TV: from broadcast to broadband

Missed that crucial episode of Eastenders ? Forgot to set the video for Ground Force? Never fear, for, from later this year viewers of BBC television will be able to watch the last seven days' programming online.

Read the article: www.media.guardian.co.uk

Cocojambo comment:

This is one of the most visable signs yet that TV broadcast is about to change forever. A process that began with the remote control will culminate in the advent of PVRs and IP TV: viewers will control what they watch.

Viewers today watch a lot of television programming, and they will continue to do so in the future. However the proportion that is broadcast will continue to decrease. Viewers commonly buy favourite programmes on DVD, which are then consumed in competition to that night's broadcast. Increasingly, programmes are watched from hard disks: due to PVRs and file sharing. And now programming by Internet Protocol (IP).

Consumers will increasing view TV programming as just another form of entertainment to be consumed wherever, and whenever, they please. The reign of the TV scheduler is coming to an end. For advertisers: being an adjunct to the entertainment will be redundant, being a part of it a necessity.