The Death of the Television

You know, I was stuck as to what to write about for my first post here on this blog. Nothing seemed quite good enough. And then, while watching an episode of "Game of Thrones" through iTunes, I realised exactly what to write about. It was like an epiphany. The death of the television.

When the television was initially released, people claimed that it was going to be the death of radio and books. Of course, it wasn’t. But, in saying that, I believe that television is going to die. At least in its current form.

The Internet, being what it is today, has become a powerhouse in video sharing. It started with Youtube, but has grown into something a lot larger with websites like Netflix and Hulu and programs like iTunes. Each of those actually provide a service for people to watch television shows on demand for a certain price.

The problem with this, for television at least, is that these sites and programs are actually providing a better service than television is. Of course, this is mostly speculation on my part as Hulu and Netflix are currently unavailable in Australia at the moment. However, iTunes is releases television shows for download very quickly after they happen on television itself. And, what’s better, you actually get to keep it and watch it over and over and over.

Not only that, but people could also say that the Internet is hurting television in other ways. Take a television show like “Glee” as an example. In Australia, “Glee” airs on Channel 10. The problem is that Season 4 of the show is already up to Episode 4 in the US when it hasn’t even started here. The people that want to watch “Glee” (i.e. the people who will give Channel 10 ratings) will want to watch it sooner rather than later because of nasty SPOILERS that they don't want to be subjected to, so they find other ways. This happened to me with Season 8 of “House MD”. Channel 10 didn’t even get halfway through the season and stopped showing it (as they do every year), but when 2012 began, American television aired the remaining 13 or so episodes while they hadn’t even started airing here. I found alternate ways to watch the show because it was the final season and I didn’t want spoilers. It wasn’t until not long ago that I noticed that they were airing the final episodes. And what did they do? Put two episodes on every night for over a week! Ridiculous!

My point there, if you didn’t grasp it because of my massive tangent (who could blame you), is that television needs to provide a better service than the Internet. And, right now, it’s doing a rather poor job of that with shows from overseas (or as I like to call them, the good shows). And, because of this, television ratings are going down. If people are using the internet at this point to watch television in a more efficient way, what’s stopping it from getting better in the future? Nothing.

Going back to my point from the beginning about radio and books, the reason radio and books didn’t die is because the television was a completely different medium. This, however, is more like the transition from VHS to DVD. The same type of content, just delivered a different way. And what happened to VHS? It died. Sure, it took a few years, but it happened. 

If the internet continues to provide good service to people, there will be nothing stopping it from becoming the next medium for “television shows”. I think it’s only a matter of time. A lot of television shows use iTunes, Hulu and Netflix to broadcast their shows less than 24 hours after they’re one right now. Soon people will realise that it’s probably cheaper to use the internet then to use a television station. And when that day comes, I want you all to know that I called it. 

~Benjamin~