界后，最近電視圈似乎也“開竅”了，終于肯敞開懷抱，接受網(wǎng)絡(luò)——

諾里斯：我們以下要討論的是在電腦上看電視的問題。確切地說來，這并不是什么新玩意了。我的同事早在2007年夏天就做過相關(guān)報(bào)道，那是挺久以前的事了——不過，自那以后情況發(fā)生了很大變化。

奧馬爾·賈拉基(記者)：是的。就像是……這有點(diǎn)像在音樂界，電視和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)之間就有這樣的角力。（過去，）每當(dāng)一個(gè)視頻出現(xiàn)在YouTube上，他們就會(huì)申請(qǐng)禁令或者設(shè)法將其從網(wǎng)上刪除。但到了最近，他們真正開始接受互聯(lián)網(wǎng)（這種媒體），將更多內(nèi)容放到網(wǎng)上，讓人們?cè)谌魏螘r(shí)段都能隨心所欲地觀看。

諾里斯：實(shí)際上，他們似乎在大力鼓勵(lì)人們?cè)诰€收看節(jié)目。我是說，我記得總統(tǒng)選舉時(shí)，蒂娜·菲模仿莎拉·佩林的視頻片段（在網(wǎng)上）隨處可見。

賈拉基：沒錯(cuò)。要是在以前，你不得不費(fèi)力搜尋才能找到《周末夜現(xiàn)場(chǎng)》的視頻。而現(xiàn)在，通常節(jié)目播出幾個(gè)小時(shí)或者第二天早上，你就可以在YouTube、Hulu.com或其他許多地方找到這些視頻。甚至在Joost這類網(wǎng)站，你還能看到許多不同來源的節(jié)目和檔案材料。在Joost上，你可以找到喜劇中心頻道的《柯爾伯特報(bào)道》或娛樂時(shí)間電視網(wǎng)的《拉字至上》。而且網(wǎng)站上不僅有新劇，還有一個(gè)專門的在線頻道播放懷舊老劇。

諾里斯：那么，我這里有些小問題——這些視頻都是免費(fèi)的嗎？它們都合法嗎？

賈拉基：只有在這些官方設(shè)立的網(wǎng)站觀看才是。比如說在Hulu上，如果你要觀看一個(gè)長(zhǎng)45分鐘的電視節(jié)目，那么每隔15分鐘就會(huì)播一段廣告，就像你看電視時(shí)那樣。你不能跳過它們，只能坐著看下去，或者也可以在廣告時(shí)間瀏覽其他窗口。但在iTunes這類軟件服務(wù)中，由于你要付費(fèi)才能觀看節(jié)目，所以就不會(huì)有廣告。實(shí)際上，你是花錢享受不必忍受廣告的特權(quán)。

諾里斯：那么，如果你是個(gè)整天抱著電視不放的人，你喜歡看電視，更喜歡通過電視機(jī)來收看電視節(jié)目，電腦技術(shù)能否與你現(xiàn)在看的這些電視機(jī)匹配呢？你知道，現(xiàn)在這些超大屏幕電視機(jī)都擁有等離子、發(fā)光二極管和各種各樣的特性。

賈拉基：噢，不行。你看到的分辨率有所不同，而且目前還存在（不同媒體之間）應(yīng)該如何結(jié)合這個(gè)問題：我們?cè)鯓硬拍茉陔娨暀C(jī)上看到網(wǎng)上這些內(nèi)容？但在線觀看的關(guān)鍵在于，有很多內(nèi)容你確實(shí)無法在電視上看到。你不會(huì)在有線或衛(wèi)星電視提供商的頻道單上看見這些節(jié)目。比如《辦公室》和《太空堡壘卡拉狄加》的粉絲能在網(wǎng)上收看特別的“網(wǎng)絡(luò)劇”——正如這個(gè)名字所說，你在電視上看不到這些節(jié)目，它們是特意為在線觀看而拍的。而且網(wǎng)絡(luò)也為許多創(chuàng)業(yè)家敞開了大門，他們不在好萊塢工作，卻可以利用類似的形式直接面向大眾。

諾里斯：你知道，這也挺諷刺的?，F(xiàn)在的電視機(jī)比以往任何時(shí)候的都要大得多，也好得多，而我們卻在談?wù)撚秒娔X來看電視節(jié)目。

賈拉基：沒錯(cuò)，但我認(rèn)為隨著科技發(fā)展，終有一天你能在電視機(jī)里看到所有這些節(jié)目。我認(rèn)為那正是電視的未來之路——它們都將實(shí)現(xiàn)聯(lián)網(wǎng)，并能實(shí)時(shí)播放網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)容。

Norris: So we’re talking about TV on the computer. This is not exactly a new idea. My colleague reported

on it in the summer of 2007 – quite a while ago – but a lot has changed since then.

Omar Gallaga (Reporter): Right. It seems like…kind of like with the music industry， there’s been this push-and-pull between TV networks and the web. Whenever certain videos would pop up on YouTube， they’d file an 1)injunction or try to get it off the web. More recently， they’ve really come to 2)embrace the Internet and gotten a lot more content online， where people can view shows whenever they want to.

Norris: It， it seems that they’re actually pushing people online. I mean， I remember in the presidential race it seemed that the clips of Tina Fey注1 doing her Sarah Palin 3)impersonation were everywhere.

Gallaga: Right. You used to have to really hunt to find clips from SNL注2. Now you can usually find them within hours of the broadcast or the next morning on YouTube， on Hulu.com， a lot of other places. Even on other sites like Joost you see a lot of shows and a lot of 4)archival stuff from all different places. On Joost you could find Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report or Showtime’s The L Word. And it’s not just new shows. There’s an entire online channel devoted just to Retro TV注3.

Norris: So， a few quick questions: this is all free and is it all legal?

Gallaga: It is on these official sites. For instance on Hulu， if you’re watching a 45-minute TV show， you’re gonna get 5)commercials every 15 minutes like you would on TV. You can’t skip them， you have to kind of sit and watch them or you could maybe browse in another window while it’s playing. But then， on

services like iTunes， where you’re actually paying for the content， the commercials are gone. You’re

actually paying for the 6)privilege of not having to 7)sit through those commercials.

Norris: Now， if you’re someone who watches a lot of television， enjoys watching television， prefers to watch television ON television， does the technology on the computer match what you can now see on these， you know， these super-large TVs that have 8)plasma， 9)LED and all kinds of special features?

Gallaga: Well， no， you’re not gonna get the same

10)resolution and there’s this whole 11)convergence

issue right now: how are we gonna watch all this stuff on our TVs? But the thing about online is there’s a lot of content that you just can’t see on TV. You’re not gonna see it on your cable or satellite providers’ list of channels. Fans of The Office and Battlestar Galactica have been able to watch special “webisodes，” as they’re called， on the web. You can’t see them on TV. They were produced specifically to be watched online. The web also opened the door for lots of 12)entrepreneurs， who were working outside of Hollywood， kind of using that same example of delivering straight to the people.

Norris: You know， there’s a bit of 13)irony here.

Televisions are bigger and better than they’ve ever been， and now we’re talking about going and watching this on computers instead.

Gallaga: Right， but I think that the 14)evolution is gonna be that all of this content is gonna end up on your TV. I think that’s the future of television. They’re all gonna be Internet enabled， they’re all gonna be able to 15)stream web content.