How the Technology Change the Way We Watch TV - Essay Example

How the technology change the way we watch TV Television was an idea that lingered in the latter half of nineteenth century, and was conceptualize inthe earlier twentieth century. Almost ninety years after the creation of regular television transmission channels, the trends within the world of television are transforming to take newer dimensions (Morgan 2011). The changing trends should not be confused with the technological developments that took place in the television industry. Television has remained a source of information and entertainment for people over the last six to seven decades; even today it is one of the largest industries in the world. In the present day where every other person is a smart phone user with an internet access, the dependence of people on television has reduced. This transformation in the realm of info-entertainment must not be dealt as victory of internet over the television broadcasting, rather it should be held as integration of media for facilitating customers. (Esser 2012) Television has definitely been a source of information and entertainment for last two or three generations, it revolutionized the scope of mass media, and the changes that are taking place in the recent times are aimed at maximizing the comfort of people. If one goes in the past and analyze the available number of channels on television, one would find the number to be very low, usually every country used to have its own TV channels. Later on the introduction of cable network broadened the access of television viewers to channels from across borders, and it provided them with choice to select the type of programs they wanted to see. The availability of channels from all over the world increased the competition among the channels, this happened for good, because it improved the quality of broadcast and offered maximum entertainment to TV viewers. Television, in true manner, is one of founding stone of the concept of globalization. Where people could watch, educate and enjoy themselves with events and performances taking place all around the globe. (Budden 2012) Apart from offering more options to the television viewers, there were several advantages of introducing satellite networks complemented by cable television. The first was the improvement in the live telecast; people were kept up to date with tick of clock. Next, more channels meant more job opportunities for TV artists. Media was no more bound to state; people had access to channels and shows that they wanted to see. Journalism received a boost by the introduction of private news channels, and same was the case with sports channels, as people who were fond of games could see them for all day long. An important element that has made the expansion of television industry is the advertisement. Televisions offered a new medium for the businessmen to voice their message and publicize their products. (Whaley 2011) So far, so good, but why the role of television started to shrink in the life of a normal person? Some people argue that the television productions in the present day are losing the quality of their content, and some critics complain that the TV shows have become too much predictable. Apparently these arguments do have some truth in them, however, it will be overgeneralization to comment that that there is nothing new for television industry to offer to its viewers. Some of the television shows that have been produced in the recent years have been record breaking, such as The Game of Thrones or the modern version of Sherlock Holmes, and one must admit that there are still several creative minds present in the industry. If the creativity is still intact, and there is more entertainment to offer, then why TV lounge in homes are no more populous as they used to be. The answer to this question is that lives of the people have changed. The last ten to fifteen years have totally changed the dynamics of television viewership, the main reason being cheap and easy access to lightning fast internet. (Vigil 2013) Advertisements on television are a routine; no television show is complete without them. Further, TV shows are specific to channels, so if a person wants to watch a program on one channel and one show on another channel, he/she needs to subscribe for both the channels, which eventually charge them double. TV shows are scheduled according to their ratings; however, every person has his or her own time table to follow. All these issues may not sound that problematic, however, they have proved as a main driving entertainment industry towards a new direction. (Lin 2014) House of Cards House of Cards is a drama series extracted from a novel of Michael Dobbs and is directed by Beau Willimon. It is being telecasted by streaming services ‘Netflix’. It is the story of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who is a Democrat from Carolina, who wanted to become the Secretary of State after winning polls with the help of the Underworld lords. Basically, it is a revenge story as Frank Underwood decided to unleash spree of horrors upon his opponents. So for, it has two seasons while Netflix has already announced its third season in next year. This political drama series has broken the records of viewership and won a number of prizes and awards. (Liu 2012) Technologically speaking, it is not telecasted through traditional television channels on episode basis instead of it released through binge viewing which means viewer can access it through streaming service or DVD and has the facility to watch as many episodes as they want. The release of entire episodes at once has changed the patterns of TV viewership. (Sampedro 2011) TV Viewership before House of Cards Before the binge viewing, viewers used to watch their favorite dramas on episode basis while sitting before the television sets. They have to bear the unwanted bombardment of advertisements besides sticking with the television sets for a particular time that is decided by the authorities of channels. Moreover, they have to wait for the next episode and the director tries to create suspense in the last scene so that viewers could not restrain themselves to watch next episode. The income flow also has different stakeholders as compared to binge viewing. Production techniques, distribution channels and even marketing strategy had been devised differently. The viewer has no role except mere on-looker or helpless creature in the traditional TV viewership. (Brown 2011) TV Viewership after House of Cards The House of Cards is the first major TV drama that has changed the ecosystem of traditional telecasting and get rid viewers from the clutches of the cable operators. It is also unique experience in a sense that full season had been released at once and viewers could watch it in accordance with his/her own time adjustment. Big data algorithms have also been used first time during the production of the House of Cards. Netflix has introduced a revolution in the marketing