Why TV Lost 576
theodp writes "Over the past 20 years, there's been much speculation about what the convergence of computers and TV would ultimately look like. Paul Graham says that we now know the answer: computers. 'Convergence' is turning out to essentially be 'replacement.' Why did TV lose? Graham identifies four forces: 1. The Internet's open platform fosters innovation at hacker speeds instead of big company speeds. 2. Moore's Law worked its magic on Internet bandwidth. 3. Piracy taught a new generation of users it's more convenient to watch shows on a computer screen. 4. Social applications made everybody from grandmas to 14-year-old girls want computers — in a three-word-nutshell, Facebook killed TV."
Re:mythtv killed TV (Score:1, Informative)
I sincerely doubt that a few hundred (thousand?) geeks using Myth TV has anything to do with the downfall of TV. If you want to argue that DVR's had an impact, maybe, but not MythTV. It's not that widely used.
Besides, MythTV users still buy cable/satellite. A bigger impact is the people (like me and my friends) that don't buy or consume any TV at all, and hasn't for years.
It's The Blinking Ads (Score:2, Informative)
Ronald Reagan drove the nail in the coffin lid of television. He passed legislation that allowed far more ads to be run every hour of the day. That killed conventional TV. Cable was also shot in the rump as without over the air competition the cable companies purchased far too little entertainment.
Worse yet regulations were relaxed or at least no enforced which allowed shockingly loud ads which got to the point that some channels were impossible to watch.
Odd... I always thought the reason TV lost was... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Digital broadcast (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect digital broadcast TV is going to swing the pendulum back a bit.
Not if people who used to rely on an analog broadcast signal can't get a DTV signal with the same antenna. This is reportedly a problem for people who live in the country between towns: a fuzzy analog signal could reach, but there isn't enough SNR for a digital tuner to sync to the carrier. Even in cities, all isn't perfect: I can get the FOX affiliate station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, fine over analog but not at all over digital.
Re:One word - ads (Score:3, Informative)
But you are shelling out real money to watch TV.
18 minutes of your time for every hour of television you watch. When you consider that the average American watches 28 hours of TV weekly, you're looking at 8.4 hours of your time wasted every week. 436 hours a year. 11.3 workplace-years (2080h/yr) of you life, wasted watching advertisement.
In terms of income, a median American earner will pay $363,000 in lost opportunity cost over 65 years of television viewing.
One way or another you *are* paying for your entertainment.
Re:Digital broadcast (Score:5, Informative)
It works really well in Britain - digital is just superior in every way, and set-top boxes [wikipedia.org] are more or less free with cereal - but Britain is rather more densely populated than the US. Even then, the BBC has had to start doing Freesat [wikipedia.org] to fulfil its universal service obligations to areas that can't get a good terrestrial signal. In the US, I expect they're reluctant to compel TV stations to provide universal service at all.
F*ck Facebook (Score:1, Informative)
Who the f*ck needs it and its ripoff artist founder.
Re:Digital broadcast (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sigh (Score:1, Informative)
I point you to the ridiculously easy combination of Miro http://www.getmiro.com/ [getmiro.com] and TVRSS http://tvrss.net/ [tvrss.net]
for exactly the setup you want. All the TV shows you want, searchable and automatically downloaded, ad free. Plus loads of free content on many subjects, also searchable. This is the reason my TV never gets tunred on anymore. Many shows also include HD downloads. Miro can also be used as a handy torrent downloader.
Re:'jumpingthegun', indeed (Score:1, Informative)
all you old fucks need to die off. My 32inch lcd hdtv is hooked up to my video card along with my monitor. there is a great couch setup behind me and a nice game set-up with the TV. No cable, I download -everything-
BSG, House, Weeds, Cowboy Bebop, movies, porn, rasslin, fusball, everything! TV survives only to be my secondary display.
No cable TV for me (Score:0, Informative)
I am moving into a new apartment and the only cable thing I am getting is cable internet. The TV will only be used for DVD's and that's it. I can live without the cable TV part since I can find everything I watch online.