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The Future of Television? Binge-Watching is Only the Beginning (wsj.com)
With providers like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, and more creative risks, network leaders are placing bets on how audience experience will evolve [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. From a report: "What might we see coming down the road?" says Beau Willimon, creator of The First, Hulu's sci-fi drama starring Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone. "Perhaps like [the characters] in my new show, we're all wearing augmented reality glasses, and we're experiencing television shows in a more intimate way -- a way that feels much more experiential than simply watching it on a rectangle."
[...] Television, as most people have known it for most of their lives, is no more. "At some point you'll get to a place where thinking about television from a linear standpoint will be like dial-up internet," says Hulu CEO Randy Freer. "It's a great time for content; not a great time for cable networks. I think what will happen is: Cable networks that have been able to create brands for themselves will have an opportunity to expand and figure out how they present to consumers."
Cable networks with a clear identity have a critical advantage in a subscription-based world, while networks with less-defined name recognition -- those that have been just another channel in the cable lineup -- will likely find it hard to entice the growing ranks of broadband-only consumers to buy an a la carte monthly subscription service. HBO is moving into the new era. "In the domestic market of the United States, where there is a surfeit of content more than ever, I personally think that brands matter more than ever," says HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler.
[...] Television, as most people have known it for most of their lives, is no more. "At some point you'll get to a place where thinking about television from a linear standpoint will be like dial-up internet," says Hulu CEO Randy Freer. "It's a great time for content; not a great time for cable networks. I think what will happen is: Cable networks that have been able to create brands for themselves will have an opportunity to expand and figure out how they present to consumers."
Cable networks with a clear identity have a critical advantage in a subscription-based world, while networks with less-defined name recognition -- those that have been just another channel in the cable lineup -- will likely find it hard to entice the growing ranks of broadband-only consumers to buy an a la carte monthly subscription service. HBO is moving into the new era. "In the domestic market of the United States, where there is a surfeit of content more than ever, I personally think that brands matter more than ever," says HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler.
If you watch kids watch TV today, they watch TV in a completely non-linear way. They fast forward through stuff, rewind scenes and rewatch them, and essentially re-edit the show to what fits whatever's in their heads.
The older kids have literally run out of TV; they've watched all the shows on Netflix.
Once that happens to a large segment of the population the problem will be coming up with enough content to fill their day. How do you engage them? TV as we know it today isn't the answer.
What's the point of having a Netflix subscription if you've watched everything? What's the point of HBO if there's nothing there? What's the point of network TV when you can just wait and watch all the shows you want in a day?
A friend of mine is actually experimenting with microfiction, in an engagement experiment. It's been pretty fun so far, but does that work at scale?
These are all pretty interesting problems.
Good strategy. Beer goggles until you pass out.
There is actually a human threshold in terms of these things. These people aren't any less crass or ridiculous than their predecessors. The method of delivery may be different, but absolutely nothing has changed. In fact, the mentality is probably the worst its ever been due to the fact that it is now completely divirced from reality. It's ok, no one can change nature and all of the technocrats will eventually hit the walls that others did before them. Having to watch millennials go through the awkward stages of their lives publicly is just a tad annoying, particularly given that no matter their age or how much time passes, they seem to make zero progress emotionally or intellectually. There are definitely neural pathways missing, thanks, *your parents*.
You have BOTH Netflix and Hulu? I am having double vision
NBC bought the rights to my favorite sport, but won't show any of the contests, except the "Worlds" and then they only follow the USA team and top 2 other competitors, not the entire meet.
Because they have the rights inside the USA, I can't subscribe to the world-wide streaming service, that streams every contest live and retains them for later viewing. A US-based credit card is prohibited, GeoLocked.
CATV is dead. We get 90+ channel with a attic antenna.
Streaming services are about convenience. If we want to watch a 15 yr old TV series 2 episodes each evening, it is available. It is only the "new" series that we need wait. I much prefer having the entire season released over a few days, if not at once. The Patriot and Sneaky Pete, for example.
I just spent a whole afternoon watching GDQ speed runs and it was legitimately more entertaining that anything I've seen on TV in the last five years.
What shows to they even make anymore? Another cyberpunk style stundent flick with twenty-something sexy-heroes being emotional about events or something. I can't even accept that pre-teens find this shit watchable anymore.
Like the news industry, the entertainment industry has also fallen off a cliff in the wake of the democratisation of media creation and distribution. I have no idea why this happens, but it just seems that, in the face of competition from the internet, traditional providers paradoxically don't step up but actually implode. There must be another structural factor at work. All the actually creative people stay at home or get drowned out or just sense the death of the industry in question and choose to avoid it.
