[opendtv] Re: TV
- From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:09:36 -0400
Cliff Benham wrote:
> Forwarded from a friend
>
> Nielsen Co., the firm that tracks television viewing in the
> U.S., reported recently the number of households without
> televisions increased from 2 million in 2007 to 5 million
> today. In other words, Americans are abandoning Ye Olde
> Boobe Toobe for mobile technology like smartphones.
When I first read this, I had a hunch that the problem was only one of
semantics. For instance, if I hadn't kept my antenna, but just watched all my
TV from the various network web sites only, would this Nielsen report have
called me a "zero TV household"? And it turns out, the answer is yes. Even
though I do watch regular TV shows all the time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/07/zero-tv-homes/2061127/
------------------------------------
... A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV
service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These
people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone
connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group
"Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a
TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million
in 2007. ...
-------------------------------------
So, it's not all by smartphones. This amounts to little more than the
cable-cutter phenomenon, although this group apparently ALSO doesn't watch OTA.
They do the usual mention of the for-pay OTT sites, an the usual ignoring of
the fact that the networks and even broadcast stations also have sites of their
own. Not to mention all the other portals out there.
Do read the article. What these reporters are all twisted up inside about is
not that people have actually stopped watching TV at all. It is that they don't
have an MVPD subscription. Strangely enough, in their mind, "traditional TV"
means an MVPD subscription. How very narrow minded of them, eh? And what short
memories, too! Even watching OTA TV is considered "non-traditional." What are
these people smoking, anyway?
Of course, there's the obligatory picture of the 1970s era CRT TV being dumped,
although for the life of me, I don't even understand what point that picture is
trying to make.
In short, the hype is mostly BS. The ONLY message that has any relevance is, TV
has to migrate more completely to Internet distribution, or it stands to lose a
growing number of viewers. Yup, even ESPN. Maybe today's OTA broadcasters need
to run mirrored servers on each of the local broadband provider nets.
Bert
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