In this era of ‘availability’, it is now scarce for households to not have some form of television extra to that of terrestrial channels. To not have subscription TV seems to somehow disable you socially, be it by not having money to afford it, or by not being able to watch a certain channel or show that everyone is talking about. According to National Statistics, in April 2007, 2 in 3 UK households had digital TV service.
With digital Television there has also been a rise in technology for ‘On-Demand’ or ‘Anytime’ TV, as well as the increasing number of people owning digital set top boxes with recording capabilities.
The history of cable television in Britain is rarely discussed within the context of historical development of British broadcasting. As a result, its appearance (…) is that of a new development and even a motor of the information and technology age. (Negrine, 1985. p103)
Although the public are still watching television programmes on television, they are no longer watching the programmes at their scheduled times. Services such as Sky + enable viewers to record the programmes they chose to watch on to their set top box and view them at their own leisure at a time convenient to them.
Today, the idea of seems increasingly quaint. We no longer watch television in living rooms, whose furniture has been arranged to maximize viewing. With these new “sets” (or ways) to watch television programming, we are seeing a similar shift from efficiency to control. VCRs showed a glimpse of the shift towards control. However, with the improved interface and storage capacity of Tivo and other DVR systems, the process of recording television and obtaining control became much easier and evolved our relationship to the medium. (Cha, 2006)
The viewer now needs to be in control of what they watch and when they watch it otherwise they will simply not bother. An even more recent development of recording and storage systems within digital TV services is that of the ‘On-Demand’ service. This was first made widely available to watch on your television by Virgin Media. The principle of ‘On-Demand’ is that the set top box automatically stores certain programmes; however they are of the choice of the digital television supplier, which are then available for the viewer to watch whenever they wish within a set period of time. For example, on Virgin On-Demand, episodes of EastEnders are saved for a full week. As well as giving the viewer the choice of when they wish to view the programme without consciously having to set it on to record, as is necessary with recording facilities, it gives the service the vital element of ‘Catch Up’ which is important for many people in their busy and contemporary lifestyles. Sky Plus have also recently introduced their ‘Anytime TV’ facility which has the same function as that of Virgin, however it is notable that Sky mostly records and stores movies as opposed to television programmes. BT Vision also has their own version called Vision TV, which also records movies and programmes, but also stores full series and seasons of popular television shows such as ‘Lost’.
These features of digital television inevitably lead to another important development in the world of available and on demand television, the online media player. Televisions and computers are beginning to merge into an indistinguishable medium where by either one is interchangeable for the other.
All the major UK terrestrial TV channels now have an online player of sorts which allows you to watch just about any of the shows you may have missed on you computer at your own convenience. The BBC iPlayer’s slogan of ‘Making the unmissable missable’ really does sum up the whole principle of online players. Channel 4 have 4OD, ITV have Catch Up and Five have Five Demand. The following are the stated facilities available on the BBC iPlayer.
About BBC iPlayer
With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past week.
If you are in the UK and connected to the internet you can:
- Play programmes from the past seven days and watch them on the website through Click to Play (streaming). This works on Windows, Macs, Linux, Nintendo Wii and iPhones - and we're working on more ways.
-
Download TV programmes and store them on your computer for up to 30 days .
If you are outside the UK and connected to the internet you can:
-
Listen live and listen again to
(BBC, 2008)
BBC iPlayer is by far the most successful example of online media players at the moment; however the other channels are not far behind. Due to the increased time the population spends on computers and the internet, online media players are becoming ever more the chosen form in which to watch television programmes.
In the UK, for example, the success of the BBC's iPlayer has created surges in traffic that will require ISPs to add capacity to their networks. Even before the advent of the iPlayer, Ofcom in 2006 said they will need to spend (euro) 830 million over five years. Ofcom says 42 million programmes were accessed via the iPlayer in the first three months after launch in July 2007, and ISPs have called for the BBC to help shoulder the cost of local access infrastructure upgrade. (Taaffe, 2008.)
It is also becoming more and more vital for broadcasters to provide these services for viewers else it is inevitable that they shall end up resorting to free file sharing sites in order to watch the programmes.
Broadcasters realise that if they do not make popular programming available for download it is likely to end up being accessed for free on peer-to-peer sites beyond their control. (Taaffe, 2008.)
The use of online viewing and video sharing sites is reaching astronomical figures with statistics such as 48% of internet users using sites such as You Tube in December 2007. In the past year those figures have undoubtedly grown and prove how important it is for broadcasters to keep up with the internet.
Another interesting feature of television which has come about in the past decade is the idea of interactivity.
The broadcasting industry in the UK is moving into a world of digital plenty leaving behind a far more comfortable and predictable world of analogue scarcity. Simultaneously it is attempting to reshape its relationship with audiences with integrated interactive content. As the computer and television consoles in our homes merge and become exponentially more powerful, television executives are increasingly looking to interactivity to woo promiscuous audiences. (Jones in Mathijs & Jones, 2004.)
Many programmes have their own websites and a variety of different ways in which the viewer can interact with the programmes. Big Brother is a prime example of an interactive multi-platform television programme.
The show allows for viewers to access information and participate in voting and opinion based sessions in a number of different ways such as broadcast, internet, interactive TV, mobile SMS and MMS, tabloid narratives, landline phone and so on.
Overall it is true to say that television is still very much in existence however the form in which it is broadcast to the nation has changed and is continuing to change dramatically as time goes on. Television is no longer ruled by schedules and terrestrial channels. Instead it is controlled by viewers who are subsequently changing the way television is produced, its content, form and mode of broadcast. Gone are the days where people set their alarms in order to watch the latest episode of their favourite programme, instead, television is made readily available for those who wish to see it whenever and ever more importantly, wherever they want. It is not uncommon to see people watching TV on their laptops or phones on trains and in other public places. Viewers are demanding what they want to watch therefore broadcasters are having to make their programmes on demand in order to prevent the use of file sharing and peer to peer sites. Television does still exist, however its fundamental definition is most definitely changing.
Bibliography
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Taaffe, J. (2008) Channel Changing. Total Telecom Magazine. July/August, p25