Back in 1980, when I was a wee little boy of 9 years old, I remember taking a tape recorder and placing it next to my family's TV to "tape" SP FX Special Effects: Empire Strikes Back. After the show aired, over the days that passed I would replay the tape, listening to the sounds from the show (including all the inteurptions from my family as they moved and walked around or coughed during the show). This was an era before the VCR and I had no other way of recording the show. I only had my memory and I wanted something more permanent. Watching that show helped inspire me to create my own movie with my friends. Even at the tender age of 9, I knew that I wanted to be in control of media and how I used it.
Then came the VCR and I would tape Doctor Who on PBS and other favorite TV shows. I was lucky enough to own a camcorder in my late teens and was able to take video of my first trip to Paris. I over a dozen hours of video that I put together as a two hour tape and adding titles to the video using a genlock on my Amiga. Again, this was 1990 and I experiment with stop animation with the camcorder, taking the video a second at a time and then using dubbing with another VCR to fast forward the video to make it look faster. I had a stereo Sony VCR that enabled you to play tapes a double speed. I'd take the video, record it at a faster speed and then put music on top of it. Not bad for not a lot of money and just for messing around.
But in today's world, camcorders are extremely cheap and with YouTube anyone can broadcast themselves to the world. There are major changes to how I "consume" TV and use video media. Last night while eating a late dinner, my wife and I fired up the laptop and watched several episodes of The Office on Hulu. I don't even waste time taping shows with my DVR. Half the time I forget and then just fire up the computer and go online to watch. I currently divide my watching into two areas: Movies and series on DVD/Blu-ray and sitcoms/current shows that I record using the DVR or watch on Hulu.
In a world in which anyone can use Vuze and Mininova.org to find a show and then download it within a hour, advertisers need to adapt as they're quickly losing (if they haven't lost most already) the audience's attention. If you want to watch a TV show from another country, you can if you know where to look. If you want to see an episode of The Office from three weeks ago, you can online.
But there's limits. I wanted to see an episode of The Office (episode 4 of season 5) and it was no longer online. Sure, I could probably buy it on iTunes or rent it via Comcast's On Demand and I could probably find it on Mininova.org using Bittorrent or Vuze, but with limited time I just passed.
As my children are growing up, I wonder how they will be able to use the internet to watch TV, generate their own content and broadcast their own work out to the world. I only hope they don't take a bath in a Burger King sink and broadcast that!
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