Rejected by ST Forum
TVmobile
As a technologist, I am always thrilled to see the deployment of new and cool technologies. However, what seemed to be a good idea, has drawn nothing but flak and anger from a lot of the commuters, myself included.
This reaction has been brushed aside by the TV channel operator saying that like any new technology, it would eventually be accepted.
From http://corporate.mediacorpsingapore.com/tvmobile/q&a.htm, it says that:
"A survey was conducted prior to the introduction of the service (from 28 July to 12 Aug 1999), by an established consumer research company from which 89% of commuters interviewed welcomed this additional service for their bus rides."
The statistics shows what TVmobile wanted to hear and I would challenge them to redo it and I am sure the approval rates will be much lower. Questioning people about a new service without really experiencing or being made aware of all the issues is not going to give you realiable answers.
It has also been reported that the bus operator, SBS, is not gaining any revenue from this, despite 1,500 of their buses being outfitted with these devices. I am not aware of SBS being in the charity business? If anything, the TV operator must pay the bus operator for using the "medium".
As a society, we are all party to a social contract whose terms and conditions vary depending on what we are talking about. In the case of a public service such as a public bus service (whether provided by a privatized or for-profit operator), there is a social contract in which the operator strives to provide a safe, clean, efficient, reasonably priced and value for money service.
If the bus operator can mount a TV and blast the audio within the bus, as a commuter, I therefore reserve the right to carry a boom-box into the bus and blast away that as well. The fact that I don't and no one else does is because we are all party to the same social contract. The consternation faced by commuters on the introduction of this service is because of the breach of this social contract on the part of the bus operator and not because we are luddites.
I, for one, am not advocating that TVmobile go the way of the Teleview system of the 1990s. However, if both the bus and tv operators do not honour the social contract, I can only wish for the swift end to a social nuisance.
Harish Pillay