No way I pay $60 a month for 300 channels of garbage. Even the baby boomers are getting bored of channel flipping now.
I see your virtual-augmented-reality glasses and raise you the neural interface-enabled full body experience, lying in a stupor while "experiencing" someone else's scripted life.
Remember back when books were linear, but the the technical revolution of Choose Your Own Adventure overturned hundreds of years of the art form by giving the reader just what they had always wished for: editorial control over the art they consume.
Bread and circuses. Keep the population well fed and entertained, and you shall rule the world.
It is the logical combination of traditional story-telling and video games. The "viewer" gets to see the programme through the eyes of whichever participant they choose. That might be a bystander, or they might be a character, That would give scope for a viewer to alter the storyline, so there may have to be ways to either set it back on track or to simply allow the viewer to make their own show. I can see both possibilities, eventually.
When all the actors are avatars which are downloaded and run rather than simply being a series of images shown in quick succession, along with the scenery and the story, then TV watching will become a much more immersive experience.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
"What might we see coming down the road?" says Beau Willimon, creator of The First, Hulu's sci-fi drama starring Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone. "Perhaps like [the characters] in my new show, we're all wearing augmented reality glasses, and we're experiencing television shows in a more intimate way -- a way that feels much more experiential than simply watching it on a rectangle."
Remember SimStim, the fully immersive entertainment technology in William Gibson's novel Neuromancer? There was a character who still watched television, and when asked why, she replied, "SimStim is just one more thing I want to escape from."
it's a good thing net neutrality is dead, otherwise how would these companies stay in existence!
GOP is dead. There is no GOP. What was called the Republican party is the Trump party. It will end when he is gone. What takes its place is anyone's guess. It has run its course. Not enough morons to cheat anymore. A good thing.
videodrome
No. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The next big thing.
Much like Randy up there.
People who hear "television" and think "tv shows".
The equivalent of people hearing "newspapers" and thinking "funnies".
At some point you'll get to a place where thinking about television from a linear standpoint will be like dial-up internet," says Hulu CEO Randy Freer.
Television is NOT sitcoms and movies.
News will always be linear.
Sports will always be linear.
Current and live events, be they annual things like music festivals, elections or talk shows or even things like "reality" shows - those will always be linear.
Because time is.
Watching how a five- or ten-year-old (or a clueless CEO) uses an information medium may be interesting from an anthropological point - but it does not determine the medium.
It's like saying that since everyone can now listen to podcasts and music on their portable mp3 CD players with full two minutes of anti-shock readahead - no one will listen to the radio anymore, grandpa.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I look forward to the suede/denim secret police coming for your uncool niece. You'll go quietly to the camp, you'll make a nice drawstring lamp. Don't worry it's just a shower, and for your clothes a pretty flower.
DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown
California Über Alles
California Über Alles
Über Alles California
Über Alles California
VR goggles will never, ever, ever happen until they can be implanted directly into the retinas.
I've been in tech for 35+ years, seen trends like this come and go (remember the mind-controlled mouse?), and VR goggles ain't gonna happen for TV.
Television is NOT sitcoms and movies.
News will always be linear.
Sports will always be linear.
There is only a little bit of news each day, when you have seen it, you're done with news. News channels are repeat repeat repeat, not something you watch for long.
Sports are linear, and therefore will be avoided. It is entertainment, and entertainment is going non-linear. Sports was lifted by the popularity of linear media. Linear goes away, so sports fall back to pre- mass media levels.
I liked the rectangle. It was a nice reminder that this was, after all, just a television show, and the border was important because it kept elements out of the picture which are often more important than what is in it. But I'm in a new immersive world because we've thrown out our television together with its shitty violence, titties, and pickup truck commercials. It's just the gui internet now, and I get my rectangle back. One more step and it will be just the real world and an amber screen command line. Ahhhhh.
Linear goes away, so sports fall back to pre- mass media levels.
Do you have any evidence of a drop in sports viewing?
I thought sports was the only reason people still have cable TV.
The Future of pre-recorded TV is the same as the past of pre-recorded TV, but the future of "TV" is in twitch where you can interact and even by guided by your audience.
Friends: 236 episodes, which at a generous 50 minutes/episode comes out to about 492 content hours. That's 20 days of 24-hour-a-day watching. 4 hours a day = 123 days of watching.
That's assuming that it's all worth watching.
When you're a kid that's unsupervised or watching in the background, that's 4 hours a day for almost half of the school year. That's not much.
âoeCarl Stalling sez itâ(TM)ll never work!â