The TV Industry Is Terminally Ill

It’s happening pretty much worldwide. Less and less people are watching television. So there is less advertising revenue (and the recession just makes this worse), and there is less money to spend on making programmes. Except at the BBC where every British household is forced to give them money, so they are the last bastion of wildly overinflated salaries. Not just for their legions of executives but also for their coterie of foul mouthed yob presenters.

The demise of TV is because it is old technology. Quite frankly I find it pretty boring these days. They just cannot compete with computing, the internet and gaming. And they cannot compete because they are not interactive (except in a farcically limited way), they do not connect the user with other users and their content is purely linear. Their main market now is the educationally subnormal, geriatrics and babies, because these are the only people left who aren’t online.

TV executives have been glacially slow to react. The only gem is the BBC’s world class website. But there is just so much they could have done. For instance why can’t I watch any TV programme ever made, on demand when I want it, financed by micropayment? It would be great to come back to the pub for an episode of the 6 Million Dollar Man, Charlie’s Angels, Monty Python or the Goodies. The technology is there to do this, we have the server farms, it would bring money into the coffers of the TV industry. But they are moribund. Bogged down in a previous age.

This isn’t the only way the TV executives have been inept. They are sitting on a goldmine of intellectual property. But they can’t be bothered mining it, or they don’t know how to. If the TV industry aligned itself a lot more closely with the gaming industry they could make a fortune. And I don’t mean with half baked shovel ware licensing deals. I mean with entertainment products that integrate television and gaming, playing to the strengths of both. You could do amazing things with Dr Who for instance. Episodic content and user generated content would work fantastically.

And so we come to this amazing news. Sky TV are exploring using consoles to stream their content. Wow. I bet you are all jumping up and own with excitement. It is a pity really as Rupert Murdoch is in a prime position to put television back on the map by doing something really good to align it closer to gaming. But don’t hold your breath. Television as an entertainment medium is in intensive care and the condition looks terminal.

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Comments

[OldNavySailor:]

A new TV reality show was announced by ABC called, "Momma's Boys". It is another example of the vapid, banal, entertainment broadcast in the portfolio of television prime time shows. Hopefully it will be short lived as the public rejects it via the ratings' axe.

2008 Dec 15 03:28 PM

[Nick Gogerty:]

Mining the old content for online revenue is quite complicated as the payment of rights and royalties is very complex for all of the respective rights holders to a film (music, directors, actors etc). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Current IP on Copyright also known as the Mickey Mouse law means it will be awhile for legal distribution of older online content. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

2008 Dec 15 04:38 PM

[wackywebname:]

Games based on TV shows do not have a strong record and, if they were prioritized, would not materially change the fate of TV industry players in the next few years.

Quite a lot of effort is put into exploiting the programming library actually, and it provides a substantial portion of television companies' revenues.

2008 Dec 16 10:24 AM