Guest writer David Samuel takes a look at the ongoing changes in viewing habits.
In a nation renowned for its couch potatoes, you would expect TV’s in U.S. households to be more popular than ever with the plethora of recent technology advancements including HD TVs & 3D TVs. However, for the first time since 1992 U.S. households’ containing a television has declined by over 2%. While the decline is small, the shift in power is immense.
This change can be explained by the explosion of high-speed internet – from 2007 to 2009 broadband internet connections across American households increased by nearly two thirds; this is the most recently available data.
In January 2010, the Consumer Electronics Association (CE) revealed that sales of televisions fell by 1%, while sales of internet-enabled televisions increased by a monstrous 150%. Households across the globe with broadband internet connection are progressively turning to the internet as their principal media portal.
It’s estimated that in 2011 internet TV’s as well as 3D TV sales will grow by over 60% in the U.S due to increased content from videos games, TV events, Blu-ray films and HD sporting events. Other electrical equipment, such as high definition audio units, is also increasing in popularity due to this demand.
The internet generation is no longer buying traditional televisions and are instead opting to stream media over the internet. In the future more households will have a mission control like layout, where both the TV and internet will be consumed. But, what will this cocktail media viewing unit be called? I quite like Media Viewing Device (MVD) – that’s my call – what’s yours?
Biography:
David Samuel is an electronic media consultant, with over 13 years’ involvement with some of the leading electronic retailers. David’s awareness and market intelligence make him one of the best equipped experts around. While specializing in HD TVs, David’s knowledge covers a wider spectrum of consumer electronics.
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Yep, there’s definitely a trend in this direction. The question, as I see it, is how this will change the media itself. But perhaps that’s another issue altogether.
Hey Writerdood,
You raise an interesting point – undoubtedly we’ll see readjustments to Marshall McLuhans “The medium is the message”.
This year I’m live streaming The Stanley Cup Playoffs (dereguer for a Canadian), to a window on my machine – just as I did last year. Work and play in one environment – how cool is that?
Bill
I see the trend as stated by writerdood, as HD TV’s get cheaper as the years go, I know a lot of people who uses an HD TV as their computer monitor. I guess the manufacturers caught up and started marketing all these new Internet TV’s that have popped-up recently.
Hey Tech84,
I hear ya. BIG monitors make computing a whole new experience.
Bill
I see this happening in our household already. Once we got off our miserable satellite ISP my son never bother to hook up the cable in his room to his widescreen TV he bought himself. Instead he streams Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. My wife and I still watch some television but with all these services coming online it won’t be long.
The only problem is bandwidth caps which are getting more onerous all the time. I see this as a huge barrier to progress, especially when the ISP is also a content provider over cable or copper such as Comcast or ATT in the US.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Up here we have limited competition in this market. The amount of cross-ownership (cable, internet providers, newspapers, magazines, TV networks) is disgraceful. I can’t think of another country that allows it. As a result, the threat of caps is forever being held over our heads.
I have no doubt that it’s coming your way.
Best,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I subscribe to Sky+HD for day-to-day viewing, so download caps are not a problem. My TV is connected to the internet, so I can watch catch-up and YouTube along with a wealth of other content plus on-demand films (although I tend to watch those via the Sky satellite box). Sky’s latest foray is AnyTime+ which reckons to provide unlimited on-demand films free to Sky+ and Sky Broadband subscribers. Obviously download caps would come into play there.
Being dead old-fashioned I still keep web surfing and TV viewing separate but I think we are very lucky to have such a wide choice.
Kind regards
John Bent
Hi John,
You sound like you’re all set. Unfortunately here, the gov’t is still in the horse and buggy age when it comes to technology.
Best,
Bill