Digital Television Media's Impact on Audiences

VHS Tape

As I recall, I believe it was the 1990s and the onset of VHS video recording tapes and DVDs that made television and video watching on a set schedule a thing of the past. It was probably the earliest form of what we now know as on-demand, except we were responsible for taping the shows we wanted to see and that wasn't always a straightforward or easy task. I never did quite get the knack of how to record what, and at the same time as something and even though I had taped a show, at best, for me anyway, it was a hatchet job most of the time.

It wasn't that long ago that this technology was new and we all had a VHS and soon after that a DVD player to learn how to operate, with shiny little discs! Friday and Saturday nights were reserved to go to Blockbuster Video to pick out the often rented out popular film on video, and then over to pick up a pizza. Ah! Those were the days. We had no idea how fast things would change in the next few years. 

The death of the VHS video store.

 Now, all we need to do is to open up our laptops, tablets and smart phones and there awaits at our fingertips, no matter where we are in the world, Waldo, we are connected to something and everything! Isn't that awesome?

We live in an on-demand world now, folks. If it's digital, yes, that's right, all those VHS tapes and DVDs are now digital, and when that happened, people quickly discovered that we no longer have to wait for anything anymore. If you want to watch practically anything, you can watch it immediately now.

Old DVDs... -they now make pretty Christmas ornaments.

Much of it is now accessible on or through social media and as of 2014 the Pew Research Center research suggested that over 52% of all adults access multiple forms of social media, making it the preferred platform for advertising and showcasing the latest movie, video, television show, news broadcast or musical endeavor (Oniwura, 2015).


Don't even get me started on Twitter and all those hashtags (#) that automatically direct audiences right to the very entity being advertised. It's all too easy now, and that's the thing, the fact that this is the first time since the invention of the old boob tube television that the very act of viewership is the most effortless that it ever has been. Which actually makes audiences a bit spoiled, lazy and entitled to whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Audiences learned how to allow a technology to come to them, instead of them going to the technology, and with digital live streaming on-demand technology is spoiling the viewer that only waits a half a second for the technology to go to them. No waiting, no effort... it's literally effortless for the audience now to have anything their hearts desire in terms of television and media.

Which is quite a new concept to those of us who have spent our previous lives waiting for just about everything, with regard to television viewership. I remember if lightening from a storm hit the outside antenna, well, then TV time was over. Or the time in the 1970s when we had indoor rabbit ear antennas and had to wait (and sometimes use aluminum foil) to turn the antenna just at the right direction (usually facing Mecca! -kidding!) to get any television reception.

Old TV with custom foil rabbit ears.

By the time cable television came out, there were issues with that technology too, as in the price to watch television without a reception incident would cost you an arm, a leg, a kidney, blood and your first born, as we went into debt and ruined our credit for such an expensive technology. The waiting came in the form of how long it would take to have Comcast cable technicians come out to your home, install equipment and how many times they would have to come back to fix and upgrade our cable service.

Old Black & White Television

Again, we were not spoiled. We weathered the good, the bad and the very ugly and swift transitions from that black and white TV, to color, to cable, to VHS, to DVD and now, to the digital transformation that allows anyone and everyone in the world the entitlement to watch television, video and all things interactive. I have to say, I do enjoy not waiting for anything anymore in order to watch a show or the news programs I enjoy. I kind of do feel spoiled, but, by the same token, I feel I earned it, too.

But, what I can't wrap my head around is how anyone who never lived through those years, does not know the full history of just how this ultra-convenient digital television on our smart phones evolved, and how fortunate they are to have been born well after television and video technology fully evolved. For some of us, personally, I wish I had all that money back that I sent on all the very short lived previous older television technology (and computer technology for that matter) that I've owned since the 1970s!

                                                            The Evolution of Television
                                          

All I've got to say is one thing... -you Millennials are so lucky, but now we are all spoiled and entitled and that makes waiting patiently for anything related to television viewership a non-existent issue anymore. But, the marriage between television and mobile phones, in my humble opinion, is a match made in heaven!

If video killed the radio star, then who did digital kill to be king? "LOL!" ;-)


Oniwura, C. (2015, June 8). How Technology Has Influenced Audience Viewing Habits.
Retrieved November 6, 2016 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-technology-has-influenced-audience-viewing-habits-oniwura