David McManus on the search for the One True Thing

It is an established fact that fewer of us are watching live broadcast television these days.

Since the introduction of catch-up like the BBC iPlayer and other on-demand services, even the super convenience of recording programmes or entire series with a couple of stabs at the remote seems too much effort.

Where only a generation ago an evening’s TV viewing would be the choice of three stations or possibly a rented video on special occasions, we now have an almost unlimited choice of specialist channels, films and sports events on our walls or in our pockets.

When we were making a list of things my daughter would be needing for her recent move to university, my suggestion of a television was met with the sort of puzzled frown I could have expected if I had recommended boxing gloves. As it turns out, not one of the eight students sharing her campus floor thought to bring a TV. Instead they take it in turns to mirror content from their phones or laptops on to the large monitor in the communal area during the odd moment between freshers’ week parties.

On the face of it all this choice and availability would seem a good thing, but the practical reality doesn’t always work that way.

Services like Amazon or Netflix that were created to serve us content created by others are now producing it themselves. Let’s imagine that I want to watch the Netflix exclusive US show House of Cards because I have a fascination for political drama and I’m a big fan of Kevin Spacey.

The first thing I will need is a Netflix account even if I have no interest in anything else it has to offer.

Then Amazon Prime’s science fiction series Extant catches my eye and I now also need an annual Prime account.

Assuming I am willing to pay for both, I can now watch them on my computer or phone but unless I have a Smart TV with apps I cannot sit down with family and friends to share them on the television. For that I will need to invest in a specialised media-streaming box but each of those only do certain things.

An Apple TV plays content from iTunes but has no native support for Amazon Prime video. For that I need an Amazon Fire TV Stick but that doesn’t let me play my iTunes content.

And so on and so on.

Content providers and hardware manufacturers are vying with each other to become the One True Thing that you need, but it just doesn’t work that way. What we as consumers actually need is some way to buy anything and everything à la carte. I might not want to miss out on Kevin Spacey’s television work but to see it I also have to sign up for 800 cartoon channels and vast piles of rubbish I will never watch.

During my recent Netflix trial I spent more time trying to sort the wheat from the chaff than I did actually watching the, erm, wheat.

A Spotify for TV and film would be amazing – one flat rate for just about anything – but there will be many battery changes on the remote before it becomes a reality.