If you live in Canada it is impossible to legally watch many TV shows online. The only major station that offers a decent broadband network is CTV.
If you watch TV shows online, but don't watch them on a network website or a site like Hulu, you are contributing to the demise of television. OK, so I may be exaggerating, but I do have a point to make.
TV shows air to sell ads. Ads pay for the networks. Networks pay the studios for the shows. Studios pay actors, writers, and producers to make TV shows. Advertisers pay the networks to air ads so that people will see those advertisements between shows and buy products. We watch shows for entertainment and subsequently watch ads. Nielsen measures which shows we watch the most and when we watch the most to determine how much a network can charge for ads.
Now, networks put ads online to draw more viewers. Advertisers pay for online ads just like on TV. Writers went on strike to demand a higher pay one time.
If we stop watching TV shows on TV or online then we also stop watching the ads that the advertisers want us to watch. The networks don't boast high ratings for the shows we like. The advertisers stop paying as much for the ads. The studios stop making our show.
So, if you like a show you should do the decency to watch it on TV or watch it on a network or studio website (legally) and avoid a possible cancelation. Decent TV shows need our support. Just look at what happened to Arrested Development.
4 comments:
I get what you're saying, but I don't necessarily agree. I basically stopped watching TV shows as they aired when I started university because I often worked in the evenings on the best TV nights. And then I didn't have cable for a while. I have it now, but only basic cable.
I think it's also up to the networks to develop decent on-demand streaming video on their websites - video you can full screen, pause, fast forward and rewind.
I don't really watch prime-time series anymore because none of them appeal to me much. I'm happy going old school and watching relatively recent but now off-air series like the X-Files, Star Trek(s), Buffy, etc. But then again I'm a huge nerd.
I think that people have a new sense of urgency when it comes to almost anything. Consumption for the North American person is on a need-it-now basis. On demand services will be popping up more. However, there are plenty of alternatvies to satisfy both our need to have things when we want, while still financially supporting our shows (p.s. it sucks firefly was cancelled). iTunes sells TV shows. Also, you can easily make your computer into a PVR with the eyeTV by Elgato.
How about we force the tv networks to adapt? How is it any fault of the viewer if the networks can't figure out a way to monetize their content?
The Internet has changed the game for a lot of industries. The television, recording, and newspaper will have to adapt their businesses, but their customers shouldn't be expected to use less convenient methods to get the content. Watch TV online. It's better than watching it on TV. Just like downloading music is better than going to the store and buying it on a piece of plastic.
Thanks for the comment Nate. I'm not saying that you shouldn't watch shows online, I'm just saying that you should do it in a way where the money flows to the creators of the shows you love. Be it a network or studio website, iTunes, or through the use of a PVR. Let's admit though, that people watch TV on other links where no money or record of viewers will flow to a positive effect for the shows writers, actors, and producers.
Yeah, we can and are able to watch shows just like downloading music. And just the same we can choose the source of our downloading. Do we do it in a way that supports the artists or do we do it in a way that doesn't? I choose to support the music and the shows that I feel are worthwhile.
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