Sunday, November 8, 2015
Traditional TV: A Thing of the Past
With the increasing changes in technology emerging every year, one in particular could be running a decades old industry into the ground. About 45% of all TVs sold in the US this past year were Internet Capable Smart TVs, meaning they are capable of connecting Over The Top (OTT) devices (such as Rokus Amazon Fires, and Chrome casts) and stream from applications built into the TV, thus being able to stream TV shows and movies without having to pay a ridiculous cable provider bill. 69% of all TVs in America are now connected to the internet, instead of paying to a cable provider, consumers are now subscribing to video applications, such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, NFL Network, and many more to consume their video entertainment. These individuals are known as "chord cutters". Though these connected TVs are changing the television industry as we know it, it doesn't mean cable providers are going bankrupt, it means that they have to change their approach as the times change, learning to work with theses connected TVs and OTT devices. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/257343/connected-tv-devices-reach-tipping-point.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
I don't think this is terrible for cable providers. If they can find a way to work with these OTTs and connected TVs, they can capitalize this market. Change is inevitable though. Many consumers do not want only cable, but a lot of consumers do want both features. This can be a very lucrative market for cable providers if they strategize correctly.
I wouldn't be surprised if streaming companies started taking over the cable industry by streaming TV channels. This could be very profitable and also low cost because all that is needed is an internet connection. They could use ads to supplement the cost of paying the channels. Int he long run this would require much less infrastructure and equipment to provide cable television shows. Also, this would make cable accessible on the go through 4g networks and wifi.
Technology really is amazing, I predict that there will be a point where cable in general will become a concept that is obsolete and these OTTS will be all that exists in the future for this particular market. Itll be interesting to see how that affects the economy as a whole because that means an entire industry may become obsolete which include manufacturing, maintenance and even sales of devices that rely on cable providers. Unless of course Cable providers somehow figure out a way to either counteract the OTT revolution or succumb to it and revolutionize themselves into the OTT business, specially of streaming.
I also feel that cable providers need to come up with something to work their way with these OTTs and connected TVs to maintain their customer base. However, I do feel that traditional TV viewing is slowly coming to a stop, and so cable subscription prices will probably drop in the coming months by some amount due to the increased competition. They can even offer some additional services and features with the subscriptions but keeping the prices to a minimum so that people will still be incentivized to hold on their regular cable subscriptions.
Except for some live television, there is virtually nothing that OTT's can't provide that cable TV can. Additionally, it is much cheaper and comes without advertisements. Cable TV companies are on their way out.
At the moment cable is still useful, but after a few decades I believe that cable companies will start being obsolete like blockbuster, unless they change with the times. If they were able to connect with and give something more than OTT then the cable companies will be able to survive in the long run.
Innovation has been a trademark for every industry in terms of technological advances and progress. OTT's spearheading the market in the past couple of years is very understandable as this new era of broadcast streaming is coming into play. However; as always old players need to adapt and it would be interesting how cable providers adapt and compete with this new trend of online streaming. if it fails to do so it could be a correct observation that cable providers and the concept of "network television" will become completely obsolete.
Cable networks hold the real key here. Until companies like Hulu and Netflix can improve their revenue capabilities, they won't be able to pay as much as cable networks for television shows. Soon these internet streaming services will add advertising and will be essentially the new television networks. The ones who will suffer the most will be the cable companies themselves.
Many cable providers have been attempting to make the adjustment by allowing their customers to use their services online and provide tv shows available through the cable box. Live television will always be a service that consumers will want. There are many events such as sports, news, politics, etc. that will always need to be played. Some cable networks may just begin to focus on the bare necessities and provide those leaving the tv shows to streaming services as consumers seem to enjoy this approach much more.
The change from traditional cable television to streamed shows and events has already begun. We see traditional television channels such as ESPN that have already implemented live streaming capabilities such as WatchESPN. It is rare in today's world for individuals not to have some sort of streamed service such as Hulu, Amazon Prime (videos), Netflix, or any other. Netflix also introduced the idea of creating its own original shows, separate from a television channel. It will be interesting to see how the process moves forward in the future.
What specifically would cable companies have to change to adapt to the newer technology? What are the opportunities of having TVs that don't require cable connectivity, or is would this be considered a potential threat to the cable companies?
While the use of OTTs and streaming sites has increased immensely over the last few years, I don't believe that cable television will be obsolete for a while. I would agree that there are definitely things that will continue to be shown on live television networks, like breaking news, sports games, presidential addresses, and other events that viewers like to witness in real time. There are some news networks and channels that allow viewers to watch live on their phones or tablets, which could possibly be the future of networks - watching live programs on your tablet or phone rather than on a television screen.
Post a Comment