The future of media?

According to the Gruniad today our great nation heads the league of people downloading TV programs. The interesting line near the end:

"The interesting thing is whether the likes of BitTorrent will fast-forward the forces making television a database rather than serial experience."

I can only hope although I suspect the same DRM control frenzy currently sowing confusion in the music field will engulf the media companies.

What I envision is a leveling of the media field where producers sell direct to consumers over the 'net with a buying a program over the 'net being equivalent to buying a DVD, only cheaper as a whole bunch of middlemen being removed from the equation. The exciting part of this would be the barrier to entry would be lowered. Imagine a world where some young students create a few cheap as chips episodes of a new Sci-Fi series, distributing the pilot free and selling the next few episodes on pay-per-download. The feedback would be instant, and if they sell enough they can increase their budget with their fan base. No longer would we have to wait for the Paramount or Sci-Fi channel to pick up the next decent series. However there are people that would loose out on this model, and they are the ones that hold the money so I suspect for the time-being its just a little fantasy I can have ;-)