Poll: Will The Internet Replace Television?

[SenseOfTumour]

Bonus points to Spartan Banana for that comment

Heh, I think they'll blend their boundaries sure, but also, I imagine the internet will feed TV as much as the other way around.

From what I heard, the Peter Serafinowicz Show (he was the voice of Darth Maul, and the angry flatmate in Shaun of the Dead) was commissioned by the BBC on the basis of a quick short that he made and placed on Youtube, called O! News, a parody of E! news, the celeb 'news' thing. I think more and more it'll be easier to get noticed by way of viral marketing and word of mouth.

Also I think some radio is still going fairly strong, and it's a fairly cheap form of media to set up online too.

I know I listen to more stuff from BBC radio than I watch on BBC TV, and its a springboard for many of the successful comedies, too.

 

[DannyDamage]

maybe internet will replace the newspapers one day when laptops will be cheap and thin enough to wipe your ass with them.

This is something I hope would happen. Not to sound like a hippy or anything, but imagine the paper we'd save! :O

Additional: Not just with newspapers, but with glossy gossip magazines too. [/enjoyment of mental image of thousands of shredded Heat magazines]

 

[OverlordSteve]

On the one hand, Internet. I've got thousands and thousands of cartoons at my fingertips, whenever I want, with minimal ads.

And on the other hand, there's T.V. Blarg.

 

[Easykill]

Well it will replace mine, I can't say I ever gonna bother paying for cable when I have the interwebs at my disposal.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

I recon that while the internet wont replace TV, they will become the same thing.

Media center pcs are taking hold, and as others have said, on demand services like Virgin's free on-demand channel, iPlayer on freeview boxs. This basicly means your tv is nearly a computer now anyway, which accesses a portion of the internet that is just for tv programs.

Its only a matter of time before TVs and PCs are the same thing. That you have a low grade pc box under your tv to let you watch the internet, send emails and everything else on your 42" panal tv. And with Wii style controls, you can use the tv-remote as a mouse!

 

[jim_doki]

Internet and TV are going to be the same thing eventually, it's just not gonna happen in our lifetime. mainly because no one is making enough money on the net to justify TV style commercials

 

[Corven]

this is kind of like the argument of will t.v. replace the radio, as far as I know the radio is still going strong today same for the t.v.

although that might change, it hasn't yet.

 

[DannyDamage]

The fuck is T.V.?

Man, that sounds archaic.

Hahahaha. Cookies for you

 

[silentsentinel]

I thought it already did. I don't watch television anymore. I get all my episodes of House online, and I read the news online.

 

[WhitemageofDOOM]

No, no it won't.

There is quality control to consider. As everyone should know 90% of everything is crap, if you have a new idea there is a 9/10 chance of it being a terrible idea(and 100% chance of someone having already thought it up anyways.), TV filters out most ideas and has a better crap to god filter. Let's say 25% of everything on tv sucks, but the internet has no filter all the horrible ideas won't be self censored they will be pasted onto the web and there creators will refuse to accept it sucks. So 9/10 things you find on the internet will suck.

Further, all that content isn't at your fingertips. while the perfect thing your looking for may be out there on the web you have to find it, depending on popularity this could take anywhere from 10minutes to 10days. 10days is a big cost, or you could have watched tv and watched something acceptable in 10seconds.

 

[DannyDamage]

No, no it won't.

There is quality control to consider. As everyone should know 90% of everything is crap, if you have a new idea there is a 9/10 chance of it being a terrible idea(and 100% chance of someone having already thought it up anyways.), TV filters out most ideas and has a better crap to god filter. Let's say 25% of everything on tv sucks, but the internet has no filter all the horrible ideas won't be self censored they will be pasted onto the web and there creators will refuse to accept it sucks. So 9/10 things you find on the internet will suck.

I see you're point, but at least I wouldn't be stuck with a certain number of channels worth of the same crap. People on TV and on the web alike have been refusing to admit their stuff sucks for ages. Christ, look on youtube and find something really bad, see how much grief people have left for feedback and then see how happy the "director" is. See also: Steven Speilberg.

