ITV Region: ITV News London
BBC Region: BBC London News
As TV Live Forum is closing down, I would like to figure out how TV will be in the life after this forum.
Linear TV is losing viewers to streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. For this reason alot of the linear TV channels are suffering from the schedulers block with MTV US showing endless Ridiculousness and Challenge over here showing alot of The Chase everyday.
In the future they should be The Apprentice style TV series to find the next media mogul with a business plan to set a cut price TV platform provider to rival Sky and Virgin with in house linear channels incorporating innovative and interactively to complete with streaming.
ITV Region: ITV News London
BBC Region: BBC London News
Linear TV will always be around for live events, such as sport and news, but the broadcasters realise that linear isn't always going to be the dominant platform in the future, which is why they're invested in VOD services and the BBC has put so much into iPlayer and Sounds.
ITV Region: ITV News Meridian
BBC Region: BBC South Today
Don't confuse linear, live, online and streaming.
There's no doubt that 'live/linear' TV delivery move further and further into the streaming model, and DTT and D-Sat delivery will dimish.
You have to detach the traditional broadcasters fortunes from the delivery method development.
It does not follow that if everyone is streaming by 2040, that BBC, ITV, etc won't still exist, and won't still be screening live national events
27-07-2022, 02:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 27-07-2022, 02:35 PM by WillPS.)
Linear non-live television channels are sitting ducks.
It's difficult to believe that TV broadcast over RF rather than IP is viable with only rolling news and live events services, it'll become a case of diminishing returns quite rapidly and that spectrum is a resource which can ultimately be put to better use.
Welcome to the board btw Paul.
ITV Region: ---None Selected---
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Disagree about non-live channels - with archive stuff especially curating content is still so important, even if it is a window to the online services. For example the last couple of weeks I've found myself watching One Foot in the Grave nightly at 6pm/7pm on Drama (+1). That's been available to me on demand for ages through the iPlayer (and probably Gold) and I've just not even contemplated it, but caught an episode when channel hopping a couple of weeks ago and it suddenly fits into the teatime routine nicely.
As for "better use of spectrum" - most of the justification for 4G and 5G has been to broadcast and stream video content (but of course with greater flexibility and other factors too). I would say HD via the TV aerial is a far better use of spectrum. What will be interesting is how IP linear TV solutions fare in the next few years.
@Brekkietweets
ITV Region: ITV News London
BBC Region: BBC London News
The non live linear channels will evolve into what is FAST Channels on AVOD services.
ITV Region: ITV News London
BBC Region: BBC London News
The problem I think with the archive tv channels is that there were too many of them. A curated schedule like Gold which shows timeless comedy alongside some new commissions or Talking Pictures which is a genuine love of forgotten cinema.
I'm not a fan of the cheap and cheerful archive channels which seem to be of shows that would be in the DVD bargain bin or of shows that weren't good the first time round.
It is incredibly unlikely that linear TV (as in scheduled broadcast television) is going to return to being the dominant media form, as it was thirty/forty years ago. Evenings of households huddled around TVs is a thing of the past. But I think that reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated. There is a tendency to treat it as the cart and horse in the era of the car, but it's more of a bus.
I think that television channels (though inevitably fewer) will still have a place so long as there is enough live television (and possibly certain non-drop release drama series) to sustain it, with the rest padded out as a 'showcase' for what is available on streaming. And this isn't really the future, it's sort of what the BBC is already beginning to do. An ever increasing number of programmes are released first on iPlayer and Sounds, with their linear scheduling largely serving to fill breaks between 'tentpole' programming.
I also suspect that the death of the main broadcasters is similarly over-egged. Commercial broadcasters may be facing an advertising squeeze and the BBC might always have political worries about funding, but their finances are a hell of a lot more sound and sustainable than those of many streamers. The current explosion in the number of streaming services is likely a bigger threat to other streamers than to the big broadcasters.
I'm relatively unsure about it, given the rise of streaming as well as several TV channels merging into streaming services (i.e. most of Disney's networks).
I'm sure there will always be a place for linear broadcast TV, much like there is for radio. Not everyone wants to be driven by algorithm based selection, nor have to sign up to a load of different services.
As household budgets get squeezed further people will realise that all these £9.99/£7.99/£15.99/£8.99s do all add up and will cull them.
The delivery medium, however, may differ. Just look at Sky Glass - all IP-based.
