Disadvantages of convergence and digitisation - Web207 Brendan Crake
Channel: bigbadbrendo
Date: 2013-06-07

Dialogue:

Watching television on BBC eye Player, ABC eye View, and Hulu.com are all geo-locked. This means that only certain people can use these websites, BBC eye Player is only available in the UK, ABC eye View is only available in Australia, and Hulu.com is only available to people in the United States and Japan. This geo-locking, in combination with traditional media broadcasts, means that residents in some countries are not able to watch the latest shows or episodes. This is referred to as the tyranny of digital distance. Some con tent providers are starting to recognise this, and moving the release dates closer, for example Fox tell and eye Tunes have made the Game of Thrones Season 3 available in Australia within 24 hours of their release date in the United States. 

Tyranny of digital distance is a big problem for those who don't like spoilers. Our ability to make friends around the world is not limited to geographical regions, and with potentially wide spread networks of friends engaging online, it is harder to avoid spoilers.