The internet. It's revolutionised the way we work, the way we recreate, even the way we meet people. So why is it that no matter how fast my internet connection is, I can
never stream anything properly on 4oD? Every major channel now has to compete with BBC's iPlayer in order to keep up with the market, yet they fail to produce a service even close to it. Don't get me wrong, 4oD is a very useful tool for keeping up with The IT Crowd, but I have to load it up, wait for the introductory adverts to finish, and then pause it for about ten minute in order to be able to watch it without it breaking up on me every thirty seconds. I used to blame my internet connection, but it's the middle of the day and I'm the only one in the house using a 4MB download speed. It's clearly not my internet connection. Many people will just argue that 'the servers are busy', but the sort of people that watch 4oD regularly (not meaning to generalise) are the sort of people who stay up until three in the morning and don't wake up until noon. It's eleven o' clock in the morning, I'm probably one of only a handful of people streaming from their website at the moment.
But the worst thing of all? The adverts. I don't mind adverts on telly, they've been around so long they're practically a given. But adverts when you're streaming on the internet is completely redundant, I can't remember the last time I watched an advert on an online video and thought "Hmm, I could really do with buying an American football game for my Xbox, as I'm not only interested in the sport, but also wish I could cheat myself into thinking I'm a professional by sitting on my arse eating fried chicken and pushing my greasy fingers against a controller for nine hours". 4oD not only has adverts, but its service is so poor it actually lags on the adverts (which are impossible to pause), making a twenty second ad last forty seconds.
I've never seen a service equal to iPlayer, and I doubt I ever will if I'm honest, but if episode two of the fourth series of The IT Crowd isn't properly viewable by the time I've posted this entry, I can't be held responsible for my actions. More to the point, if the reason the service is so bad is somehow related to Big Brother, I might just have to poison myself.
