Nick Stellway
Information Systems
Blog #2
October 5, 2015
New Twists for the TV Plot, as Viewer
Habits Change
It used to be normal for individuals and families
to sit down at a certain time every week to watch their favorite TV episode.
Today, things have dramatically changed for the Television industry. People no
longer have the patience or need to work around TV episode schedules. There are
other services, such as Netflix and Hulu, which can bring episodes to people on
their own time. With the emergence of these new mediums, people can “binge
watch” television series such as “Breaking Bad” in days if they really wanted.
People don’t have to wait until “Tuesday” to catch just one episode that is
interrupted with commercials. Once people can experience this new era of
convenience, going back to regular Television isn’t the same as it used to be.
Since the Internet has changed how people
watch and use TV, scripters and leaders in the Television industry are facing
many problems and much more criticism. People are impatient with shows lasting
long periods of time and suspense is driving people crazy. They hit the Internet
and vent about how this show ended in a way that made them mad or how they were
upset how scenes went. Shows have taken a lot of criticism and most likely hurt
their viewer turnout. Anybody and everyone can have a voice in social media and
it is impossible to keep everyone happy.
I myself have grown away from watching as
much television as I used to. I watched “Prison Break” on my own time with my
friends and we never saw a commercial. There is now way I could or would have
put up with one episode a week or “Prison Break”. The Television industry needs
to think hard and quick on how to improve viewer’s experiences.
Some options could be creating paid for
channels that show less commercials and have different nights dedicated to the
most popular new series. This would be a sort of binge watching that could
compete with Netflix. Perhaps the series could also create their own website
where you could pay to watch the entire series just like Netflix.
Either way, the Internet and technology
has created pressure for older technologies to either step up or be left in the
dust. With these new user-viewing habits, competition for viewers is at an all
time high.
I agree with your statement that in this day and age, it is nearly impossible to wait another week to watch a new episode. I definitely could not have done that with Mad Men or even Breaking Bad. However, the ideas of having "paid changes that show less commercials and have different nights dedicated to the most popular new series" is not something that could catch on since a) Netflix is still the most popular streaming site and will be for years to come b) that defeats the purpose of having TV in the first place. There are some shows that are better being shown on TV once a week. Shows such as Modern Family, Simpsons, and General Hospital work better in low dosages. It will be too redundant to binge-way comedy shows. Likewise, it makes more sense for the series to create their own websites and stream previous seasons (something that already happens for some shows). If series put all their new episodes on their website all at once, there will be no point of watching TV. Companies make money off the number of ratings, hits, and views of their shows which is how they build interest and increase their audience.
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