Anybody who watched late night TV in the late 70’s remembers the words: “this concludes our broadcast day,” followed by a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and finally a steady dose of “snow” (which for many of us acted more like an alarm clock in the middle of the night) until the broadcast finally resumed the following morning.
Thirty years later, we’ve come a long way with TV, but something tells me we haven’t seen anything yet…
With consumers’ media consumption habits seemingly in a perpetual state of change, TV is at a crossroads. To avoid risking a fate similar to other traditional media that didn’t react fast enough, TV executives appear intent on adapting quickly to the changing habits of their viewers.
During my recent trip to England, I came across an article in last week’s UK Sunday Times, “Can You Have Too Much Television in America?,” describing U.S. broadcasters as taking nothing for granted when it comes to viewership. The article goes on to say that, with the average U.S. home tuning-in for nearly seven hours a day, broadcasters are already working on the remaining 17 hours with a range of mobile TV services that promise live broadcasts on phones, laptops and in-car screens.
Upon my return to the U.S., I thought I would check the validity of the UK Times article with some hard facts from Nielsen. According to Nielsen, American consumers are watching more than 151 hours per month – an all time high – another three hours on the Internet and four hours using hand held devices.
Beginning with the official end of analog TV on June 12th, with the conversion to digital transmission, the rest of 2009 is sure to bring some of the most revolutionary changes television has ever seen. Time Warner recently announced they’ve slated the second half of 2009 to begin a trial with several distributors for their “TV Everywhere” initiative (the ability to watch TV anywhere, on any device, at anytime). As of April 30, Disney finally agreed to join NBC and Fox as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu, a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies.
The stars seem to be aligning for what should be an interesting metamorphosis of a medium that has been around for seventy years. It will be interesting to see where television finds its future niche. Will it be in a wave of mobile video, fueled by an explosion of device subscriptions (a staggering 257 million in the US)? Or will it be the home computer or laptop used by those who prefer to watch their favorite shows on something larger than a three inch screen? Or perhaps it will be the good old-fashioned television set, the only household appliance seemingly getting bigger?
For now the numbers support the notion that when it comes to television, the more things change the more they stay the same. Who knows they might even bring back the Star Spangled Banner. What are your thoughts regarding TV’s paradigm shift? The folks at BurrellesLuce and I would love to know.
