Broadband Usage Up, TV Usage Down

jZnat writes "BBC Tech News reports that the increased usage of broadband internet in Europe is cutting into the viewing of television. This is mainly due to the decreased price of broadband in Europe and the usefulness of the internet. Is it possible that the usefulness of TV has decreased with the internet so expansive these days?"

Comments

well as for me

[utopianfiat]

I for one use the computer much more often for my media needs than I watch television. News in less than a second is far superior to having to wade through advertisements that you can't skip.

Re:well as for me

[bob65]

I think that in the future, instead of TiVO, cable/satellite providers will increasingly provide "Video On Demand" (already available now, on a per charge basis (this is not pay-per-view - you get to start, pause, rewind, fastforward, whatever, in a 24 hour period)).

Re:well as for me

[Caseyscrib]

Print media is much better than television, because it forces readers to think about what they just read. It empowers readers to go at their own pace... they can go back and reread something to get a clearer picture. With television, it's just jammed down your throat, and you are not given an opportunity to think about what you just absorbed. It's force-feeding you. In Jon Stewart's book, he mentions TV comming out which destroyed America. People became to concerned about appearances, and candidates no longer had to compete on ideas, just pleasing the crowd. When TV came out and chaanged the election, he sarcastically says something like, "It's thing, because everyone was becomming dangerously overimaginative listening to radio." With television, you longer need to think.

I'm glad the media is losing its foothold. They've had their power long enough, and failed to do their job. The internet has empowered users to bypass the reporter, and get a direct source from somebody who publishes their story online. Democracy at its finest.

Since when was TV useful?

[solios]

I've never seen anyone actually get anything accomplished through watching TV. Unless you count "relaxing" for six hours a day to be an accomplishment.

When I bother with movies these days, I watch them on my workstation. I could care less about comfort level- for me, the ability to critique and O_o and OMFG :O a movie in realtime on IRC while simultaneously getting other things done in the background is comfort enough.

Unfortunately, my roommate recently renewed his relationship with the NTSC teat, and now the house is filled with the shit audio quality of a TV. At least he has the decency to keep it in his room, where the malevolent eye of the gorgon-cyclops can't stab into my soul. :|

Re:Since when was TV useful?

[proudlyindian]

Pre internet era, channels like BBC were the source of information for various topics Top Gear Panorama Holiday Beyound 2000 and a huge list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:BBC_televisi on_programmes

Re:Since when was TV useful?

[Infonaut]

I could care less about comfort level- for me, the ability to critique and O_o and OMFG :O a movie in realtime on IRC while simultaneously getting other things done in the background is comfort enough.

You're missing the big draw of TV, and the reason that it is still hanging in there in spite of the fact that most of what is on TV is crap: TV is a passive medium. Unless you're watching a very creatively done show, or one that is trying to teach you something, it is a passive experience.

Many people sit at their computers all day for work, and the last thing they want to do is sit in front of them for entertainment. I think Steve Jobs is right when he says that when you want to create something, you use your computer, and when you want to passively absorb something, you use the TV.

Physical comfort is not important to you, but my guess is you're not yet old enough that daily aches and pains matter. I'm not ready for the Barcalounger just yet, but there are definitely times when I want to sit down on a sofa and watch something that I know will not be mentally taxing.

Thankfully TiVO allows me to watch what I want, rather than simply whatever happens to be on at a given time.

Do I *prefer* TV to the computer? Absolutely not. In a choice between the two, the Internet wins every time. But not everyone watches TV for six hours a day, and sometimes TV is the most convenient vehicle for relaxation.

Critiquing a movie on IRC while doing other things and somehow watching a movie at the same time is indeed getting more done, but it doesn't seem very relaxing to me. I'm not sure that passively watching a movie (at home on the TV or at the theater) is an evil experience, just because it's not interactive.

I'd say TV is ruinous primarily because some people do watch it for hours on end and do nothing else, and because 95% of what's on is total crap. I'm not sure that the medium itself is inherently evil, though.

