What’s The Future Of TV?

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Decades ago, families would gather around the TV at the same time every week to watch a show together. Now, TV is available on the go—streaming on smartphones and tablets so that viewers can watch their favorite shows anytime, anywhere. 

The evolution of TV will intensify in the coming years. With new technology and a push towards new forms of entertainment, TV will continue to transform into a personalized experience unlike anything we’ve ever seen. 

Rise Of Streaming And On-Demand

What sets the scene for every other change to the future of TV is the growth of streaming and on-demand services. Customers will no longer wait around for their show to air at a certain time, but instead will be able to watch what they want, when they want. 

The rise in streaming services, including specialized services that only stream one network’s content, such as NBC Peacock or Disney Plus, forces services to compete on experience and catalog. Today, there are nearly 300 streaming services available in the United States, focusing on everything from telenovelas (Pongalo) to horror movies (Shudder) and even content targeted at equestrians (Horse Lifestyle). 

The switch to streaming is the catalyst for many changes. To start, streaming removes the middlemen of movie theaters or cable system operators and connects customers directly with entertainment companies. Streaming and on-demand allow customers to watch whatever they want, whenever they want. The flexibility of schedule and device opens doors to consumers and gives them power over their TV viewing. Streaming services also tend to be less expensive than traditional cable subscriptions, which is a huge draw for consumers. 

However, the rise of streaming is overwhelming to many consumers, with nearly 50% of consumers saying they are frustrated by the growing number of subscription services required to watch the content they want. As more streaming services enter the market and the libraries become diluted, consumers will have to subscribe to multiple services, which can lead to higher spending and hurt the overall experience.  

On average, Americans subscribe to three paid streaming services, spending an average of $37 per month. That’s a huge jump from just three years ago, when the majority of Americans only paid for one streaming service, which was almost always Netflix. In the future, expect both the number of services and the total cost per customer to increase. But as streaming services grow in popularity, they are also playing with fire, as consumers could get burnt out on new services—just ask Quibi, which shut down after only six months. One thing for sure is that the growth of streaming services is the downfall of traditional cable. The annual pace of subscriber decline recently hit an astonishingly low 5.4%. If cable hopes to survive, it has to revamp its offerings to stay competitive. 

Interactive Content

Future TV will be an immersive experience for viewers. Instead of simply watching something happen on their screens, viewers will participate in the show and have a chance to interact and potentially impact the outcome of the show. 

Virtual reality will allow viewers to step into a show and watch as if they are there themselves. Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among other companies, have developed VR technology that will become mainstream in coming years. With VR glasses, viewers could virtually transport themselves into any show, which opens up a new world of possibilities for marketers and entertainment companies. 

Netflix has already experimented with interactive content, including an episode of Black Mirror where users’ choices affected the dialogue and plot. Similarly, the Netflix show You Vs. Wild acts as a choose your own adventure-type show where viewers are given options to shape their journey and affect potential endings. Love, Death & Robots experiments by playing episodes in a different order for different users. 

The future of TV will also be shoppable, as demonstrated by Amazon Prime’s Making The Cut. Each week, designs from the fashion competition were immediately available for purchase, and viewers could buy the looks instantly while watching the show. Similar concepts will expand to other shows and make it possible for viewers to interact with and shop from shows right in the moment. 

Personalized Instead Of Packages

Customers used to have to purchase entire packages of channels to get the exact content they needed. To be able to watch programming on ESPN or HBO, for example, the customer would have to buy the package that contains numerous other channels, many of which they likely weren’t interested in. 

The growth of streaming has forced TV to become more personalized, meaning that consumers can get exactly what they want without anything extra. In the future, customers will be able to create their own packages instead of only having a few, pre-selected options. It’s just one way for broadcast TV to compete with streaming services. Netflix and Hulu use strong algorithms and collect huge amounts of data to provide accurate recommendations to customers, meaning that viewers are becoming used to having their exact viewing preferences catered to instead of paying for superfluous content that doesn’t apply to them. 

TV will become extremely personalized based on data that is collected about nearly every aspect of a consumer’s viewing tendencies. Each person’s Hulu home screen looks different depending on their watch history, demographics and preferences. Hulu uses data to choose not only what is highlighted, but also the order in which certain collections are displayed. A user that watches predominately true crime documentaries will likely have those types of shows featured first, followed by related dramas, with animated comedies far down the list. But the order will be drastically different for someone with different viewing preferences. 

Data will help create smart content, which is affected by who is seeing or watching it. Smart content changes based on who you are and your user preferences. Algorithms that factor in a huge amount of data points will determine who sees what and who is recommended certain content, creating a unique experience for each individual. 

Original Content With Limited Restrictions

The streaming wars are heating up and creating a bidding battle to get popular content, including Seinfeld and The Office. To avoid battles over the rights to popular shows, many streaming services are now creating their own content. In 2019, Netflix spent an estimated $15 billion, or 85% of its total spending, on original content. Apple TV+ committed $6 billion to original content before it launched its streaming service, and Disney Plus spent $1 billion on original content in 2020. 

Original content gives streaming services more control over what is in their library, allowing them to create niche content and increase the representation of minorities. Most original content isn’t subject to the same regulations as broadcast TV, which means streaming service original content isn’t limited by language or content guidelines. 

But a lack of streaming standards and practices can put companies in compromising positions, such as when a program insults other cultures or is called into question for its content and decency, such as when Netflix removed a scene from its original drama 13 Reasons Why depicting teen suicide after teen suicides spiked following the show’s premiere. In the future, streaming services may have to align with common standards to protect themselves and create a more consistent experience for customers. However, streaming standards will likely never be as strict as what is required for broadcast TV. 

We’re well on our way to the future of TV. With changes in viewer preferences and new technology, especially driven by the growth of streaming services, TV will soon be nearly unrecognizable from what it was just a few decades ago.

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Article first published on forbes.com.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

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