Okay Geek Farm
TV vs. Streaming Online Content
Ricardo Trejo
Do you watch tv regularly? How about cable? I tend to think that cable falls upon blind eyes nowadays since I don't really know anyone who takes cable tv seriously anymore. The only good stuff is on the primetime networks, and they post most of their best content online. (LOST and The Office do it for me.) And when shows are delayed a few days for their online counterparts, a lot of people (not me...) can torrent HD recorded episodes from other users online. When you think about it, it's really quite simple why people are turned off by having to "tune in" to watch what they want.
The big issue for me, personally, when it comes to tv is the one time airing, time slot thing. Two years ago I couldn't watch the finale of LOST because I had to work. Streaming content to me is all about convenience; it goes around my schedule and the best part of it all is that it's free. Hulu makes it's a good time to be a consumer. But what about the "suits"? What do they think about it? To be blunt, this convenience is killing the business models first introduced by the higher ups, and they're not happy to see profits fall. The norms that were once common are disappearing as more people turn to the internet for instant content and little to no ads.
On one side of the coin we've got TV vets and exec's who have grown accustom to doing things a certain way, with little to no change having been made in about half a century. And on the other side we have a generation which has grown up on instant gratification; high speed connections, digital downloads, and the ability to search any topic for immediate results; older teens and twenty-somethings have come to know and nurture this new lifestyle. There wasn't this sort of demand 15 years ago, and the general public had no voice. But now that's all changed, and it seems as if everyone and their dog has a Facebook and a Twitter account, ready to point out and give their opinion on every kind of subject available.
To handle this very real problem the cable companies and studios have to team up to come with a digital solution. To fight against the internet and computers is to commit business suicide. I sincerely believe that in 5 to 10 years computers and tv's will be integrated into each other perfectly. I can see cable programming turning into an online paid service where you can stream any show you'd like, at any time you please. Think of it as a Hulu paid service, but with less ad's and more content from every network around, including international channels - all depending on the type of service tier you'd like to have.
However, if executives in the television and cable programming industry believe that the internet is the bad guy then they're just turning into the modern day fulfillments of people who once thought the computer wouldn't replace the typewriter, or that the car wouldn't replace the horse and carriage.
Take for example the case of Anne Sweeney, the President of Disney-ABC Television, and her remarks after her college bound daughter said that she didn't need a TV since she could just use Hulu.
“You’re going to have a television if I have to nail it to your wall.” -Anne Sweeney
Close minded much, Ms. Sweeney?