TV Torrented

[pseinstein]

Combining this with that story that Bittorrent accounts for 35% of internet usage and the most active torrent pupose seems to be downloading tv episodes. Maybe people are still watching and just not on TV itself.

TV degrading

[FiReaNGeL]

I don't know in the USA, but here in Quebec quality TV decreased a LOT. On weekends afternoon we get 'paid ads' for dumb, overpriced products. We get movies that were hip in the 80s (Police academy AGAIN?). Stupid programs (Recycled Fox-branded programs such as car chases, 'funny' accidents, etc). News are always trying to refresh the same stupid debates... when they're not covering irrelevant local stuff (A 80 years old still play tennis!)

No wonder I'm not listening to TV anymore. Google News all the way. When I want, What I want. Yeah.

Re:Usefulness of TV

[NickFortune]

I think both are factors. On the one hand TV seems in decline. The variety of material presented is decreasing, the data rate is dropping (dumbing down) and the commercialisation increasing with more ads per content. Meanwhile, the speed of the internet is growing, more content is being added, you can take data at your own rate from as many sources as you like, and you get interactivity on a scale undreamt of on TV. Plus with very little effort you can contribute and add your own material.

TV has to run very fast just to keep up - and it seems to be slowing down instead.

At least for us swedes ;)

[lordsilence]

What we do less since we started using internet (according to a survey, source (in swedish): http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200412/03/200412031 65340_PFA/20041203165340_PFA.dbp.asp ) :
- 34 % watch less TV.
- 32 % spends less time reading magazines.
- 31 % doesn't talk as often in telephone
- 23 % spends less time reading books.
- 19 % listens less to radio.

Television is failing

[failedlogic]

Aprart from one or two television shows... I can do w/o television.

Its failing to entertain me because:
1) The good sitcoms (or at least ones which appeal to me) like Seinfeld seem to be gone.
2) There is too much "focus" on reality television and game shows.
3) Advertising is driving me crazy
4) The news is too skewed and their opinions are a discredit to my education (I actually watch the Daily Show instead of CNN to catch up on international news).
5) I'd rather read, exercise, go out or watch a movie than watch TV.

Some TV executive is going to have to come up with a spectacular new show to get me to watch.

correlation != causality

[YouHaveSnail]

Is it possible that the usefulness of TV has decreased with the internet so expansive these days?

If European television is anything like American television, TV's problem may not be so much that the internet is good, but that TV is bad. The number of commercials per hour has increased over the years, and the quality of the programming has often decreased, at least on the networks. It may be that we're reaching a point where viewers are no longer willing to put up with all the commercials and crappy programming, and they're looking for alternatives. HBO and other cable channels have been providing alternatives for some time now, and broadband internet connections may be just one more.

Sometimes passive entertainment wanted

[Alwin Henseler]

a) Interactivity, b) Control, c) Adaptability.

The qualities you mention could be summarized as active vs. passive entertainment. While the 'active participation' is one of *the* strengths of the 'net, it can also be a downside. It challenges people intellectually, and while I enjoy that, it can also be tiresome.

When you have infinate choices to make, you need to think about what to choose, continuously. If there's only 20 channels to zap between, just hitting "next" on your remote requires 0 mental effort. Add the low content-vs.-crap ratio of TV, compared with interesting feed-your-brain stuff found on the net. Recently, internet connection to my home was out of order for over a week, and that made it extra noticable how hard it is to find quality content on TV these days.

But sometimes, people just *want* to be passive, and soak in the experience without providing any input. That's why we have cinema's, and why TV still serves a purpose. Choosing between the two, I think I could easily do without TV, but would be very reluctant to give up internet access.

Recent Submissions:
Ask Slashdot: Do you still need a TV? - Rejected

The internet is obviously....

[rolfwind]

Well, I never thought of TV and the Net strictly competing with each other......

But the internet is vastly more useful in terms of information.

Take the local news for instance. They tantalize you with a tidbit, whatever it may be like "find out how garlic can save your life", and drag you along for the entire show, commercials and all, to learn about that one bit of information.

