Much has been written about the demise of network television and the coveted primetime showings that go from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM in North America. People are using DVRs. People are saving their shows and skipping commercials, ignoring advertising that companies spend millions upon millions on. The recent disgruntlement with Jay Leno’s NBC show is representative of that fight amongst networks par excellence. I have a work mate who tells me he used to watch late night TV, but since he and Leno have aged and he has children now, 10:00 PM became late night for him.
The interesting thing is when I went to my parent’s house this past weekend. My father, a person who would likely never leave the eastern timezone because he believes he’s in the middle of “primetime” and watches a daily diet of television is now barely turning on the television in the evenings. He watches the odd show now and then, plus live sports and maybe some news. But he says he goes to the web and watches things posted on YouTube and other online services. He cites the fact that he doesn’t have to record anything and he can get international content. He can fast forward or skip episodes he doesn’t think is interesting. Save for CNBC, which he still watches fairly religiously, he’s almost abandoned cable. If old repeat movies were offered freely online, I’m afraid the television networks and cable companies may have lost my father for good. Since my father is in his late 50s, that’s probably the demographic these networks were counting on judging from the number of Cialis and Viagra ads.
My brother and some of my friends have the same thinking. I rarely see them in front of a television unless it’s with a movie on and even with movies, some of them prefer being wired and chatting or surfing while watching the movie.
What do people think? Will streaming and the Internet eventually displace passive television? It certainly looks like it from my viewpoint, although I do live across from an apartment neighbour who religiously has the television on at 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM every night.