IP Video, video that is streammed on the Internet, is another form of media with which television has had an axe to grind as of late. Before this and other forms of non-linear (on-demand) programming, viewers were forced to place their behinds on the couch to watch their favorite show at the time it was aired or else they would show up to work the next day with nothing to talk about. However, through mediums such as DVR, VOD (Video on Demand), and IP Video, people have control over what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. This newly-given power to the consumer is largely in part of what is destroying the television industry.
When networks such as Fox, began to stream episodes of their shows online, this drew an influx of popularity from all viewers, particularly those of a younger demographic. People could catch up on missed seasons of Family Guy without having to purchase the DVD’s or take a trip to the nearest video rental store. However, for anyone who missed the most recent episode, they would have to wait eight days before they could view it, and since most shows occurred weekly, this upset the dynamic of viewing shows in weekly order if they couldn’t be caught at the time they were broadcasted.
Thus, the creation of absolute demand sites like youtube.com exploded, particularly for viewing clips of whole episodes. This didn’t last long, however, because there was no revenue for the networks and people were basically pirating and uploading, a marker of huge copyright infringement. Then came sites like hulu.com.
With this sort of a streamming website, viewers could watch whatever, whenever, for essentially “free,” with the exception of having to own a computer, internet, electricity, AND watch advertisements that the site incorporated into its programming, pretty much like the old viewing model of broadcast television but online. The viewer must watch and cannot skip over one to two minute ads of cars and other programming, and second-long slides of advertisers that promote that the show is being brought to the viewer with “limited commercial interruption.” However, this innovative viewing model has one up on youtube for keeping a business model for advertisers while holding the interest of users who are generally younger and have the most things competing for their time.
Family Guy Picture from Google
If networks could find a way to adapt to the viewer’s preferred lifestyle either by adapting the ways of sites like hulu, at least for primetime programming and/or find a way to cut shows that function on expensive airtime that is being backed even less by advertisers, maybe these companies could find a balance in the happiness of the consumers and themselves, instead of trying to compete with non-linear programming with bigger computer screens and less pixelation.
Although TV’s will not become antiques any time soon, broadcasting may emerge in a new form if it so wishes. However, I will be watching the NCAA finals live on my large digital flat-screened television.
