Television: Then vs. Now

Television: Then vs. now Gone are the days of the vacuum tube, rabbit ears and even cable television. Digital cable and video recording have created a new standard for television, while high-speed broadband Internet has led to the emergence of on-demand streaming services that are tackling broadcast television head-on. Will one emerge victorious or will the two join forces? The story of the American love affair with television reveals the details. TV through the ages within the U.S. 1949 Across the country, only a few programs x 6,000 are available to viewers. About 6,000 TV sets in use in the U.S. 1955 • More than 50% of Americans own a TV in their home. ABC, NBC and CBS produce a variety of programs viewed by millions. Television enters the Golden Age. 1960 More channels become available to viewers, challenging the three traditional networks. Cable television emerges. 1971 • TV broadcasters are designed for cable distribution. HBO, CNN and ESPN emerge. Cable distribution starts trending. • Widely available and at a low cost, VHS lets viewers record/play programs in their homes. • Viewers gain some control over what they watch for the first time. 1980 Video Home System (VHS) is introduced. 1991 • Television providers begin beaming custom television packages directly into homes. Viewers gain more control over what they watch. Direct broadcast analog satellite emerges. early 2000s Fueled by fast broadband speeds, online streaming video services (i.e. YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion) provide viewers with instant Television enters the Internet Age. access to programs. 2007 • 1,000 movie titles are available to viewers. Netflix provides online movie streaming. Viewers gain a high-quality web viewing experience. 2009 • Traditional analog TV broadcasting ceases. • Digital video recorders allow viewers to record REC Digital-only broadcasting peaks. their favorite shows with ease. Now Television viewing is changing. • Online video and TV streaming (i.e. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon) offer hundreds of thousands of movies and TV shows on demand to viewers globally. Telecom companies and TV providers are merging to take advantage of pay-TV services delivered via the Internet. • More people than ever are binge watching their favorite shows online; 73% say they watch between two to six episodes in one sitting. However, traditional TV still dominates. In 2012, 83% of Americans said they watch broadcast TV more than once a week. More people are cutting the cord. 11% 23% 41% 72% aged 65-69 stream videos reduced stream on got rid of their cable their TV their mobile TV packages. consumption. on-demand 1 or devices more/week. weekly. Millennials are also setting a trend. Teens and people in their early 20s... 48% 44% watch more shows on their watch on computers and mobile devices than on their televisions. watch on their TVs their devices VS. Credit: Michelle Lee for Tech Page One, 2014 Anderson, Nate. "Netflix o ffers streaming movies to sub scribers." Ars technica. http://arstechnica.com/uncate go rized/2007/01/8627/. January 16, 2007. Garay, Ronald. "Direct Broadcast Satellite" Mu seum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.muse um. tv/eo tv/direc tb roadc.htm. West, Kelly. Television Blend. "Unsurprisingly: Netflix Survey Indicates People Like to Binge-Watch TV." December 13, 2013. Gillette, Felix. "Why AT&T Wants to Acquire Direc TV." Bloomberg Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-13/why-at-and-t-wants-to-acquire-directv. May 13, 2014. Deloitte Development LLC. "Digital Democracy Survey." http://recodetech. files.wordpress.com/2014/03/deloitte_digitaldemocracy_tv-1.pdf. 2014. "The End of Analog Television. " MediaCollege.com. http://www.mediacollege.com/video /television/ analog/end.html. March 3, 2008. Eric sson Consumerlab. "TV and Media: Identifying the needs of tomorrow's video consumers." http://www.eric sson.com /res/docs/2013/consumerlab/tv-and-med ia-consumerlab 2013.pdf. 2013. Ogundele, Ayansola D. and Adediran, Yinusa A. "History of Satellite Broadcasting: Development and Advancement of Radio and Television Broadcasting." National Space Research and Development Agency. Federal University of Technology, Mina. http://unilorin.edu.ng/publications/adediranya. 2010. "History of the VHS." A History of American Technology. http://histo ryoftech.umwblogs.org/. Stephens, Mitchell. "History of Television" http://www.nyu.edu /classes/stephens/History%20of %20Television%20page.htm.