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How Many TV Channels Will There Be In The Future?

Posted by timothy on from the seeking-an-all-nero-wolfe-channel dept.

The Importance of writes "MediaPost reports that, for the first time since it has been tracked, the average number of receivable television channels per household has stopped increasing and even decreased a bit. Perhaps we're not going to hit that 500 channel future people used to talk about. TV executives are, of course, worried about this and want answers. Is this just a temporary plateau or the beginning of a long-term trend? Will DVRs reverse this slide or are they part of the problem? Are we heading into a channel-free future or do channels still have value?"

5 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. internetTV by t0qer · · Score: 4, Informative

    This wasn't interesting enough for the slash editors to publish. Go figure. My opinion, as a internet TV operator is that all TV will move to the internet, just as rabbit ear television moved to cable. Nuff said.

  2. Re:500 channels.. by Hatta · · Score: 2, Informative

    Indeed. On Demand viewing is the future, and the future is here. I'm afraid I don't have much sympathy for the media companies if they fail to provide a legal alternative.

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  3. Re:I'll tell you why. by afidel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah except most C-Band dish's are 5-10' across, significantly larger than the 1m exemption that the FCC gives. In fact the only C-Band dish I am aware of under 1m is the phased array type used for RV's. The exemption was basically written for the DISH Network/DirectTV type applications.

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  4. What the hell good is 500 channels going to be? by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 2, Informative
    Read the article about the 'broadcast flag'. What the hell good is 500 channels going to be if you can't record any of the other 499. It's going to be a complete waste of bandwidth.

    No more recording Gomer Pyle while watching the football game, but they'll be screaming "Surprise, surprise, surprise" when the TV industry tanks on the 'broadcast bit'.

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  5. TiVo by Eimi+Metamorphoumai · · Score: 2, Informative
    What you want is a TiVo. Since I got that a few months ago, I'm watching more tv than ever.
    1. Pause, fast forward, rewind, check
    2. Still ads, but you can fast foward through them or use 30-second skip
    3. Can't really help you there, all I can say is don't watch the crap you don't want to watch.
    4. Same as above
    5. Check. If you just thumbs-up and thumbs-down shows you like and dislike, it'll get pretty good at recording suggestions for you. If you want more control you can do some really nice things with wishlists.
    Seriously, the TiVo is exactly what you're begging for. It lets you watch exactly what you want on your schedule, instead of when some executive somewhere thinks would get the best ratings.
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