TV Just Ain't What it Used to Be

Season 1, Episode 1

Bring 10 people into a room and ask them “What is TV?”, and you’ll be sure to get different answers.  Bring 10 TV professionals into a room and ask them “What is TV?”, and you’re GUARANTEED to get MORE than 10 answers!

The simple idea that television can either refer to the TV set, or the TV service is history.  With the advent of so many viewing options for video, the lines are blurred between so many loosely defined TV products and services.  At the root of the TV definition is the motion-based audio visual medium first experimented with in the 1920s and popularized in the 1950s.  During the past 60+ years we’ve gone from sheer awe and wonder of welcoming TV into our homes, to the introduction of color, digital transmission, high definition, and the explosion of channels with the advent of digital compression in the 1990s.  About the same time I started hearing the derogatory statement “we have all these channels, yet there’s nothing on.”  Personally (and thankfully), I’ve never suffered from that critical point of view.

Television has been such an important component of most American’s life during these years.  So much so, that Nielsen Media Research reported in 2006 that the average American household consumes more than 8 hours of TV each day.  Of course, this is why advertisers have loved TV so dearly since the 1950s.  It’s been an amazingly effective medium for getting one’s message to the masses.

Fast forward to 2015 and much has changed.  TV advertising is still the big dog in town with roughly US$70B still flowing annually to the various forms of TV content distribution.  However, the definition of TV is not so simple any longer.

With the advent of near ubiquitous Internet access into American homes, along with video delivery standards, mobile device proliferation, and many other technology factors, television is being consumed in ways, in place, and on devices not contemplated way back at its origin.  So what exactly is TV today?  The big screen on your wall?  The service provided by the big networks?  Or is it Netflix and Hulu on your phone, tablet or laptop?  Technology, service, subscription and screen combinations abound.

This collection of changes is having a profound impact on the businesses that bring you your television. Whether it’s the TV broadcaster or cable TV network, the cable, satellite, or telco that delivers the signals, or the many, many coattail companies that earn from your entertainment – all are very carefully watching for what happens next.  Some are very concerned with keeping you as a viewer or subscriber, while others are desperately seeking to disrupt the incumbent and obtain the privilege of calling you theirs.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be writing a series of “episodes” on the evolution of television.  I will call upon my decades of developing technology and services for media and entertainment.  I’ll be covering bundling and content licensing, business models, advertising, measurement, consumer habits, user interface, and more.

I’d like to hear your feedback, and I welcome any suggestions for new topics to cover in coming episodes.