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YouTube, Gaming and Social Networking Busting TV's Chops

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-do-you-mean-i-have-to-watch-what's-on dept.

splitenz writes "A TV executive told a major Australian broadband conference that television audiences are slipping away into social media, gaming and other online subscription spaces. YouTube and online gaming is taking the traditional TV audience online and TV is struggling to fight back."

8 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Well yeah by pspahn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People aren't happy with passive entertainment like they once were. They want to be engaged.

    Some good TV shows can do that, but most of them do not.

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    1. Re:Well yeah by toejam13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It goes beyond this.

      Television content today is increasingly targeting dumb viewers. Advertisers are aware that intelligent viewers are not swayed by their advertising. To keep impressionable viewers watching, you need the kind of dumb content that draws them in. As a result, intelligent content is being pushed to the few premium providers that forgo traditional advertising.

      It is something of a downward spiral. Content is stupid. Methods to access much of that content are still stupid. Savvy viewers quickly become frustrated with the fragmented paywalls, delayed releases and other obstacles, so they either pirate the content they want or simply go without. Why wait several months for the next season of Big Love to be released for streaming on Netflix when you can grab an HD MP4 of it from the Usenet or a Torrent site the day after it airs?

      And the mini-sat and cable companies don't help things with their fucked up channel packages. To watch the handful of shows I still like, I'd have to subscribe to over $70/mo worth of channels. 98% of the content shown is little more than visual tripe. Why bother?

      When the Boomers start dying off, traditional television as we know it will probably die with them. Maybe then we'll see a Renaissance in the television world. Until then, the people who came up with Retarded Guido TV, My Vagina is a Clown Car, Laugh at the Midgets Show and Lifestyles of Retarded Alaskan Politicians can all DIAF. So can the shitheads who watch it, too.

    2. Re:Well yeah by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Television content today is increasingly targeting dumb viewers.

      Right. Hogan's Heros. Gilligan's Island. The A-Team. Fantasy Island.

      Monday Night Football. NASCAR Racing.

      The pinnacle of Western Civilization. Them's some strong rose colored glasses you got on there son.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. No, they're not... by PRMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TV is struggling to fight back.

    If they actually WERE serious about competing, they would make TV easy to watch on the viewer's terms. But they fight every attempt of that happening by continuously putting blocks between the customer and the shows.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    1. Re:No, they're not... by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They change show's time slots, both time and day, break seasons up into at least 2 widely spaced parts, pop up insanely large and distracting station identifiers, alter show start times slightly so poorly designed DVRs miss the beginning or the end. In general, they seem to *want* people to download shows or watch them through another medium. I find it incomprehensible.

    2. Re:No, they're not... by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why does anyone need cable anymore with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus?

      Reason 1: Comcast and other cable ISPs give a deep discount on TV to their Internet subscribers.

      Reason 2: As I understand it, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus are good for works that can be tape delayed by months to a year. Live news and live sports are not this way. Some people like to watch MSNBC's Morning Joe with their morning joe. And if you have a sports fan living with you, he won't be amused at losing access to sporting events that aren't on the broadcast networks, such as out-of-market games or motor racing.

      Reason 3: Services like these tend to be U.S.-only, and I've been told they lack foreign counterparts due to country-specific exclusive licensing deals signed before there was a European Union. How much does a U.S. green card cost again?

  3. Just Another Screen by hovelander · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Personally, I am going to blame the messenger, i.e. Nielsen. Shows that trend towards tech savvy types will always struggle and die if the only emphasis is going to be on boxes that measure appointment viewing. I don’t have a box, so I don’t matter. If I don’t matter, why subject myself to appointment viewing commercials ALONG with the obvious product placement?

    If modern HD TVs are are just another computer screen, what is in store for appointment viewing as we undergo generational attrition?

    For me, modern television is going through the same death spiral that modern commercial music is going through. My music interests have gone entirely independent of the big music labels because of the crap they pull and produce. The more they dumb down, the less of my attention they get. Viewing numbers will distribute across the hundreds of channels of reality programming and the few die hards will congregate around the few bright spots of fictional storytelling while they last. (You should prepare for vastly smaller seasons of shows, like the British models.)

    I don’t matter, so why even try to make it through these endless show hiatuses that kill anything serialized? Why endlessly pine and dread if the uncounted just don’t matter?

    Screw off Nielsen. Take your appointment viewing system and burn in hell for killing too many of my loved ones. I for one am finding it too painful to play with your stacked deck.

  4. Re:Finally someone with brains by halowolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes it is nice to get someone that has an open mind as to what the problems with TV are. I like watching TV shows, however I don't watch many anymore. I don't like shows coming out 6 months to a year later, I don't like time slots being moved around so much that its hard to record them without a Tivo-esque device (or with the 5 - 10 minute schedule drift many of the major channels employ). I don't like ads that blast the room with sound when they employ their volume shifting bastardry.

    What I like is watching the shows when I want to watch them, scheduling them into my life rather than having to schedule my life around them. What all content providers have to get their head around is that these technologies are empowering users to live a social and interactive life their way and if you don't want to keep up with that or embrace it then there is going to be problems.