Re: The future of television
 

In the interests of balance, some may be interested in this article.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2021...-vod-channels/

Sounds a bit pie in the sky to me, but I’m sure jfman will want to watch it! :D

[EXTRACT]

Video technology company Unified Streaming has launched Unified Remix VOD2Live, a new product that it says enables OTT providers to present VOD programming in new curatable linear channels.

The approach to presenting VOD content in the form of linear channels is designed to replicate the lean-back TV experience and enable easier discovery.

Re: The future of television
 

Not sure why you insist on personalising it.

However as I’ve said all along it costs buttons to create a linear channel from content you own the rights to. Whether that’s broadcast, or an automated playlist, is neither here nor there.

Re: The future of television
 

Now, that’s funny!

As I have said before, the TV companies will only continue to provide linear TV while it makes them money. Once it is no longer worth their while to run all those channels, with all the time and expense of scheduling and filling the gaps in the schedule with dross (which still has to be paid for), they will honour their commitment to their shareholders to maximise their profits. Uploading content to a streamer is far more straight forward than the alternative.

When you add up

- The number of staff required all in all for scheduling;
- The building space they require;
- The cost of the rights to show cheaper programmes to fill the gaps (there are no gaps on VOD);
- The satellite transponder space required or the costs of broadcasting space from transmitters, etc;

I think you will find it costs rather more than buttons to run TV channels.

The only considerations really are whether the government can ensure the rollout of broadband within their existing timetable, which now seems to be in doubt, and for how long most viewers will continue to give conventional broadcast channels the support they have now. Those are the real considerations, not some romantic view that some people have about watching TV the old fashioned way.

Re: The future of television
 

Eh? How many people do you think that takes?

Cant they use zoom?

Introducing a new and unnecessary cost, nice.
Cheap, given the thousands of channels being beamed down across Europe on shoestring budgets.

Round and round we go.

Heaven forbid.

Nobody romanticises it.

I suggest next Sunday night you go onto this new fangled social media platform called Twitter about 10pm and see how popular BBC 1 was the previous hour.

Re: The future of television
 

Where did I say BBC1 wasn’t popular? Twisting it again...

Re: The future of television
 

You’re saying there’s no demand to watch television as broadcast (hence it’s not viable for even a state funded or subscription funded broadcaster to persist with that model). If people are watching BBC 1 between 9 and 10 that’s exactly what they are doing.

Re: The future of television
 

As BBC1 content will be streamed in future, your comment makes no sense. While the individual channels BBC1, 2, 3 and 4 may disappear, the content will not.

Re: The future of television
 

Re: The future of television
 

But people who can choose to record it, or stream it, watch it as broadcast to a schedule as dictated by the BBC.

Or is that not linear television again?

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 ----------

Just for reference Line of Duty had 10 million on the overnights and it's now pushing past 15 million.

While it's not possible to say all 10 million watched between 9 and 10, it's not credible to pretend they all waited and watched it between 10 and whatever the cut off is for the overnights.

Re: The future of television
 

Yes, but streaming services are more flexible. It doesn’t matter what people choose today because people are changing their viewing habits. What they choose to do now and what they will choose to do tomorrow are two different things.

Anyway, we will never agree on that, so no point in pursuing the discussion further.

Ooh, look...

https://advanced-television.com/2021...start-to-year/

[EXTRACT]

The first quarter of 2021 saw a number of records broken on iPlayer:

As well as being the biggest quarter on record, January is now iPlayer’s most successful month, with 652 million streams.

The first full week of that month (4th – 10th) was the biggest week ever, with 163 million streams.

The 10th of January is iPlayer’s best single day with programmes streamed 26 million times – driven partly by four very popular third round FA Cup matches streaming live on iPlayer, including Marine v Tottenham Hotspur.

The first episode of crime thriller The Serpent is iPlayer’s biggest episode of the year so far, having been streamed 6 million times. The box set of the series was streamed a total of 33 million times between January and March on iPlayer.

The returning series of Line of Duty has also been a hit with viewers, as the first episode of AC-12’s latest case saw over 3.6 million streams in just 11 days up to the end of March. The previous series have also performed strongly on iPlayer, with the Line of Duty box set streamed 35 million times in the first three months of the year.

Re: The future of television
 

You do realise these records were all being broken while a lot of people were stuck at home with nothing else to do, yes?

Re: The future of television
 

And he's also not grasped that despite shifts in viewing habits people still, in their millions, watch linear, broadcast television.

He can write persistently about the success of streaming but he's the only person who sees the world in such a binary manner.

People are streaming old Line of Duty because the new one is coming on, not the other way around. Broadcast television serves as a prompt for people to revisit, to nudge their friends to watch it for the first time, etc.

Re: The future of television
 

True, Chris, and as a result, the public is getting more and more used to accessing their programmes via VOD.

There have been a number of articles about this recently, demonstrating that an increasing number of people are now viewing VOD rather than the normal channels. As they do so, the old ways of viewing will appear increasingly inflexible and time-wasting. It’s very drip-drip, but once that message gets through and people get used to viewing in this way, it will takeoff. People in their 40s and 50s are currently getting the nudge from their children, too.

---------- Post added at 16:59 ---------- Previous post was at 16:55 ----------

I think you will find that I have acknowledged that, jfman, on many occasions, too. That’s why my projection is for 2035, not 2025, and certainly not now. I’m looking at the trend. You are just looking at the present.

Re: The future of television
 

Rubbish Old Boy. You've still never, at any point, illustrated how the trend reaches zero.

The fact you're into the depths of a scheduler requiring accomodation is the desperation you've turned to. Literally a laptop and a desk. Not going to break the bank for a multi billion pound organisation.

Trend iPhone sales 2007-11 and tell me how many iPhones there should be in the world by now and explain why it didn't happen.

Re: The future of television