sphere after launching the program and now a number of other companies are set to follow the footsteps of Netflix. One of the major companies is Amazon that announced to compete with the Netflix. The other giant that is ready to challenge the monopoly of Netflix over the binge viewing is Microsoft which has finalized arrangements for Xbox platform. The plots of stories have also undergone drastic changes as now programs can be viewed globally. Plots having the issues and problems of local nature have been diminishing rapidly as they have not the potential of global viewership. In other words, binge viewing accelerates the process of globalization. The media experts predict that local customs, norms and values have limited role in streaming technology as majority of global viewers have no interest in anthropological studies. It cannot be declared a positive trend as it will restrict the inhabitant’s ethnicity. (Mac Phail, 2014) The invention of remote control was a big leap in the history of television. It had changed the way we watched TV. Viewers used to resort surfing and opting for different channels. Remote control forced TV channels to show standard contents to retain viewership otherwise viewers have capacity to shift at once from one channel to another. But the invention of binge viewership have changed the scenario altogether; viewers no longer remain dependent upon the remote control for their choice. In traditional television, lot of middle men or intermediaries are involved between the broadcasters and end users i.e. viewers. These middle men are the major cause for the increase of cost of production and which has to bear by consumers ultimately. Sometimes, middlemen are also responsible for the poor quality of pictures and motions but introduction of streaming eliminated all barriers between producer and end-user. The phenomenon has also changed the economies and flow of money in the telecasting business. Google TV and Apple TV have also jumped into the internet television industry. This is also a real blow to the business of HDMI cables. It will provide streaming less access on the internet channels. Net programming is a complicated phenomenon and used to rule airways for a long time. Netflix has created new vistas of television shows either they are old one that have a strong fan base or new one that are produced purely keeping in the new technologies in mind. Fox cancelled the telecasting of TV program, ‘Arrested Development’ due to some unknown reasons but Netflix has made arrangements for its viewers in May 2013. This series broke the record of viewership. Likewise, ‘Houses Of Cards gained a strong fan base and have become a major source of earning for Netflix. According to a report, Netflix earned four times higher due to these programs. Accenture reveals astonishing figures regarding enhancement of viewership of internet TV, according to which, 49 percent of viewers in the United States and United Kingdom prefer to watch over-the-top (OTT) content on the internet. The figures further reveal that 82 percent viewers who prefer to watch internet television fall under the age group of 18 to 24 years of ages. Analysis of these figures in sociological perspectives manifests that young generation prefers internet television over the traditional television. It is a common phenomenon in the history of technology that it always wins hearts of young generation before becoming the part and parcel of the society. Mobile has also won the hearts of the people in the United States and United Kingdom; social surveys revealed that mobile phones have also become another source to view TV contents through broadband internet. This trend has contributed in the decline of popularity of TV devices and it is fatal shock to the TV manufacturing industry. Watching TV contents on the mobile phone is comparatively easy for viewers instead of glued with TV sets in the homes. Television devices lack portability potential which gave rise to popularity of mobiles as TV device. Broadcasting the schedule of television programs is considered important with the inception of television in 1939. Viewers used to set their time table or daily routine in accordance with the time of their favorite programs. (Ejick 2005) But internet has changed this pattern also. Now the schedule of programs is loaded on the internet once and people share this schedule on twitter or face book. There is no need to telecast the schedule daily between different programs. Television production has been considered a highly skilled job since its birth. It requires proper education and necessary training to produce quality contents for the televisions. (Wright 2007) But nature did not bestow the talent and creativity to producers only; young creative minds are showing miracles in this connection also. Through a study, Pew Internet discovered that 46 percents adult created their own contents and 41 percents of internet users spread these contents among viewers through differed social media sites. These contents are very much popular among the internet users and cannot be under-estimated with particular reference to the production techniques of the modern era. Internet is not remained limited with the laptops, tablets and mobile phones alone. It reaches its access on television sets also. According to a study of Juniper Research, 650 million home based television devices will be connected with the broadband till 2017 through internet devices like Blue-ray players or set-top boxes. This will be another blow to the TV contents as people take more interests in the internet than the contents of television. Internet connection provides more options to viewers than televisions. People prefer to take active part on the internet through social media sites instead of passive viewership of television programs. Viewers can gain access over the video contents through their computers, tablets or smart phones. eDigitalResearch in collaboration with the Interactive Media in Retail Group conducted a study according to which four out of five owners of mobile phones tablets use their devices for watching television contents. No doubt, this trend promoted the television viewership among the people. During the process of production, producers and directors have to keep this fact in mind that their viewers are watching programs in different settings and with different mind sets. Television producers of the modern era produce the contents of the program in accordance with the inclinations and tastes of target viewers and this trend enhanced the scope of television viewership. By weighing new trends, BBC on aired a series showing Sherlock Holmes in modern days setting while using digital media for the solution of his cases and writing blogs on the internet. All of his blogs are available on the social media instantly. Advertisements remained a major source of income for the television channels. Viewers in the past were compelled to watch advertisements besides their favorite programs. New trends have given the