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When will TV have its version of the RSS feed?

My media consumption is transitioning more and more to RSS feeds. From the latest online & web marketing industry news, to sports updates, to friends & family blog postings, RSS is an everyday part of my life where I pick and choose what I want to read/consume and when.

TV needs its own version of the RSS feed

It then dawned on me: TV needs to be like this. Essentially, it's what all of our DVRs are striving to be. In our house, we have DIRECTV HD which means we are locked in to the underwhelming DIRECTV HD DVR. DIRECTV is taking a step in the right direction with the ability to schedule your DVR online. The problem is that it differs from Tivo's implementation of online scheduling (we have Tivo in another room in the house).

Proprietary DVR scheduling "protocol" limits potential

If I visit ABC.com (or any television station's website), there's no standard way for me to subscribe to a show. I have to separately go to my provider's website to use their proprietary method of scheduling the DVR to record a show. This is the beauty of RSS feeds -- they are the same no matter which client you read the feeds from.

I really hope the future of DVR scheduling moves towards a standard which allows all networks to use a common syndication interface which can communicate with a network-connected DVR or computer. At the end of the day, there'd be a standard way to subscribe to an episode, series, and set it to record new episodes and/or repeats.

Advertising opportunities

If there were a standard DVR scheduling protocol, just think of how this could be leveraged through online advertising. A few ideas:

1. A call-to-action could be included within a link or a banner ad to "schedule this show to record" by simply clicking on it and adding the "feed" to your TV scheduler. You could then directly measure campaign effectiveness to new "subscribers."
2. Similar to FeedBurner, a measurement service could be provided so networks could understand total subscribers.
3. Standardizing on a protocol would also allow online video sharing sites (Hulu, YouTube, etc.) to provide feeds to a DVR when a new episode/show/clip is available from your favorite show/contributor. I'd love to see YouTube feeds in my DVR list -- when I'm sitting at the couch is when I have free time to check out online videos in longer sessions.
4. Viral marketing would be much easier -- forward an email to a friend: "Hey, record this one episode, it's hilarious." Recipient clicks and they're done.

Hulu is a step in the right direction

I can subscribe to an RSS feed for new episodes posted for a show or channel on Hulu. The missing link is the ability to play this content through the television. It's still not quite convenient (or comfortable) to huddle around a MacBook Pro 15" or a 20" iMac -- but good enough for catching an episode you missed or while on the road.

Yes, this is vastly over-simplified

I realize there are technical considerations that need to be accounted for, however my ignorance to DVR and TV-scheduling technology allows me to demand features like this.