Is TV DEAD?
In the inevitable march of progress, technologies become obsolete and are discarded, left behind to join the typewriter, VHS cassettes, and water clocks, to say nothing of basalt handaxes. We appear to be witnessing the slow death of broadcast and cable TV, and the movie cinema experience may be trying to beat them to the finished line.
Ahhh the “good old days”
Do you remember a phenomenon known as “appointment viewing?” A show so popular, or so hotly anticipated, that you made sure your schedule was clear so you could be in front of the tv to watch it live? No one wanted to be the only one around the water cooler the next morning who had not seen the latest must-see event.
Many of us grew up with television being a major part of our lives. Some of us were parked in front of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood for much of our youth. Saturday morning cartoons kept us glued to the screen. Many of us eagerly anticipated NBC’s Thursday night sit-com lineup. Families gathered for ABC’s TGIF shows. Prime-time shows were all the rage. If you weren’t watching the latest hit series, you were a social outcast. Weeknight reruns on the local UHF channels were the closest thing to binge-watching you could get without buying whole seasons on VHS.
Things have changed. When DVRs arrived on the scene, it was easy to predict that the on-demand viewing experience was where the medium was headed. Prime-time shows still manage to get some measure of viewership today, but for years, the major networks haven’t had much real programming on during the day. Soap operas and daytime talk shows aside, if you turn on NBC, CBS et. al. during the workday, you’re more likely to see infomercials (programs that PAY for airtime) or news rather than scripted shows that require advertising buys to air. Late night shows don’t even wait for an episode’s scheduled broadcast to post streaming clips of that night’s show (i.e. The Daily Show, Seth Myers, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert…).
The Pandemic Effect
When COVID-19 hit, nobody was ready for its effects. Many (most?) out-of-the-home activities were shut down, at least the ones that involved social gathering. No movie theaters, no concerts, no parties… we all got very acquainted with life at home. You might think that most of America being stuck inside would be a boon for TV, but even television was affected. You couldn’t have shows with live studio audiences. Productions went on hiatus. Sporting events were postponed. Filming was delayed.
Flipping around wasn’t enough to sate the hunger for content. Viewers wanted to watch what they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted. With a lot of free time on people’s hands, and the internet at their fingertips, it was perfect timing for streaming entertainment to seize the moment, and did it ever. Established services like Netflix and Hulu did well, and up-and-coming services like Paramount, Peacock and Apple made a grab for their shares.
The flood of streaming services brought with it a high demand for content. The major providers bought up every old show they could get, and produced loads and loads of new, original content. Even foreign shows could be had on American streaming services, something broadcast TV and even cable couldn’t offer. Americans could now binge shows from Canada, Korea and Sweden just as easily as The Man in the High Castle or Frasier. Once you’ve had a taste of the variety and convenience streaming has to offer, going back to “what’s on TV” just doesn’t cut it.
TV doesn’t fit the needs of today’s consumer.
While cable opened up previously unheard of arrays of choice in content, the choices were still ultimately made by network executives deciding which programming would win the most viewers and the advertising dollars that came with them. And that’s not to mention the ever-increasing cost of cable tv subscriptions. The afore-mentioned arrays included channels upon channels of shows you had no intention of watching, but were paying for nonetheless.
Streaming has consistently outperformed TV every month since November 2022, and the gap is widening. In 2023 less than half of television programming was viewed on broadcast tv, meaning more than half was streamed or viewed on media like Blu-Ray. Live sports being an exception, watching a scheduled show is unnecessary now. Viewers can watch what we want, when we want. Today you can watch that must-see event at the water cooler. The major networks see the writing on the wall, and are hard at work trying to establish dominance in the streaming market.
Broadcast TV and movies also take up quite a bit of time. Attention spans aren’t what they used to be. Short form videos like “Reels” allow viewers to enjoy several doses of entertainment that might be short on story and character development, but deliver the goods in less than a minute.
Streaming gives viewers the power.
Streaming allows viewers to dive into shows in ways you can’t over the air. Broadcast and Cable TV (also known as “Linear TV” are provided at a certain scheduled time, and that’s it. If you’re not in front of a TV at that time, you missed it. And even if you were there, and saw the whole episode, then you had to wait a whole week for a new one. Even with reruns you usually had to wait at least a whole day for the next episode, unless the station was running a “marathon.”
Today, with complete runs of shows available online, you can binge whole seasons in one day, (like I did with the first season of Game of Thrones). Taking it to the next level, you can focus on one character’s arc, or follow one story thread through curated episode selections. Netflix’s The Witcher‘s first season was much easier to follow by isolating each character’s scenes and watching those consecutively.
The internet allows even the most specialized niche viewer to find content that suits their tastes. You want to watch a guy play Darkwing Duck on the TurboGrafx-16? You can. Pondering the history of corn? Need a recipe for homemade slime? Take your pick. Internet viewers can find just what they want, often for free, and if they can’t… they might just make it themselves. The internet can make absolutely anybody a celebrity, for a short time at least. (ocean spray guy). Only a blessed few can make it big in Hollywood, but anybody can get a million views on their nutshot video. But many “regular people” have embraced the streaming model and become successful content creators with millions of followers, bypassing the traditional barriers to stardom and taking decision-making producers and casting directors out of the equation.
Streaming creates a sort of online community.
Internet viewing allows us to interact with other viewers, commenting and discussing, sharing instant reactions and feedback with one another. Often this activity includes individuals involved with the show, be it actors, writers or directors. This direct connection of creator to consumer makes the viewer feel more involved in the experience, somehow becoming a part of the production (even if this is only imagined). This feeling of connection is something a movie or TV show can’t deliver. The best they can offer is a lively debate on social media after the fact.
Viewers crave the feeling that their opinions and ideas don’t just matter, they’re valuable. Anyone with a smartphone can record and publish their own review of any show, even other streaming shows. Some of us spend as much time (if not more) watching discussion and analysis of our favorite streaming titles as we do watching those titles. It gives us a feeling of validation when someone else out there shares our passion and opinion about our favorite IPs, especially the obscure ones. Our favorite celebrities now have their own podcasts, where they give us insight and behind-the-scenes stories and revelations that we used to have to wait for their tell-all autobiography to learn. And some people are celebrities now for no reason other than their podcasts.
There’s also a feeling of smug satisfaction that can be had by plumbing the depths of the web for the most obscure content, discovering a hidden gem that goes viral, and drinking in the pleasure of knowing that you liked it before it was “cool.”
TV is keeping its own nostalgia alive.
Have you watched over-the-air TV recently? You may need a high-definition antenna to do so, but one viewing session will tell you what the state of TV is. There are probably several channels in your local area, and most of them are showing reruns of old shows interrupted by commercials for products that appeal to an elderly consumer base. It’s clearly staying alive for—and because of—aging viewership that wants to stay in their media comfort zone. But in this writer’s opinion it’s worth a look now and then to find that old favorite sit-com that you loved when you were younger or to see that actor your dad used to idolize. It gives the warm fuzzies in a way that’s hard to describe.
Over-the-air TV has almost literally become a museum of itself, or at least of the kinds of shows that used to thrive on it. There’s something quite meta about watching forgotten shows on an antiquated technology. It’s like stepping back through time to a simpler age when everything was in 4:3 aspect. Future generations may never know the feeling of watching the same show at the same instant in time as the rest of the country (or their time zones anyway), but at least, they still get the frustration of commercial breaks.