I read this opinion piece from Damon Lindelof (Lost writer) says that TV is Dying.

I seriously agree with this point of view. NYTimes quotes Damon:

Twenty percent of American homes now contain hard drives that store movies and television shows indefinitely and allows you to fast-forward through commercials. These devices will probably proliferate at a significant rate and soon, almost everyone will have them. They’ll also get smaller and smaller, rendering the box that holds them obsolete, and the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet.

I completely agree with this point of view. The article degenerates into his stand on the writer’s strike but that isn’t what I want to talk about here.

I have to say that my PVR (we dont have TiVo in Canada) is my Godsend. And I hardly watch commercials anymore. If I am watching a live broadcast of a show I find myself instinctually reaching for the remote to conveniently bypass it.

So where do I see TV going? It won’t happen overnight but I think we already have signs of where it is. I will break down these “signs” into two categories. Technology and Availability.

Technology is the sign that I will refer to that makes the very concept of television a little foreign. We pay a monthly fee to the cable company (or satelite or whatever) to get a super heaping pile of channels. To quote Bruce Springsteen:

We switched ’round and ’round ’till half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on

And that song was from 1992. Who has only 57 channels NOW???

So we are faced with the reality that we watch the shows we want WHEN we want with Technology advancements like TiVo(PVR) and the very popular OnDemand services that feed select programs and movies like a pay-per-view service, but free. (by free, I mean part of your service fee) all of which bypass the need to watch commercials.

Availability is another avenue that is restricting the popularity of Television. Many people I know will have the internet but not even basic cable! Why? Because through the wonders of the internet, you can stream day old episodes from the network sites, buy them on iTunes, or (gasp) illegally download them. I justify (and limit) my tv downloading by picking up series that are not shown in my area (BBC has some wonderful programming we can’t get here) or stuff I just was neglectful to set the PVR to record!

My vision of the TV of the future is not like Lindelof’s abstruction that TV will be consumed by the internet, but pretty close. I see Programming Providers like Cable/Satelite offering a streaming data service with packages that limit your downloading or by category each month. I would gladly pay what I am paying now to be able to on demand order shows to watch when I want to watch them. Commerical free.

Shows will become available in the library AS we are already scheduled to watch them. Seasons will exist and release dates will still be widely active. New shows will be offered as “free view” programs to see if you are interested. These downloads will not affect your monthly package limitations. Offer more packages to include sporting events, movies, etc.

I predict that these OnDemand services will be the wave of the future. Watch anything you want. Why am I paying for 210 channels when in reality I might watch 6-10 of them on any regular basis and another 5 or so randomly depending on what is on. You pay more for more channels just so you can get that one channel in the package that you actually watch. I would gladly pay what I am paying right now for all of my shows to be available in an OnDemand format.

Gladly.

So I don’t see the TV dying out in favour of the internet, but I do see a need for the format to change. Find a better way or else it WILL be consumed by the internet and with no one paying for watching shows, no one is making shows.

Then the TV will die.

This post was Authored by Rodney Brazeau, Senior Editor for the TVShow Blog

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.