On Air and Plugged In 24/7

It used to be that people would watch TV on their television sets on the comfiest spot on their couches, restricted to watch the shows they liked at the day and time that the program was scheduled, and if they missed it they might have a chance a long time later to see a re-run of the show.

With cable we got a little more flexibility. We could then catch frequent re-runs of shows we missed and possibly even some shows or movies on demand and we also got even more channels than we could care to watch. But all of this luxury came at a price, a large price. Cable can be a monthly bill that gives lots of households trouble. We also began to use devises like DVR’s which enabled us to record, pause, play back and rewind many of our favorite shows.

Now we have regular (now HD) TV to watch on our television sets as well as the many channels available through expensive cable packages and we can also watch many of those same shows on the internet. Whether you just watch them on your computer or hook it up so you can view programs from the internet on your TV watching your favorite shows for free from the internet is becoming the popular way to view television.

On sites like TV.com, Hulu.com, Juice.com, and the ever popular YouTube.com people can view many of the programs they like to watch on TV. You can also watch shows directly on the show’s web page and sometimes even on their social networking pages (like on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter).
The internet has changed TV in many ways. When thinking about the 5 C’s of the Post-Network Televison proposed by Amanda D. Lotz’s, The Television Will be Revolutionized, we see how standards and therefore the industry have changed. As I mentioned before, at one time we didn’t have much CHOICE or CONTROL over the television we viewed. There were only certain things on at certain times and if two programs you liked were on at the same time, you’d just have to choose. Television giants like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all basically controlled what and when you watched on your TV set and cable companies could gauge your wallets freely. We are now getting a little freedom from that with the addition of internet to the equation. We can now watch many of our favorite programs when we want and free of charge; heck we can even pause, play back and rewind them via the internet!
CONVENIENCE and CUSTOMIZATION came out of the expectations that consumers had after experiencing their new found choice and control. Creating convenience would be like how cable companies constantly air re-runs so that you can see a program at a different time than it airs. Customization come with things like that feature you can get with cable where it sees what you watch the most and recommends shows you may also like (a clever ploy to just get you to watch more TV and thereby get addicted to more shows that will make you keep your cable or upgrade to a pricier package- but I digress).

The concept of COMMUNITY has changed quite a bit. It used to mean being able to talk around the water cooler about that show everyone watched last night at the same time. Now, we have become so accustomed to be in constant connection with the whole world at all times that we still want that when watching television. We want to be able to text about the show while were watching it and in that way, connect on a deeper(I use that term loosely) level. In Television Will Be Revolutionized, Beth Comstock explains, “In the digital age, community is all about gathering people with shared interests and giving them a plat form to interact with each other, to engage in relevant content and to create something new.”

Yes, many people have found that internet TV has allowed them to be freed of their cable bill burdens, giving them an extra $30-70 in their bank account every month to enjoy once again. As Dougles Quinquia pointed out in his article Changing Channels, From Cable to the Web, “Those who belong to this crowd [internet TV watchers] are only too happy to remind you that they can watch most of what you watch, but don’t pay $60 a month or more for the privilege.” DVR’s have mostly been replaced by internet television. We don’t have to remember to set our DVR’s to record our favorite shows because we know (for the most part) that we’ll be able to access the same episode online whenever we want. We are no longer slaves to network schedules and prime-time/daytime programing! The television experience is getting better by the minute…or is it?

With all good things there are down sides:

I hate to be negative Nancy but there are some more things to think about other than just when you get to watch TV and for how much. First of all, yes the internet will have a huge impact on advertising. In the Changing Channels article Quinquia described this, “Lauren Reinhold, a stay-at-home mother in Lawrence, Kan., canceled her cable service largely to reduce the amount of advertising her children saw.” Adding up all the potential pop-ups, the sidebar ads and finally the commercials in between programs shown on home sites or sites like Hulu, you’re still getting a lot of add time.

Secondly, like I hinted at earlier, due to various factors like not enough gain gain by networks or blocks by cable companies trying to keep viewers, a lot of shows are either still not online yet, only certain episodes are aired online or you have to pay for some shows to be seen online. For example, I would like to watch The Real Housewives of New York online when I miss an episode but they only show random episodes and short video clips on the website, however, they show re-runs of episodes quite a few times a day on cable: they want to keep you watching regular TV!

A last big concern that I have is that it used to be that you could only be a couch potato in the comfort of your own home, but now since you can watch TV online, on your laptop, your phone, your iPad etc. you never have to be “unplugged”. You can take the TV everywhere you go and just be stuck to it like you would in your living room, missing every real life thing going on around you. You become what people are now calling a “mouse potato”- to me that’s insane that there’s even such a concept. That, to me, is dangerous not only for people’s own social and mental health but for society as a whole too.

The whole concept of online television isn’t a bad one all around like I said before. Some of its benefits all relate back to The Long Tail, Creative Commons and democracy. Relating to The Long Tail, internet television provides free content to everyone so that almost anyone has access to this media to watch or display. With this, even small, niche shows created by regular people or small budget studios can broadcast and built followings. Going a little further with that and adding some Creative Commons logic: people can make their own television show and such and create an audience base and chose how and when they want their work to be seen. They could even take a new approach to online TV if they wanted to, going off of the aforementioned notion of Post-Network “community”- they can do things like have viewers help decide what goes on in the show. For example, let’s say that I produce a cartoon online and every week I let viewers send in their images, recordings, etc. to add into it. Not only is that CC it’s democracy! There is also a democratic tone to the way internet television is trying to even out the playing field between consumers and cable and media giants. It relieves some of the control of these big businesses and gives a voice back to the people as to what content they want, how and when!

Personally I don’t really like watching TV shows or movies on the internet, the screen is too small and the light tends to hurt my eyes. However, if I miss an episode of a show that I like or want to sample an episode of a show that heard might be good. I like to watch episodes of Project Runway or Fringe on the show’s websites. And I even like to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race, which airs on a channel I don’t have in my cable package, in situations like these TV on the internet does really come in handy. My boyfriend likes to watch soccer games on his computer, although he usually has to wait until after they’ve aired and he downloads episodes of The Office which we stream from our computer through our X-box so we can watch on our TV set. So, yes online television is a regular part of my own life.
Sometimes I feel so annoyed at myself for spending so much time watching television but I think the important thing for the future is that we can still remember to unplug from it all. I don’t know how much farther we can go with TV that we aren’t already diving into. I mean, we have TV to watch at home, regular or cable, we have it on our computers and game consoles, on our iPads and MP3 players and now our phones, the thing all of us probably carry with us the most. Right now TV can pretty much reach us anywhere. I think in his article, Web TV Divide is Back in Focus With NBC Sale, Brian Stelter asked an important question “With millions now watching TV on their computers, can the media companies put the Hulu genie back in the bottle?” I don’t think so at all.

As for whether internet television is going to destroy modern television, I don’t really thinks so, people are still going to want to watch programs the first time they are on (the regular time and place) and especially if they start charging for online television I don’t see how it would be much different than paying a cable bill. Sure, it could be cheaper but who’s to say that cable won’t lower theirs to compete or fight to prevent such low costs for content that they also carry. I still don’t think though, that even if they work out a more profitable model for online television that it will kill the TV set; sitting around the television is still a favorite pastime of American families that will die hard.

This was just a really weird and long video about television that I found: