Subscription Television Bleeding, But Is TV Terminal?
New reports show that traditional television is losing customers across the board, including network, cable and satellite providers. The culprit, of course, is the ever-growing presence of the Internet. Unlike television, the Internet is fluid and adaptable, offering almost daily innovations to end-users for customizing their entertainment options.
For the most part, the Internet is a highly personal experience — just you and your online device, be it a computer, a smart phone, an e-reader or some variation. While some services and devices are able to stream Internet content to the family television, most of us opt for more intimate and personal experiences. What does this individualization mean to families who learn to experience most of their entertainment alone?
When I was a kid, the public lament was that television was ruining the family because it was a passive medium — everyone clustered around a screen, manipulated by laugh tracks to guffaw on cue. But this weekend, with lots of family in town (in my house), I realized how much fun it can be to watch a movie or a show or a football game together, all clustered around the screen.
It seems we've lost some of that communal time as we have migrated toward the Internet. You watch the shows you want to watch, when you want to watch them, where you want to watch them. It's a convenient experience, but a lonely one. There are no compromises to be made, no discoveries that another person's choice may enrich in ways that you wouldn't have considered.
I remember watching the Humphrey Bogart/Katharine Hepburn classic The African Queen on TV with my mom and dad when I was a young teen. "This is a great one," they said. "Sit down and watch it with us." So I did, and I loved it. Today, I think I probably would have demurred and gone to check in with Facebook before catching up on an episode of "True Blood" — alone, in my room, on my laptop, leaving Rose and Mr. Allnut to navigate their difficult cruise without me, and me the poorer for not taking the ride with them and my family.
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