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In the age when humans were able to produce TV shows like Game of Thrones, you cannot kill TV. The TV has only overtaken the Cinema. It will now be a race to to

In the age when humans were able to produce TV shows like Game of Thrones, you cannot kill TV. The TV has only overtaken the Cinema. It will now be a race to topple the expensive shows in the history. No offense to technology but this is all about age old entertainment and story-telling enterprises in human history.

imron 9y ago
You cannot kill story-telling, that's for sure, but the medium certainly changes. TV didn't kill radio, and the Internet won't kill TV, but it will lessen its role and importance significantly, with the physical TV essentially being relegated to the role of a large, communal monitor as TV content moves to an Internet first model. I basically watch zero over-the-air TV these days, and if there is anything of interest it will also be online (either legitimately or not) if I really want to watch something.
- webwanderings 9y ago
  Yes, that's pretty much what I meant to say as my comment above. I have not watched TV in a decade, but I hear these calls of TV dying all the time. The thing is, TV is not going to die because it is essentially fulfilling the core needs of human urges (that is, to hear and tell stories). The TV may take another shape and form, as it has in the form of Internet videos and video-watching. Who tells and creates stories (the production houses) is also insignificant. However, TV has indeed evolved over the years. It has gone from fictional shows like Lost which made space for semi-fictional reality TV shows era (Lost was a precursor to Survivor), to Cinema-like experience of GoT. TV has also seen itself evolve so fast that fictional shows like House of Cards lost itself to the reality on the ground. These are human evolution in terms of what we're telling ourselves via our stories. It matters less how we're telling stories (Netflix, Internet, CBS...doesn't matter).
  - ghaff 9y ago
    >Lost was a precursor to Survivor Umm. Lost premiered in 2004. Survivor premiered in 2000.
  - imron 9y ago
    > I have not watched TV in a decade, but I hear these calls of TV dying all the time When people say TV is dying, they don't mean TV shows will stop getting made. They generally mean you'll get all your content over the Internet (legally or illegally) instead of laden-with-ads over-the-air or cable TV. By your own admission (haven't watched TV in a decade), TV is already dead to you.
  - Arizhel 9y ago
    You're arguing semantics. If the cinemas all die out, because everyone's renting movies at Redbox or Amazon Prime or using Netflix and watching movies at home, are you going to argue with someone who says "Movies have died!"? If you do, then you're being pedantic and annoying, because they're right: the cinemas in that scenario have died. The format of a ~2-hour story in video hasn't died, but the tradition of going to a business, open to the public, to watch it on a large screen in a room full of strangers has. Same goes here: when someone says "TV is dead", they mean watching ~50-minute video episodes through an antenna, or from a cable TV provider, with commercials interleaved. That format is dying out.
_jal 9y ago
TV won't go away; it is simply a legacy app that is being subsumed by the net. People won't stop wanting to veg out, but delivery tech changes, new things become possible and older cash cows don't last forever. And similar to how the net enabled new voices in news, fiction, music, etc., TV will fragment as well. Which is good, at least for me; I never watched TV much until relatively recently. People have always talked about shows, which I've ignored all my life. But some recent ones - mostly serials - have been remarkably appealing to me, and I'm watching more. Over the last year, I've even considered buying a real TV for the first time. So like many other markets affected by the net, the total market grows, but fragments. Bet against "national moment" television and bet on niche plays.
wehadfun 9y ago
I think you misunderstood what they meant by TV.
coldtea 9y ago
People don't mean "watching shows is dead" when they say "TV is dead". They mean TV networks as we know them, with their programming of shows, news, sports, movies, etc. A few millions watch Game of Thrones on the TV. A few hundred million watch it on demand, from the internet. Whether GoT is originally created by a cable network is irrelevant (and mostly the result of a broken business model continuing on). A good system to monetize those hundred millions would totally obliterate TV networks in the distribution of shows like Game Of Thrones. Heck, Netflix is going strong with its own shows, and it's far from global or perfect.

imron 9y ago

You cannot kill story-telling, that's for sure, but the medium certainly changes. TV didn't kill radio, and the Internet won't kill TV, but it will lessen its role and importance significantly, with the physical TV essentially being relegated to the role of a large, communal monitor as TV content moves to an Internet first model. I basically watch zero over-the-air TV these days, and if there is anything of interest it will also be online (either legitimately or not) if I really want to watch something.

webwanderings 9y ago
Yes, that's pretty much what I meant to say as my comment above. I have not watched TV in a decade, but I hear these calls of TV dying all the time. The thing is, TV is not going to die because it is essentially fulfilling the core needs of human urges (that is, to hear and tell stories). The TV may take another shape and form, as it has in the form of Internet videos and video-watching. Who tells and creates stories (the production houses) is also insignificant. However, TV has indeed evolved over the years. It has gone from fictional shows like Lost which made space for semi-fictional reality TV shows era (Lost was a precursor to Survivor), to Cinema-like experience of GoT. TV has also seen itself evolve so fast that fictional shows like House of Cards lost itself to the reality on the ground. These are human evolution in terms of what we're telling ourselves via our stories. It matters less how we're telling stories (Netflix, Internet, CBS...doesn't matter).
- ghaff 9y ago
  >Lost was a precursor to Survivor Umm. Lost premiered in 2004. Survivor premiered in 2000.
- imron 9y ago
  > I have not watched TV in a decade, but I hear these calls of TV dying all the time When people say TV is dying, they don't mean TV shows will stop getting made. They generally mean you'll get all your content over the Internet (legally or illegally) instead of laden-with-ads over-the-air or cable TV. By your own admission (haven't watched TV in a decade), TV is already dead to you.
- Arizhel 9y ago
  You're arguing semantics. If the cinemas all die out, because everyone's renting movies at Redbox or Amazon Prime or using Netflix and watching movies at home, are you going to argue with someone who says "Movies have died!"? If you do, then you're being pedantic and annoying, because they're right: the cinemas in that scenario have died. The format of a ~2-hour story in video hasn't died, but the tradition of going to a business, open to the public, to watch it on a large screen in a room full of strangers has. Same goes here: when someone says "TV is dead", they mean watching ~50-minute video episodes through an antenna, or from a cable TV provider, with commercials interleaved. That format is dying out.

_jal 9y ago

TV won't go away; it is simply a legacy app that is being subsumed by the net. People won't stop wanting to veg out, but delivery tech changes, new things become possible and older cash cows don't last forever. And similar to how the net enabled new voices in news, fiction, music, etc., TV will fragment as well. Which is good, at least for me; I never watched TV much until relatively recently. People have always talked about shows, which I've ignored all my life. But some recent ones - mostly serials - have been remarkably appealing to me, and I'm watching more. Over the last year, I've even considered buying a real TV for the first time. So like many other markets affected by the net, the total market grows, but fragments. Bet against "national moment" television and bet on niche plays.

wehadfun 9y ago

I think you misunderstood what they meant by TV.

coldtea 9y ago

People don't mean "watching shows is dead" when they say "TV is dead". They mean TV networks as we know them, with their programming of shows, news, sports, movies, etc. A few millions watch Game of Thrones on the TV. A few hundred million watch it on demand, from the internet. Whether GoT is originally created by a cable network is irrelevant (and mostly the result of a broken business model continuing on). A good system to monetize those hundred millions would totally obliterate TV networks in the distribution of shows like Game Of Thrones. Heck, Netflix is going strong with its own shows, and it's far from global or perfect.