YouTube, Gaming and Social Networking Busting TV's Chops 118
splitenz writes "A TV executive told a major Australian broadband conference that television audiences are slipping away into social media, gaming and other online subscription spaces. YouTube and online gaming is taking the traditional TV audience online and TV is struggling to fight back."
Well yeah (Score:4, Insightful)
People aren't happy with passive entertainment like they once were. They want to be engaged.
Some good TV shows can do that, but most of them do not.
No, they're not... (Score:5, Insightful)
If they actually WERE serious about competing, they would make TV easy to watch on the viewer's terms. But they fight every attempt of that happening by continuously putting blocks between the customer and the shows.
Re:No, they're not... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just Another Screen (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I am going to blame the messenger, i.e. Nielsen. Shows that trend towards tech savvy types will always struggle and die if the only emphasis is going to be on boxes that measure appointment viewing. I don’t have a box, so I don’t matter. If I don’t matter, why subject myself to appointment viewing commercials ALONG with the obvious product placement?
If modern HD TVs are are just another computer screen, what is in store for appointment viewing as we undergo generational attrition?
For me, modern television is going through the same death spiral that modern commercial music is going through. My music interests have gone entirely independent of the big music labels because of the crap they pull and produce. The more they dumb down, the less of my attention they get. Viewing numbers will distribute across the hundreds of channels of reality programming and the few die hards will congregate around the few bright spots of fictional storytelling while they last. (You should prepare for vastly smaller seasons of shows, like the British models.)
I don’t matter, so why even try to make it through these endless show hiatuses that kill anything serialized? Why endlessly pine and dread if the uncounted just don’t matter?
Screw off Nielsen. Take your appointment viewing system and burn in hell for killing too many of my loved ones. I for one am finding it too painful to play with your stacked deck.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Finally someone with brains (Score:5, Insightful)
What I like is watching the shows when I want to watch them, scheduling them into my life rather than having to schedule my life around them. What all content providers have to get their head around is that these technologies are empowering users to live a social and interactive life their way and if you don't want to keep up with that or embrace it then there is going to be problems.
Re:No, they're not... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why does anyone need cable anymore with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus?
Reason 1: Comcast and other cable ISPs give a deep discount on TV to their Internet subscribers.
Reason 2: As I understand it, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus are good for works that can be tape delayed by months to a year. Live news and live sports are not this way. Some people like to watch MSNBC's Morning Joe with their morning joe. And if you have a sports fan living with you, he won't be amused at losing access to sporting events that aren't on the broadcast networks, such as out-of-market games or motor racing.
Reason 3: Services like these tend to be U.S.-only, and I've been told they lack foreign counterparts due to country-specific exclusive licensing deals signed before there was a European Union. How much does a U.S. green card cost again?
Re:Well yeah (Score:5, Insightful)
Television content today is increasingly targeting dumb viewers.
Right. Hogan's Heros. Gilligan's Island. The A-Team. Fantasy Island.
Monday Night Football. NASCAR Racing.
The pinnacle of Western Civilization. Them's some strong rose colored glasses you got on there son.