It happens after every major TV/Film/Music award show: the social media world boldly proclaims that social media will change the way these shows are produced/consumed. As much as I’d love to agree, I just can’t.
Hypothesis 1: Viewership down, social media up
During the Emmy’s broadcast last night, I must have read at least 10 tweets proclaiming the death of Television Award Shows because nobody was watching and everyone was on Social Media (and really, let’s be honest – it’s not so much that you’re on “social media”, you’re on Twitter playing around in the #Emmys hashtag).
The Verdict: False
Sure, social media is up. It’s been trending upward for a long time – but that doesn’t mean that it’s rise coincides with television’s fall. If you were live-tweeting the Emmys last night, you were likely sitting on your couch, laptop/iPhone/iPad/Internet appliance in hand, watching the Emmy’s on NBC. How is television going to fail again?
Hypothesis 2: TV on the Internet is on its way
Another thing I saw a lot was how the use of live streaming video will gradually move users away from the TV and to their computers.
The Verdict: Still a few years away
How much screen real estate do you have? On my 15″ MacBook Pro, I have 1440 x 900 pixels to play with. If Tweetdeck is open, it’s taking up the entire 1440 pixels wide. How big is your TV? I have a 42″ LCD in my living room – much more conducive to watching, you know, TV.
Also in play is the fact that we’re just now starting to see penetration of Fiber Optic services with AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS services into major metropolitan areas. Once DSL bites the dust and everyone has 10Mbps+ connections, I think you’ll start to see a rise in a la carte TV offerings served up by the likes of Hulu, Plex, et cetera.
And AT&T – if you’re reading this, please hurry up and bring U-Verse to my neighborhood. I was spoiled prior to moving and desperately want it back!
Conclusions
Hollywood loves to have their egos stroked, so we won’t see a change in the way these shows are broadcast or produced to accommodate the end user any time soon. Actors needs to be loved, Directors need to be told they’re great, Writers need to be acknowledged. Television is not like the newspaper industry – it’s here to stay (at least until the technology can catch up).