Most other morning shows, etcetera have their own form of this. The internet, OTOH, has immediate gratification in many cases. Who's the winner gonna be?

I never watch TV anymore...I just download it.

[halo1982]

Thanks to Bittorrent, I never need to watch my TV anymore. I just download any TV episodes I want to watch through sites like tvtorrents. Ironically, this has increased my viewing of TV related material, but I have hardly any use for the TV except for the DVD player.

The internet has become my TiVo

[Dr. Spork]

I don't watch television, except the very rare occasion when I want to catch some sporting event.

There is good stuff on television, about 0.2% of it. But people on the internet are aware of this tiny sliver of quality, and make it very easy to get. Then I can watch it whenever I want, and without commercials.

The best stuff on television has these elaborate story arcs, making it almost necessary to watch the episodes in the correct order. There are three alternatives for doing this. One is to become a TV slave, dropping whatever you're doing every week at a specific time to catch the airing of the episode. Otherwise, you can wait for the DVD release, which might take years. Or, you can rely on the generosity of the people on the internet and download the episodes from them in the proper order. The last option is by far the most convenient. With BitTorrent and eMule, you just declare what you want, and the shows download much faster than any reasonable person is able to watch them. Can anything compare to this sort of convenience? Well, TV people had better figure something out. In my life, TV programming has become irrelevant, and I have a feeling that more and more people will feel the same way.

Ironically, I feel like this year, I'm in much better touch with what's going on in TV-land. I'm catching up with Six Feet Under, the new Battlestar Galactica, Drawn Together and the Daily Show, all stuff I wasn't watching last year. Funny thing is, last year I had cable. This year, I got rid of it and just hooked up my living room television to my bedroom computer, and set up a pretty slick way to control my computer from my living room with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Now the TV gets watched a whole lot more. How long will it be before many people have this sort of setup? Not long...

TV delays

[Danj2k]

Some American TV shows have the same kind of delay between their US and UK airing as movies do. Take Enterprise for example - season 4 is already showing in the US (there's been 9 episodes so far) but there's no sign of it on Sky in the UK. Add that to the fact that it's broadcast in HDTV in the US (whereas HDTV doesn't even exist over here and Sky has said it has no plans to start offering it until 2006) and there's a compelling argument for just downloading it instead of waiting months for a lower quality version to come on TV here.

TV is a dying, withered husk.

[crazyphilman]

Consider that the only thing people used to actually *need* TV for was news and weather information. This they can get much more effectively from the internet, where they can compare a MUCH bigger set of competing viewpoints, search for media files the news organizations won't display, etc... Plus they can read first-hand accounts posted by people while things are happening, without having to put up with the filter applied by network censors.

Then consider that most television is widely accepted to be garbage. I think the term "vast wasteland" was bandied about for a while. Everything on TV that isn't informational or a movie is generally crap, and almost everyone you will ever talk to will tell you this is patently obvious to them, has always been patently obvious...

Finally consider that if we want to watch movies, we can rent them on DVD, so we don't even need television for THAT anymore. And the rise of videogames as a form of entertainment which is INFINITELY more interesting and engaging than the boring, predictable, passive entertainment TV has been killing us with for years. And the fact that TV is infested with annoying, incredibly stupid advertising that takes turns insulting and condescending to us.

The question isn't why people are watching LESS TV. It's why they still watch TV at ALL.

Reality TV get that s$%^ of my TV...

[oz_canetoad]

Ever since the invasion of our free to air stations here in Australia of reality TV, I have found myself more and more drawn to use my computer. Not that I haven't in the past but even with 30+ channels of pay TV I still find myself these days in front of the computer instead of the idiot box.

2 main reasons for me, is the total lack of integrity in current affairs, what ever happened to having your own point of view. And secondly the absolute trivia that gets passed of as programming, especially reality TV shows, I especially feel for Americian /. ers if the tripe we get is the best you have to offer. On a side note we get CNN and Fox News on pay TV, how they call those stations news stations has me wondering.