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TV's Fuzzy Future: Left to Their Own Devices, Viewers Are Cutting the Cord – washingtonpost.com
TV’s Fuzzy Future: Left to Their Own Devices, Viewers Are Cutting the Cord – washingtonpost.com.
Of course, this was the kind of thing i used to blog about over at lostremote.com.
We’ve been watching the three screen world for a few years now, and also looking at lean back and lean forward viewing experiences.
As a journalism prof/editor, I am a little suprised Paul didn’t talk to the folks over comcast or dish or other MSOs, who are in the business of keeping you glued to the tube. On demand services are actually getting pretty good, and the tivo-type appliance does things very well. We also don’t hear much about how not-well the apple tv product did.
the deal with tv is that it is easy and it looks good and is comfortable. what people are missing about the computer as a viewing device is yes, i can watch stuff, but do i want to. after i’ve been sitting at it all day. and do i want to put the work into it. those that want to be entertained will be ok with just sitting down, and seeing what’s on.
also, webisodes have a very high burnout rate. this was unmentioned in the companion article. An AdAge article by Michael Learmonth I blogged at lostremote back in January mentioned that the top 50 web series lost 64% of their audience from the first episode to the second. that’s fickle.
There are 1 Comments to "TV's Fuzzy Future: Left to Their Own Devices, Viewers Are Cutting the Cord – washingtonpost.com"
I think AppleTV fizzled because Apple hamstrung it with a DRM/proprietary focus that made it almost impossible for me to send things straight from the internet to AppleTV to watch. Then came Boxee. Once I put that on my AppleTV (which Apple made as difficult as possible to install) I shut off my cable connection. That’s why Hulu got so twitchy about Boxee. The big guys see the disruption in the current model that this represents.
On Webisode retention rate, how does that compare to new shows on network TV? I’m betting, given the high kill rate of new shows each season, the drop-off rate also is precipitous for most shows. And that’s with the considerable branding/promotional power the networks throw at it. But my webisode vs. network TV probably is a specious comparison anyway. The former is a long-tail type of medium, where most programming isn’t going to be your cup of tea; the latter is a mass medium where every show is designed to reach the largest possible audience. So I’d expect to see high drop-off rates on webisodes as people fish around for the niche that suits them.
Given this, I think we’re going to see a burning need for a way to sort through all the crap and find stuff that really will interest us. That’s where social networks and reviewers who can point you to the gems will be critical. Think TIVO’s recommendation engine on crystal meth.
I think Comcast, NBC and Co. need to be worried about what’s coming. I have no desire to get 300 channels of crap I’m not interested in. And I’m not terribly interested in VOD as the cable companies currently try to impose it. I want to watch what I want, when I want, where I want … for a reasonable price. Maybe all the noise about micropayments in the newspaper industry is more applicable to broadcast in the long run …