Death to Television
People don’t watch TV anymore. It would be nice to believe that it is because the general constituency has adopted a healthier lifestyle, but alas that’s not quite the case.
If you look at the numbers published in various publications, TV viewership is down to new lows reminiscent of the days before three TVs in each household was the norm. Some media critics would like to blame the poor quality of shows being broadcast as the sole reason why the ratings are so thin. In general, there is at least a modicum of truth to that. Where have all the fresh ideas gone? Next Fall, look for the Bionic Woman to hit the air, really.
Bad concepts aside, the problem lies somewhere else: technology. New media, new formats which were meant to be supplemental to the TV watching experience have supplanted the medium.
With the releases of TV series on DVD’s mere months after original broadcast, why would the viewer want to wait a week or sometimes even more during a show hiatus to find out what will happen to their favorite characters? Case in point, LOST took a 3 month hiatus, when the show came back on the air in February, it had lost a large chuck of their viewership. People lack the patience and lack the time to sit down week after week, glued to a TV screen wating to find out whats next, on a fix day and hour.
Then we have problem number two: Tivo. Tivo is one, if not the, most widely used DVR (Digital Video Recorder) on the market today. It is electronic devise used to record TV shows for later viewing. A new school VCR (video Cassette Recorder) if you wish. Except that Tivo has a lot more capacity that the six hour video tape you used to have to drop into the VCR. With this device, the people get to watch TV on their own terms, not those dictated by the networks. Besides, as an added bonus, people get to skip the commercials.
Forgetting to tune in to a show or pre-setting your system to record your programs used to mean that you were screwed. Not anymore it seems. The networks, in an effort to recapture their lost audience, have started broadcasting as many shows as possible online via their websites. That way, they are able to, albeit in a lesser form, ad advertising to their broadcast. The TV series for example, has all it’s episodes posted online on the NBC website. A late viewer to the series myself, I was able to catch up and watch all the episodes that I had missed. Without having to sit through the commercials.
The last problem is that people just don’t have time anymore. There is video games to play, movies to watch and books to read. There is a current trend of media over saturation. People don’t know what to do anymore. Log in a few more hours on World of Warcraft or catch the new America’s Next Top Model? To some the choice would be obvious, others might disagree.
The only thing that people seem to agree on is that plopping down on the couch once is a week is becoming a thing of the past. As television has tried to do with radio, technology has done to television. Karma is a bitch.