[opendtv] Re: The Great Streaming Space-Time Warp Is Coming
- From: "Craig Birkmaier" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "brewmastercraig" for DMARC)
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2019 08:26:39 -0400
On Nov 1, 2019, at 4:23 PM, Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/arts/television/apple-tv-plus-disney-plus.html
The shift from network schedules to TV-when-you-want-it may change not just
viewing habits but the whole culture of the medium.
Has the culture of the medium shifted, or did the medium change the culture?
The following paragraph says volumes about what is happening with TV
entertainment - but it applies primarily to pre-produced movies and episodic
shows. Not so much to sports and news.
So many of the ways that we’re used to experiencing TV are artifacts of
technology and business. September became TV’s New Year because that was when
the new car models came out. TV episodes developed their multi-act structure
to make room for commercials. Weekly schedules were set because you had to
broadcast shows to everyone at once (a practice we may someday look back upon
as a medieval ritual, like baking your bread in the village communal oven).
I know Bert feels conflicted- his love affairs with broadcast television and
free streaming services are at odds with the inevitability that the era of
“FreeTV” is over. High value entertainment has moved behind the pay walls,
available to anyone anywhere, anytime.
But the article misunderstands TV reality:
This kind of experience is nothing new in other art forms, of course; it’s
how we’re used to talking about books. But TV’s simultaneous audience of tens
of millions, all seeing the same thing at the same time, was what made it a
mass, communal phenomenon.
TV will continue to prosper with content that can attract large simultaneous
audiences. Live sports is an obvious example, but News and opinion are doing
just fine, attracting large marketable audience. The “broadcast” evening news
still attracts about 25 million viewers. The cable news channels attract
millions as well.
The “next big thing,” IMHO, will be the shift to on-demand access to a rolling
week of multi-channel content. ATT Now has promised such a service; essentially
the past weeks content on every “Live” channel will be accessible on demand. No
DVR required.
There is only one metric that really matters: How big is the TV entertainment
pie?
That is, how much are we willing to pay for TV, either directly to avoid
commercials, or indirectly by watching ad support TV services of ALL kinds?
Looks like we are entering the REAL GOLDEN AGE of TV...
Regards
Craig
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