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The End of Broadcast TV as We Know It?

Posted by Zonk on from the boobs-controlling-the-tube dept.

mattnyc99 writes "The DVR revolution is nothing that new—and neither is the Neilsen ratings company's adaptation to it. But Glenn Derene at Popular Mechanics argues that users have officially pushed us into a new era of television, wherein viewers now shape the way that networks make money, which means we'll start to see users control the way the networks choose programming. From the article: 'The systemic use of ad ratings as one of the standard metrics for assessing viewership is a sea change, and it's perhaps the sign that as an industry, broadcasters and advertisers are sailing into uncharted waters.'"

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Ads during programmes by Ash-Fox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not a great television watcher, infact I don't even own a television myself.

    However recently I got the chance to watch some television, while the ads during breaks were annoying, what I encountered was more annoying. During the program I was watching, suddenly some magical gradients took over the lower part of the screen and advertisements started appearing for different programs to watch and so on.

    It's quite annoying and I'm glad I haven't wasted money on obtaining a TV recently.

    So, my question is, how does DVR solve that?

    If it doesn't, I'm pretty sure people will be seeing more of it.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    1. Re:Ads during programmes by TrashGod · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm dreading the day they start running 719x575 "banners" over programmes...

      The TV Guide Network (TVGN) has been doing this since day one, and it's growing. If the guide part is the program, then the ad part is now over 75% of the screen.

  2. Yeah, yeah by nagora · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Wake me up when the ISPs actually have the bandwidth to do this without kicking me for downloading a day's worth of broadcast quality programming. Sometime arount 2015 should do.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  3. Re:No, Really by speaker+of+the+truth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OTOH the answer would probably be machines which do exactly the opposite: Automatically skip everything with the "don't skip this" flag, thus automatically removing ads. I know exactly what you mean. I went and bought a new DVD player that did exactly this.

    Oh wait, I can't buy a new DVD player that does this. What makes you think television would be any different?
    --
    Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.