Charles Martin doesn’t think that the new media assault on “traditional” media will stop with newspapers and magazines:
Newspapers are the first to go, because they depend primarily on classified advertising, or what might be called “nearly classified advertising” – such as the display ads for jewelry and perfume in the Style section of a newspaper. Magazines are already feeling it as well. Look at a copy of Newsweek or Time next time you’re out. They are still hampered by the fact that it’s expensive to print on physical paper. Meanwhile, their virtual competitors can deliver “impressions”: people who see the advertisements, for far less, and provide content that’s literally up-to-the minute. In response, many magazines – especially trade magazines that don’t require glossy images – are already moving to web-only very.
What then? This won’t stop. Advertising-paid television is on the same track. I don’t have any use for broadcast TV any longer, I depend on cable. And I’m one of millions. And I know people who get all their television from YouTube or Hulu, by Netflix and by download.
To some extent, the television networks are protected by the relatively high cost of production. But that won’t last. Last night I was watching Ed Driscoll’s piece “The Red Queen’s Race“. Ed appears to presents it in the sepia-toned set of a Victorian mansion, but in fact he shot it entirely in his home studio. The whole “set” is digital. Steve Green shoots his PJTV segments in his basement. Mine are shot in my office. And blip.tv gives you access to an amazing variety of original content, made by semi-professional creators who will only get better with experience.
We’re only a few years – two to five is my guess – before the networks are in the same position as newspapers and magazines are today: their expensive, capital-intensive business model on the brink of destruction.
That would seem about right.
I haven’t watched a network news broadcast in years and there are maybe two shows on network television that are “can’t miss” in my mind — and, thanks to TiVo, I don’t have to sit through endless commercials to watch the shows I like. Beyond that, my news comes from cable and the Internet, and my entertainment from wherever I can find it.
My viewing habits may not be typical of most Americans, but there are others out there who are similar and there will be more as the years go on.
H/T: Vodkapundit
Yup, now that cable companies have figured out how to make us all pay – i.e. broadcast DTV: what is it, a joke? – it won’t be long before all broadcast is gone for good.
When you visit CNN in Atlanta, you can tape a mock newscast. You then realize that anyone who can speak 300 syllables a minute and turn to a camera when cued can be a news anchor.
Broadcast network reporters are waaaaaay overpaid.
chsw
Even Tivo-ing programs is on its way out, for me. With most networks posting their episodes online with one 30 second commercial at each break, and Hulu doing the same with almost every show, and Surf the Channel providing links to almost any show ever, it’s so easy to watch any show at any time, and even whole seasons at once, that the entire arrangement of media in general is quickly going obsolete.
Find me a way to watch online video from the comfort of my easy chair and I’m in.
Apple TV.
I’d do the “one word” schtick, but I think Apple really does put a space in there.
Oh, and thanks for the link.