This is part of a series about the first decade of the twenty-first century, also known as the Zero Decade or zerodec. Text from DJCline.com.
Television
Ten years ago I was still watching television on a cathode ray tube (CRT) at home. Occasionally I would record something with a VCR onto a VHS cassette tape. To be honest I had bought a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TV in 1989, but it was a small Casio portable I took on trips to get weather reports. The first big LCD TV I bought was a computer monitor connected to an external TV tuner. It was the same size picture as my old TV but with a sharper picture, particularly with DVDs. Eventually I bought a HD digital wide screen connected to a cable box with digital video recorder (DVR). By editing out commercials I could watch a week’s worth of programming in a few hours. When YouTube and TV networks began putting shows on the web, I began watching on my laptop and then on a phone.
Twenty years ago there were four broadcast television networks. At the start of the decade there eight: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PAX, PBS, UPN and Warners. By the end, there were five, for good reason. Networks broadcast more reality shows to cut costs. Viewers decided to watch the hundreds of cable networks all churning the old broadcast content and limited original programming as seen on HBO or Showtime. Viewers also spent more time online or playing video games.
The audience and advertising revenues got smaller. Not long ago Oprah Winfrey announced she was ending her broadcast TV show. What many people did not notice was that she is moving the show to her own cable network. RCA recently sold NBC to Comcast for the same reason, there is not enough revenue from advertising any more. Most networks now show better programming on their own cable channels where revenue comes from subscribers and advertising.
Analog broadcasts ended in 2008, eroding audiences further to those who had access to digital equipment or cable access. The old bandwidth is being carved up for new digital services. The age of mass media for mass audience was over, or so I thought.
Audiences are drawn to new content. While there is a lot of bad video online, there is some good. A cheaply produced YouTube video can be seen by as many people as an expensive network show. I have seen some great stuff online that would have never been greenlighted by a network executive. Online video can tell more stories better and cheaper than networks. I’m sure there will be big corporations trying to corner the markets and control technologies but audiences are no longer sheep. If you cannot create good content, they will create their own.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
