The final piece in the SVOD puzzle

Streaming Video On Demand is a big paradigm change from TV as we currently know it.  Instead of having a broadcaster dictate what we watch and when we watch it (alleviated a little by set top boxes such as My Sky), SVOD allows you to pick exactly what content you want.  You can pay a set monthly fee (eg Netflix, Hulu Plus) to watch all and everything or pay for just what you want to watch (Vudu).

As Kiwis we aren’t allowed access – blame the content holders.  This doesn’t have to stop you; with the advent of services to help get around the blocking (such as UnblockUS), you can enjoy all the TV from the States (see instructions here on the NZ Tech Podcast).

About a year ago I blogged about how I dumped Sky TV and replaced it with a TiVo.  It was just before this that I bought a Roku to stream the above services on my TV.  I’ve also managed to swap a few friends and family over as well.

One thing that has always been missing: sport.  If you are a big sport fan, you really can’t beat Sky TV’s offerings.

It’s with great interest I read on the Roku blog this morning that Sky Sports in the UK is launching a sport channel.  Hopefully as time progress we’ll see a local one launch for NZ, providing the final piece of the puzzle.