Is the Television finished?

Is the Television finished?

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With the coming of the television age into America in the 1960s and before, and more so Britain during the 1960s and 1970s during the Harold MacMillan "You've never had it so good!" consumer era, television has become a staple of homes up and down the country and we know think of the television as being as essential as say the fridge or toaster is. But is this all coming to an end? With the advent of the internet and computers during the 1990s, digital media has grown at an amazing speed and during the past few years many television channels have found themselves being directly challenged by well-funded outsiders on the internet much as Fox News challenged the media consensus in America during the 1980s.

So is television finished as we, especially the younger generations, all begin to glue ourselves to our computer screens as we leave the older folks to the living rooms? Or is it the case that television and television channels are adapting themselves and becoming more flexible (such as Sky+, Virgin OnDemand) as there will always be a market for a family setting?

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The debate is open to you.

Televisions are still used to watch TV but not as much. I personally bought a wide screen tv and barely use it, my mum paid for aerial installation in my room and I barely use it. I use netflix on laptops, tablets and occasionally on my TV via xbox.

Decades ago families would sit down as a family to watch TV and that was the norm and now that doesn't happen as much. We're not controlled by a TV schedule, thanks to catch up services we can now watch shows whenever we want on any device which brings the decline of the TV.

People will always want to be able to watch something on a big screen in their home whether that is in the living room or bedroom. This is where the television comes into it - Now what it is connected to has changed over the years and will continue to change. As more and more people like the on-demand services and also like to subscribe to NETFLIX. I think the broadcasting companies know this and that's why they have put money into BBC iPlayer, 4oD and all the other on-demand services the other channels support.

Seeing as your cable boxes can also connect to these on-demand services and also a lot of them can now support apps which will enable to watch Netflix on the TV as well.

It's changed, it's not coming to an end though. It's been made easier so you can watch what you want, when you want it. Rather than sticking to a specific date/time like you would have done a good few years ago before on-demand services came about.

Thats the reason why cinemas continue to bring out new technology as they know people want the latest technological experience. I do agree they're not coming to an end, with smart TV's manafacturers bringing what the consumer wants. TV's in my opinion though are just getting used less than they used to be definitely. With further viewing technology TV's could be on the increase again but right now different services and platforms have changed that allowing us to stream from virtually anywhere.

We are currently living in a golden age of television. The quality of shows is currently on par with feature films, and A-List celebrities are even starring in shows, which before was unheard of. Shows such as Game of Thrones, Mad Men, House of Cards and Breaking Bad highlight just how good television is at the moment, where the average budget per episode for Game of Thrones is around $7-8 Million, meaning an entire season is just short of 100 Million Dollars, a figure, which before would seem absurd for a television show. Cable on the other hand is a dying medium, as we are currently seeing with the rise of streaming services such as Netflix. People don't want to have to pay for channels they don't want to watch, and if the cable companies don't attempt to change with the times they will meet a similar demise to the one that Kodak suffered when they refused to adapt to digital cameras.

Do you mean the television set itself because there's absolutely no reason to assume there's any sort of decline in the quality or consumption of television production and viewing; people are more interested now in series and ongoing sets than singular films as shown by how many modern films are essentially themselves just one episode of a long season of the same story

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

Do you mean the television set itself because there's absolutely no reason to assume there's any sort of decline in the quality or consumption of television production and viewing; people are more interested now in series and ongoing sets than singular films as shown by how many modern films are essentially themselves just one episode of a long season of the same story

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I assumed the debate was on the television set itself not production but other services like Netflix & Lovefilm definitely impact upon it

I'm confused,

Is the debate about television sets themselves or how the content of television is declining or the way we watch television?

It probably will come to an end. Perhaps all a TV will be in the future is a big screen that connects to your computer or something (which already basically exists, I know). However, I very rarely watch things on my laptop and stick to the actual TV for it, not including youtube obviously.

I can't see it being removed completely in the future, only changed to adapt to how we use new technology.

P.S I only read the title or something so ya, dnno if I'm answering it right lol

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Originally Posted by iBlueBox

I'm confused,

Is the debate about television sets themselves or how the content of television is declining or the way we watch television?

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Both.