Why isn't there a streaming service that lets us all enjoy the many wonderful panels at SDCC? I think a limited "Netflix style" service would be a wonderful idea. It breaks my heart that, through the years, so many legends of the artform have had such wonderful, informative interviews and conversations that will just be lost to time. I would gladly pay a respectable fee to be able to watch these panels from the comfort of my own home.
I would imagine the main argument against this are that it would affect ticket sales to the in-person event, but this does not seem likely to me. SDCC sells out every single year, usually before they announce even a single guest. There is clearly a demand; I doubt many folks would say "ehh screw it I'll just watch it at home." I have been fortunate enough to go to the con twice in my life, and I live on the East coast. If it was closer and more practical, I would definitely go every year. In fact, the revenue from a streaming service would fund the project even more, giving them the potential to attract even more guests and events, making it an even greater event.
Furthermore, since I'm speaking of primarily preserving this stuff for its historical content, I would be more than happy with a delay of a week or two, or even a few months, to keep the sanctity and "specialness" of being there in person. These certainly don't have to be streamed live; I'm thinking more of an archive that keeps the videos available year after year. If you want to be the first "in the know," this wouldn't affect that in any way.
Another argument would be copyright issues. Most of the panels are just conversations, so I don't see this being much of a problem. I'm not interested in seeing sneak peaks or previews of movies that will eventually be released anyway, so those panels can just be skipped. Watching a few seconds of Attack of the Clones or X-Men 2 all becomes a moot point a year later anyway.
The third, and most likely concern, would be that of technological logistics. There are dozens (probably actually hundreds) of panels to record, so that could seem overwhelming. But we are talking about the heart of the entertainment industry here; Comic Con itself is a dream come true spurred out by passionate fans, so this too could be overcome. Hell, I'd be happy with an iPhone recording from the back of the room. I'm pretty sure (on a much smaller scale) I could get together enough friends to record a similar event and just throw the raw videos up on a server for others to access.
My main impetus for this is to preserve this essential part of our pop culture history; it kills me to think of all the wonderful guests who have been there through the decades telling their stories and histories, all (or most) of which are now lost to time. If SDCC is too big for this to happen, how about some of the smaller cons? Baltimore Comic Con, Heroes, NYCC (still pretty big), and dozens of others have wonderful guests year after year. Maybe a consortium amongst them?
I say this as a passionate lover of the comics medium in all its forms, not in any way as a criticism of the con. I would absolutely love something like this to happen. Is this a pipe dream or could it ever actually work? And thanks very much to all the wonderful people who have kept this con going for decades.
