Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Doomsday for Cable Providers?


MOBILE TELEVISION

According to Nielsenwire reports, 116 million mobile phone users access television programs via cell phones.  90% of mobile subscribers have phones, which are internet ready. As our society becomes more addicted to instant gratification and being able to choose when, where and what specific content we want to watch, will traditional cable at home viewing become a dinosaur? Internet sites such as http://www.internet-tvstations.co.uk/ are already becoming commonplace. They are selling consumer friendly software. Many of these claim to tap into International television station’s programming as well as domestic networks. What kind of effect will this have on the U.S. Television Broadcasting industry? Our elderly population, which may not have this technology, or for example, people in hospitals who rely on television as diversion, could end up paying exorbitant prices to cable providers who are already at financial war with each other vying for customers. With the new technology come emerging terms and definitions, new words pop up out of nowhere. Who makes these new words up? I haven’t been able to find who the person was that wrote the terms: space shifting, place shifting, time shifting, format shifting. Sounds all very Science Fiction but is now reality. I remember watching “The Jetsons” when I was a kid (and I still love cartoons!) and thinking that all those gadgets would never come to pass. And what about Dick Tracey’s watch communicator? Now we have spy cameras smaller than buttons. “The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.”
It is definitely an exciting time we are living in right now. Science fiction authors such as HG Wells, Isaac Asimov and Jules Verne predicted this new world long ago. True visionaries. It will be interesting to witness the new revolution in the Broadcasting Industry.

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