Does Television have a future?

With youngsters increasingly switching to the web for their entertainment, does Televison have a future when this is the next generation coming up? Or will the same content simply be provided in a different way? A TV and Computer combo for instance?

Is this your media studies homework?


No doubt it has a future - where possible people still like to slump down on the sofa and watch what they can on a full screen TV, rather than sat watching a computer screen.


Of course though it will evolve - it's beginning too with On Demand services such as Virgin and BT Vision, but that area will ultimately expand and become the norm. I think though scheduled programming still has a future, especially with live shows and events.

No But the thought did cross my mind when I was posting

I hope TV Production does continue for a long time to come too, I can't see the content aspect of it dying out at all as people will always want to be entertained and on a professional basis, not some 'joker' on YouTube. However I'm unsure who will be the main players in the years to come will be - I'm sure the BBC will survive (with a license fee or not) but ITV are Channel 4 - who knows? I could see the internet giants such as Google and YouTube becoming ever more important.

Hmmm lol don't know why I've posted now!

I think it will by about 2015 have come full circle. I think the view of 'traditional TV as we know it is dying' is premature and analysis to this end is flawed. In the transitory period linear TV will get less popular and online will boom, but when everything peters out at the end (as I say, around 2015, post switchover and into HD times) it'll be as it was, more or less.

I imagine VOD and online catchup will become much more popular in the runup to the switchover, and ratings will fall. But by about 2015, HD scheduled TV will have become the norm, and 'real' TV will be popular again.

By then, I can see the ratings system accommodating nearly all forms of watching - Sky+, V+ etc as well as live and timeshift. I think also that mainstream channels like BBC One, ITV1 and Channel 4 will still ride high and multichannel won't grow enormously, not to the point where big channels suffer anyway. I think schedules will change too over time, more 'event' programming and probably longer seasons will be more economical as things become more organised and streamlined.

I also think the main online service will be a joint venture, rather than individual sites like iPlayer, 4OD or ITV.com. That 'Kangaroo' service will be it I think, offering all content in a range of pay per view and free with advertising on multi-platform. I don't see a huge future for mobile TV. People like the experience, and computers won't eclipse living room TVs, let alone mobiles. I also don't think there's a huge future for stuff like Apple TV, either, even though it's a living room solution.

I'd like to think that in 10/15 years time, watching scheduled TV will still be the top way of watching by far. And I'm pretty sure it will, actually. It'll come full circle and eventually the transitional periods will finish. Traditional linear TV will be very popular but online will too, in a much more organised, efficient way.

and then this opens up the Question about local news coverage.....

Local news coverage will be dead in the water I reckon on the TV front.
Local radio is more accessible as you can listen to it virtually anywhere. For local news I reckon it'll take over eventually.

On the TV front, linear TV will probably still exist to a degree but I reckon on-demand services will make up the bulk of people's viewing eventually - being able to watch what you want when you want will become popular once people realise just how flexible it is.

Local news I think will wind up being on BBC alone. ITV will give up when they see it makes no money.

I agree, haven't they already done away with several slots for local news, I was off last Tuesday awaiting a new matress & had ITV on in the background (God knows why) and didn't recall the news coming on much (although that Go awful Loose Women is still on I see). Comparing it with 2002 (when I was out of work) and I seem to remember a half hour show at lunchtime for the national news & then a half hour one for London Today.

But who on earth wants to watch crappy quality (both in terms of content and audio/video quality, scratch that, it's horrendous) on youtube and its ilk? People keep on banging on about Youtube being the death of television, but I can't ever see it happening.
Certainly, with the quality as it stands on youtube, i can't bear to watch and/or hear stuff on there. Watching short clips maybe if I can't get them anywhere else, but for watching programmes on it, no.

Plus of course would youTube be anywhere near as popular as it is if it didn't contain programmes originally made for TV in the first place?

Until somebody is willing to put big money in Internet only productions, i can't see TV going anywhere.

I can't see ITV fully giving it up, but I for some reason I think they'll probably expand the Super Regions, so there would only be like 6 or 7 in the end. But I can see the BBC Regional News being quite strong.

Television is still the main form of how people get their entertainment and I can see that for the future, I think theres only so much people can take of the Internet. As long as event Television is still happening then you still have a purpose for many people to watch the TV in one go, such as Families and this kind of thing gets people talking.

This is something that always bugs me about online video. In 'the old' tv world you get one box and I can watch shows from the BBC, Sky or whoever..

But in the online world if i want to watch BBC i have to go to one place and download there software or go to Iplayer, but if i want a channel 4 show i have to get there software then somewhere else for Sky.

It just gets all messy and having to have all these different types of software just to watch a show. If they all collaborated on one portal it would be easy.