Category: Media Industry Author : Duncan Riley Posted: January 23, 2009
Tags : television
We’ve long argued that broadcast television, that is television broadcast over the air, your traditional television stations days are numbered. The rise of on demand television shows online, despite internet enabled televisions still yet to be available in millions of homes (many launched at CES) shows a switch away from traditional broadcast television.
The counter argument has always been live, big events, such as sport will sustain broadcast television, although as we’ve seen many sporting bodies are now embracing live online feeds as well. But something strange happened for the inauguration of President Barack Obama: despite live coverage being offered on nearly every station, millions turned to online streams to watch.
How many? well the methodology isn’t brilliant, but NewTeeVee counts 70 million views vs 35 million for television. Even allowing for repeat views (each load is counted, vs viewership with television) online streams at very least rivaled broadcast television.
Millions didn’t turn on their televisions, instead they turned to the web. Live streaming on the internet has moved past a curiosity and bit player to become mainstream.
Which raises an obvious question: if people are happy to watch live television on a computer, even before many can play the stream on their televisions, how long now until the idea of broadcasting over the air dies?
Broadcast television stations involve large costs for licenses to broadcast. If their viewers are just as happy watching online, why continue broadcasting over the air?
As newspapers are slowly starting to switch to online only (or just closing), it’s conceivable that broadcast television stations may follow a similar pattern, although with cable thrown into the mix. Cable offers penetration into most houses in the United States, and internet offers a replacement to the costly broadcast licenses and supporting technology needed to broadcast, particularly so with the switch to digital television.
Within the next five years, internet enabled televisions will be mainstream, and along side video on demand, users may well pick a stream from their local station instead of an over the air signal. Broadcast television will die, and like newspapers, the smart stations will dump their attachment to the airwaves, and have long and possibly prosperous futures.
![BREAKING: CNN gets first interview with anti-abortion killer of Dr. Tiller [VIDEO]](http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/cnn-150x150.png)
Jan 24, 2009
i think that since the inauguration was during the day, most people were stuck at their cubicle with no TV.
Jan 24, 2009
1. Traditional broadcast license owners in the US have considerable political clout. I would not underestimate their ability to survive.
2. Obama's speech was in the middle of a work day in the US, where people do not generally have access to TV. However they do have the internet and a computer…
3. It would seem the marginal costs of TV are nearly 0 for each additional user. The marginal cost for each new internet video is horrendous. Something to think about.
Jan 24, 2009
You ask a great question, Duncan. “If their viewers are just as happy watching online, why continue broadcasting over the air?”
The short answer is Mobile Digital Television. You'll start seeing this here in the U.S. in 2010, although devices will be available later this year. The license that broadcasters have allows them to program multiple digital channels, and I think you're going to see some very creative things coming down the pike, including deals for mobile digital viewing of cable shows, sports and cable channels like CNN. The big deal about MDTV is that it's free, and when hardware makers start putting the chips in their devices, people won't have to pay for TV delivered via the Web, and this is a pretty big deal. If anybody wants to make their programming available for mobile digital TV, they'll have to go through a local broadcaster.
So while traditional, network-affiliated local broadcasting is a dead horse, the pony of mobile digital is just learning to walk.
Jan 26, 2009
Not so fast. Did it ever occur to you that millions of people were at work so they watched it on their computer screens at work? YOU may think that the Internet is killing broadcast TV (because since you spend all YOUR time on the Internet, that must mean the rest of the population does!), but apparently advertisers haven't realized that yet. They're still spending the bulk of their ad dollars on network broadcast TV which still has the massive numbers that they want.