The biggest news of the weekend, the X-Factor final 12 have been announced, yippee. I don’t really care. For me, the more interesting and more worrying story to be released this weekend was the news that the next England game will be broadcast only on a Pay Per View internet channel.

Why is this interesting? Well, there are two reasons for this, I’m a sports fan and I would have watched the England game on Saturday with some friends and a bowl or two of crisps and dips.

I am also fascinated by where the digital revolution will take us next.

Over the Christmas period James Cameron will release Avatar, a 3D movie which some are already predicting will change the way we view cinema in the future and with the internet and digital technology expanding at an exponential rate maybe PPV TV on the internet is where TV will start to go too.

That said, no matter how much of an interesting concept PPV internet TV is, I don’t want to see it become a permanent fixture.

Apparently the stream will be of high quality in a separate pop up window, and if purchased before Wednesday 7th October will only cost £4.99

The problem is this, from a sports perspective; I can watch a live game of football for a grand 1p more.  Also, with the game not being cleared for broadcast in pubs around the country, I can either go to a cinema chain which is screening the game or huddle around my computer screen to try and catch a glimpse of the action, knowing full well that watching football on PPV TV has failed a number of times before.

How does this relate with the bigger issue of the next stage of the digital revolution? PPV has been around since the birth of Cable TV in the states, and many of us pay monthly for our digital and Sky TV.

The internet is designed for personal viewing, TV for communal viewing. Granted both mediums can interlink and be used for the other purpose but PPV internet isn’t the right one.

The online journalism industry is edging towards becoming PPV as a means of providing the individual content stream which the user can access at all times, meaning you never have to see anything you aren’t interested in.

But is streaming the TV on high quality internet the way forward? I don’t think so.

Think of it this way, it starts with a football match, then TV shows start releasing episodes early on a PPV basis, before you know it there’s a choice. Pay your TV licence and Sky package like everyone else and wait or, pay for what you want to see when you want to see.

Although this sounds cool. The concern I hold is simple, how much could internet PPV really cost?

What if they chose to screen the X- Factor live shows on an internet PPV basis at £10 per show?

That’s £120 at least, with the TV license for the year costing £142.50 all the companies would need to do is produce two extra shows and the year long TV license cost has been covered in a mere twelve programmes of internet television. 

At a time of recession, could this be the next stage in bad ideas for the normal person.