TV on the Internet

Television replaced radio’s spotlight a few decades ago because the shows that families were listening to suddenly had actors that they could see. Since then TV has pretty much been on top of the electronic totem pole, but now the internet is changing that. Many of the shows that are available on television are now also available online, without time restraints, and without commercials. You can also get your news and music online which makes the idea of watching television fade into the back of our minds.

The reason that this change is coming about is convergence, the combining of two or more different kinds of electronic devices into one mechanism (example the iPhone). This idea has been expanded to the internet, and it seems likely that computers will soon bring serious problems to television if some sort of action isn’t taken soon. One big problem is commercial revenue. If the internet becomes a large source of entertainment, then businesses aren’t going to want to publicize on TV stations anymore since the majority of the population are going to be using the internet.

I believe the big question is ‘what are the television companies going to do’ because convergence with the internet is inevitable. Just like radio had to become something it wasn’t used to (music based) TV needs to change in order to survive.