Further, all that content isn't at your fingertips. while the perfect thing your looking for may be out there on the web you have to find it, depending on popularity this could take anywhere from 10minutes to 10days. 10days is a big cost, or you could have watched tv and watched something acceptable in 10seconds.

To be fair, if I were to make a TV show (no matter how independent) and not know how to advertise correctly, upload trailers and such to video hosting sites and make sure people can find me on Google, I'd be in the wrong industry.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I think they'll probably just merge in the end. You'll just have this big electronic thing with a screen and speakers that does everything. Including serving you cheese and filling your car with petril. It will be called cheeseoid, and it will hate itself.

 

[gothic_dragon]

yes it will
ever since i got broadband i download anything that i would watch on TV witch is basically nothing anyway

 

[Knight Templar]

you should ask "When", not "If".

So yes, next question.

 

[The_Deleted]

TV won't take over TV because TV makes people lazy and kills any imagination.
Why search for anything outside your comfort zone when TV can give you mindless shite like X-Factor & Big Brother?
The very fact that these type of shows are still being made says it all.

 

[DannyDamage]

you should ask "When", not "If".

So yes, next question.

Read my original post. I asked both IF and WHEN actually.

 

[Imperial Avenger]

I have to admit Danny, that I'm in pretty much the same boat as you - Live in the UK, download US TV shows (& Jap anime) & watch them just a day or two later rather than wait months or even years for them to turn up here.

There is one difference between us on this though - Where you watch the shows on TV over here when they are finally aired, I don't even bother with that. If I like a show, I'll keep the downloaded copy either on my external HD or burn it off onto DVD. If I absolutely *love* a show, then I'll go & buy the official DVD box set, but that's the extent of my financial support for them.

To answer your actual question, I agree with those posters who have said that there will be an eventual merging of the two, where you have one big powerful computer in your home that manages all your computing & entertainment. My reason for this is simple - You, I & the growing numbers of people who watch only the shows they want through downloads.

The fact is, as more & more people switch to our method of seeing their favourite shows, show makers will have to embrace the internet as a delivery system or face a near-business-collapsing loss of viewers.

 

[Knight Templar]

you should ask "When", not "If".

So yes, next question.

Read my original post. I asked both IF and WHEN actually.

I though you asked both and my statement still stands in any case.

 

[poleboy]

The internet will absorb TV and become the horrible abomination we never dared dream would one day exist. All the shitty TV you never wanted to see in the first place, dumped in your inbox every morning. Glorious.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It's an interesting topic and certainly one most companies in the industry are abreast of. As someone mentioned, in the case of most mainstream shows, the Internet is the marketing tool of choice. Advertising on social networking sites, media rich sites for the show and even the (annoying) viral ads that make the rounds get people's attention and remind them to watch it on TV. Advertising revenue is still the reason...youtube won't spend millions on a show, a TV channel will, and they get that money from advertising (or license fees o.o).

Saying that, TV in the UK is generally quite dire, and after watching some US TV whilst on holiday there recently, I cannot imagine how anyone can watch it at all...at least not without an industrial strength Tivo/DVR!

The beauty of the Internet compared with traditional broadcasts is that it's on-demand. We watch what we want, when we want. Although waiting for a new episode of your favourite show to start can be be a little exciting, the stupid companies showing episodes at different times/dates around the world have killed it. Why wait for a season premiere on UK TV when you can download it weeks in advance, often without adverts, to watch at your convenience?

When the digital camera first came out, it was pricey and awful quality, but the convenience of digital pictures outweighed the negatives and now it's become prevalent. The Internet/TV thing is changing how we watch things rapidly. TV wil always be there, it has to be, but they need to release things simultanously world-wide and stop churning out garbage if it's to regain any popularity. I think systems like XBox Marketplace and other on-demand services will the be the next big thing though.

I personally download any shows I watch, straight to a NAS. I can then watch them on a TV, from a sofa, through my home entertainment system, thanks to a modified XBox and XBMC.