option to the viewers to skip the advertisements. This is definitely a moment of worry for the advertisers and television channels will have to resort other sources of income also. Advertisers are trying to adjust themselves in accordance with the emerging realities but still did not secure a meaningful success. Although, they have shifted their advertisements to World Wide Web in different styles, but research revealed that their contents did not gain popularity. According to another research, personalized and relevant advertisements are the most popular among the broadband community and hence advertisers are shifting their efforts towards this angle. Netflix has promoted a culture of ‘paid contents’ with multiple options of payments. In contrast, traditionally, television programs could be accessed through the payment of license fee or payment to the cable operators. (Raboy 1997) Broadband has considerable impacts over the financial sectors also it offers multiple options to viewers for the payment against watching programs. The factories producing linear television sets devised new strategies to keep their sales intact. In this connection, modern linear sets have Wi-Fi and apps. These devices provide help to the viewers to connect their television sets with the wireless broadband. More technological advancements are also being introduced in the manufacturing of linear television sets to adjust them in accordance with the needs of the modern era. The aims of Netflix are very high. They are continuously searching new avenues to maintain their popularity. The current change is not the final change as with the passage of time new technological advancements and inventions are being predicted which will ultimately alters the television watching behavior and patterns. Many leading television channels of the world have shifted their focus upon the internet television. BBC has already started their programs for iPlayer app as well as with its linear television channel viewers. The decision has been taken while considering the popularity of iPlayer among the people of the United Kingdom. Besides, BBC other television channels are also shifting their transmission iPlayers also. Most television channels offer password to their linear viewers for watching their program on iPlayers on complementary basis. Those channels who will not offer the ‘linear plus apps’ package will definitely lose their viewership. ‘On-demand fun’ is a characteristic of screaming networks including Netflix which is not offered through MVPD broadcasting. This is an inherited limitation of MVPD transmissions as its technology and patterns are quite different from the binge viewing. Apart from technological changes, the ‘house of card’ impacted other fields of communication namely, set designing, background music, dressing, dialogue, plot and many more. The topic of ‘house of cards’ is widely recognized by the viewers from different nations of the world as democracy prevails everywhere. The program discusses the weakness and limitation of the system of the democracy instead of traditional love story or discussing social problems. No doubt, democracy is a global topic and viewer’s choice has been changed after the release of ‘House of Cards’ as now viewers prefers global topics instead of local topics or issues. Multiculturalism is another feature which was promoted through the binge viewing and which has become the hallmark of television broadcasting after the release of ‘Houses of Cards. In the present era of globalization, everything is going to be globalized including television production. Such topics are being chosen by TV channels that have relevance for the global citizenship and democracy is one of them. Anthropologists reveal that every culture of the world have different sets of cultural patterns, eating habits, standard of good and bad, folklores and mores. Television channels used to depict all of it in their programs. But the success, of ‘house of card’ changed the focus from the local cultures to the global cultural patterns. Viewers are no longer willing to tolerate the boredom of linear televisions as they have now a better option which suits their needs. Earlier, they have to wait twenty-four hours or in some case for a weak to watch the episode of their favorite program but now they can watch it even in single sitting if they can sit. Conclusion Television is one of the revolutionary inventions of the twentieth century. Since its inception, it is changing the lives of people across the globe. When television channels started their regular transmission, it had been said that now the days of Radio is over as people watch the picture besides listening the voice. The experts presented various theories and predicted the demise of radio transmission. No doubt, arrival of television gave a tough competition to radio but realizing this grave threat the broadcasters devised policies for their survival and it survived. Radio has certain edges over television. Radio is a portable device as compare to television. Broadcasting of radio program is easy as compare to telecasting of television programs as radio program deals with voices alone. Even after the inception of radio, it was predicted that newspapers will lose their readership. People listen the news instantly after it happens, in contrast to the newspapers which give the news to their readers after the lapse of twenty-four hours. But we saw that newspapers, radio and television are going side by side with each other in the society by introducing necessary adjustments. Likewise, it is predicted now that television programs will lose their viewership due to some limitation against the binge viewership. But in my personal opinion, this view is quite misleading as the history of media does not support it. Linear televisions will make necessary adjustments to suit the requirements of the viewers and the personnel invested billions of dollars in this business will definitely devise a sane policy for their survival. Change is the only permanent factor in the history of human society. But change did not bring the death of previous ones. Only necessary innovations, adjustments and re-adjustments help the survival of all stakeholders of the game. No doubt, binge viewing has certain edges over the linear telecasting but both media will respect the domain of each other and survive. As technology has been changing rapidly, binge viewing will face new competitors from the advanced versions of technology and innovative ideas. The history of media told us that radio was giving threats to newspapers but all of sudden the invention television changed the scenario. Sources Dudo, A., Brossard, D., Shanahan, J., Scheufele, D. A., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (2011). Science on Television in the 21st Century Recent Trends in Portrayals and Their Contributions to Public Attitudes Toward Science. Communication Research, 38(6), 754-777. Esser, F., de Vreese, C. 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