THE EVOLUTION OF TV
TV and video have undergone a rapid evolution over the last 30 years. In the 1980s, we saw a significant boom in cable television which was followed in quick succession by the advent of satellite TV and the rise of digital TV. Today, the streaming of TV is taking centre stage and the media landscape is set to see continued disruption as OTT services expand and grow market share further.
Just last month it was announced that Apple would join the likes of Netflix and BBC iPlayer and launch its own TV service this autumn in order to meet the on-demand viewing desires of today’s video consumers. Gone are the days when broadcasters dictated what people watched. Viewers want the ability to watch what they want, when they want, wherever they are and on whatever device they want. Now they have the capability to do so.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s new TV service would make content from various broadcasters such as 21st Century Fox and Disney available across all Apple devices including iPhones and Apple TV set-top box – making this on-demand desire a reality for many Apple users. And if this service mimics the uptake seen by Netflix, the cracks in the traditional ways of viewing TV will become much larger.
You just have to look at the numbers to see how this much of an impact streaming is having on audiences. In 2013, Netflix grew its subscriber base in the US by 33% to over 44 million members – more than double the subscriber base of ComCast, the world’s largest pay TV operator. Back in the UK BBC iPlayer requests reached a record 248 million requests in March. And it’s not just the platform people watch TV on that is changing, it’s the devices they watch them on as well. Mobile phones and tablets are now the source of nearly 50% of iPlayer requests.
The impact on broadcasters
Audiences today are much more fragmented and less predictable than they ever were in the linear broadcast world. This market shift is impacting not only the traditional existing broadcasting model, but also the way that content is developed and brought to the screen. It requires a greater use of technology and this requires an appropriate infrastructure to enable it. Companies in the production chain need to ensure they are using appropriate technology to get content out as quickly as possible and to deal with the huge complexity of devices and formats (be that compression, streaming, drm etc)
But it’s not just increased choice and flexibility that viewers want, they also have high expectations when it comes to quality. With Sony launching a 4K download service in late 2013 and with Netflix streaming its 4K catalogue in May last year, other providers will soon follow suit.
Such changes to how we consume content today and the quality we expect means that we have to pay increasing attention to the network infrastructure. Connectivity has never been more important to successfully facilitate today’s on-demand culture and network optimisation. Peering and compression improvements will all help but the infrastructure needs to be looked at as a whole – from the networks to the data centres to the routers in our homes.
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This is very true Bryan, and exactly why I evolved from traditional literary agent work into being a multimedia broker. The commercial channels can no longer attract the same fees from advertising as they used to, unless it is during a nationwide or global live event. Most pre-recorded programmes are watched now at the viewer's leisure having been recorded onto their digital box, and very few refrain from "fast-forwarding" the adverts. With the BBC soon to announce the end of the license fee, the channels that a lot of us grew up with will be left trying to ensure future sustainable revenue streams, and in my opinion that can only come from subscription based platforms replacing traditional TV scheduling. Live events will (again in my opinion) all become pay per view. This will also allow the channels that once transmitted as analogue to monetise their assets from the past...providing much easier access to those nostalgic shows we were glued to in our youth!