Independent Correspondent
Oliver Cox, takes a look at how television has evolved in the last 60 years culminating
with the final shutdown of analogue transmission at the end of October. How has
television changed, and what do we the consumers expect?
On the 23rd of October in Northern Ireland, at
midnight, the lone and final analogue transmitter was deactivated. The method
of broadcast was given its last rites – the next day the sun rose over a
Britain without analogue transmission. Signals are now carried via satellites
and cables and a terrestrial signal which is now completely compliant with the
digital age. While analogue slouches into an armchair alongside the
cassette-tape in the gentleman’s club of obsolescence, viewers now recline to
watch a service of increasing abundance. Television companies are responding to
internet-age demands for interaction and on-demand content.
The Close of a Quaint Affair
Television, as it became settled in the mid-20th
century, was a particularly 50s operation, the viewer had a choice of three
channels. The companies would broadcast and the viewers would watch.
Technological developments as well as changes in people’s expectations over the
relationship between broadcaster and recipient mean that this accord has changed
drastically.
CeeFax was the way in which watchers were first able to
access information when desired. This technology is an exemplar for the
ingenuity of engineers who had to work with strained resources. They used
redundancies which were associated with the broadcasting and picture systems to
provide simple text pages for viewers on demand. CeeFax – which was long ago
outshined by the glossy Red Button services of digital television –
shuffled into the metaphorical lounge at midnight too.
21st Century Demands
The internet, which embodies on-demand content and almost
universal interaction between the creator and the recipient, means that
customers have come to expect similar services for television. The speed and
capability of modern technology and communications systems allows a levelling
of these roles. The most noticeable change being how presenters invite the
audience to tweet their views, making the experience of watching
television more interactive than ever before.
Virgin’s latest product, TiVo, is perhaps the most obvious
response to customers’ demands for flexibility and choice. Viewers can watch
one broadcast while recording two others, or can record three programmes while
they watch another from their hard drive. TiVo also offers a feature enabling
users to find live broadcasts according to search criteria as well as to access
on-demand services like YouTube or Catch-Up TV.
A new but comparatively strong product strand is for
television which can be accessed on the move. Many broadcasters now offer apps
which allow users to watch their content through a smartphone or tablet.
Alternately, apps like Netflix provide a great variety of new content from
different sources in return for a subscription. At the same time, many
companies now provide apps for existing customers to control their television
systems, such as setting up recordings.
Teletopia?
These developments are impressive, offering a sort of
Utopia in which no one ever misses a programme and never has to abandon what
they wanted in order to appease their friend. The frustration of not being able to find a
show is abolished and in which the boredom of long journeys is a whimsical
memory.
Simultaneously, these are very peculiar times. Does
anyone else remember when a phone was a phone, a television a
television, a music-player a music-player? – Now all these devices
are specialised computers, and Google have marked fridges and cars as their
next targets. This represents a fascinating convergence of use: the original
idea is conceived and developed then 21st century companies create a
chimera of it including features from the computing realm. To use the example
of the Virgin TiVo – this is television plus a hard drive and search facilities, both famous creations of computing.
This trend marks the instrumentality of the internet and
computers in convincing businesses to offer more forward products to their
customers. To some extent the driving
force for companies to create these functional bespoke television products is the
consumer. We are best placed to get what we want from the market, if the
television companies can’t offer it then the internet will. The typewriter is a
good corollary. Against the efforts of companies which manufactured bespoke
models, typewriters were completely replaced by word-processing software. If
companies don’t produce products which are innovative enough the television
could find itself sharing brandies with the typewriter; and produce innovative
products they have.
This article reflects the opinion of the author only. If you have any comments or feedback, drop us a line at [email protected].