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TV made radio irrelevant, the internet made TV irrelevant. Both still exists but as money-losing mass manipulation tools

jvanderbot 2y ago
But those are new kinds. Not new providers. There's no phone company that made all other phone companies irrelevant. There's no tv channel that made all other tv channels irrelevant. And there's no radio station that .. you get it. And so it's hard for me to concolude that there's some ISP that will make all other ISPs irrelevant. Honestly most people will probably have about a 50/50 split between home wifi and phone internet. And that home wifi might have significant intrusion from space-based ISP, but not completely. (I realize spacex is also hoping to provide some phone service from satellites, but I digress)
badgersnake 2y ago
TV certainly didn't make radio irrelevant, radio is very relevant in situations where you can't look at a screen, or would prefer not to. It's also much lower bandwidth, takes up a lot less space, uses a lot less power on the receiver (even compared to say a modern mobile device) and audio only content is much cheaper to produce. I've heard it argued that podcasts make radio obsolete. That is more plausible.
cogman10 2y ago
How will Internet access make Internet access irrelevant? This is much like saying satellite TV made cable TV irrelevant. Or magazines made newspapers irrelevant.
HPsquared 2y ago
TV was always an advertising platform first and foremost. In other words a money-losing mass manipulation tool.
- salawat 2y ago
  Believe it or not, Farnsworth, (inventor of the principles making Television possible) had no intention of it being used as an advertising or propaganda tool when setting out to figure out the problem. That's very much a "what people decided to do with it" thing. Bored farmer figures out thing, industry does horrible things with it is a tale as old as time. It was supposed to be for recording and playing back images. That was pretty much it. His original aspiration was for it to be employed in educational contexts to help make tge spread of visual information possible. Now if you're talking TV Broadcasting as an industry, then you're absolutely correct. That was the business model settled on, but not without some foundational hmmm'ing, haww'ing and experimentation in coming up with business models in the radio broadcasting space. The history is in itself an interesting piece of work to dive into.

jvanderbot 2y ago

But those are new kinds. Not new providers. There's no phone company that made all other phone companies irrelevant. There's no tv channel that made all other tv channels irrelevant. And there's no radio station that .. you get it. And so it's hard for me to concolude that there's some ISP that will make all other ISPs irrelevant. Honestly most people will probably have about a 50/50 split between home wifi and phone internet. And that home wifi might have significant intrusion from space-based ISP, but not completely. (I realize spacex is also hoping to provide some phone service from satellites, but I digress)

badgersnake 2y ago

TV certainly didn't make radio irrelevant, radio is very relevant in situations where you can't look at a screen, or would prefer not to. It's also much lower bandwidth, takes up a lot less space, uses a lot less power on the receiver (even compared to say a modern mobile device) and audio only content is much cheaper to produce. I've heard it argued that podcasts make radio obsolete. That is more plausible.

cogman10 2y ago

How will Internet access make Internet access irrelevant? This is much like saying satellite TV made cable TV irrelevant. Or magazines made newspapers irrelevant.

HPsquared 2y ago

TV was always an advertising platform first and foremost. In other words a money-losing mass manipulation tool.

salawat 2y ago
Believe it or not, Farnsworth, (inventor of the principles making Television possible) had no intention of it being used as an advertising or propaganda tool when setting out to figure out the problem. That's very much a "what people decided to do with it" thing. Bored farmer figures out thing, industry does horrible things with it is a tale as old as time. It was supposed to be for recording and playing back images. That was pretty much it. His original aspiration was for it to be employed in educational contexts to help make tge spread of visual information possible. Now if you're talking TV Broadcasting as an industry, then you're absolutely correct. That was the business model settled on, but not without some foundational hmmm'ing, haww'ing and experimentation in coming up with business models in the radio broadcasting space. The history is in itself an interesting piece of work to dive into.