Issue 129 – TV, or not TV

admin | July 7, 2009

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Why TV ain’t what it used to be, by Neil Leyden.

One thing is for certain: The television is going nowhere any time soon. As a screen to watch stories unfold – be they live action or animated in form – the television is, and will remain, the hearth of the home. However, how we interact with that screen and how we receive content over it is changing at a rapid pace. In order to understand these changes, there are three key areas that we need to look at: 1) the technology underpinning television; 2) the audience watching it; and 3) the business models funding it.

Firstly, understanding the change in technology is perhaps the most crucial aspect. Many in the broadcasting sector have mistakenly viewed the evolution towards digital as simply a switchover from the analogue signal to a digital one (with the EU pressuring nation states to facilitate the switchover by 2012). However, this belies the underlying reality of the situation. The technology platform – which was once the humble cathode ray tube television set – is rapidly becoming a much more complicated piece of kit. Now it is a flat, high definition screen with the ability to receive a digital signal, either through a built-in tuner or with the help of a set-top box or games console. Added to this are increasingly new functions such as personal video recording capability (PVR), USB ports to attach peripherals and more importantly, broadband connectivity. Quite simply, the television is no longer a television in the strictest sense. It is a broadband-enabled computer with a lovely wide screen. Picking up a digitally broadcasted television signal is just one of its many functions, much like the way voice communication is now just one of the many functions on a mobile phone.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 129.