Great Game, Lousy Streaming

Like millions of Americans, I watched the Super Bowl last night.  Unlike most Americans, I did not watch the game through broadcast or pay TV.  I streamed the game to my TV from my computer, because I cut the cord several years ago.

This is the third consecutive year that I've streamed the game.  It's also the worst year, from a quality standpoint, and I put the blame firmly on NBC.  The last two games I watched had great video and audio quality.  During yesterday's game, my video froze many times... too many to count.  The video quality also deteriorated significantly during the game.  I understand why this happened... NBC reduced the quality of the video to help prevent buffer problems, which is the root cause of screen freeze.  Poor quality was less offensive than having the screen freeze during a play, and then again at roughly the same point during the replay, but it shouldn't have happened at all.  NBC obviously underestimated their bandwidth needs.  I also wish that the networks would get their respective acts together and just broadcast the damned commercials.

Look folks, streaming video is no longer the wave of the future.  It's here.  It's now.  Content creators, content carriers and advertisers (in this case, the NFL and NBC and the various companies that aired commercials during the Super Bowl) need to stop thinking of streaming as an afterthought.  Those of us who stream our entertainment may not subscribe to cable or satellite TV, but we are consumers.  We do spend our hard-earned money.  By overlooking us, you are ignoring one of the fastest-growing market segments in the country.