Thread: VOD The future for linear TV channels
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Old 06-02-2015, 13:07   #81
OLD BOY
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Re: The future for linear TV channels
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris View Post
Again, you're simply reading your own enthusiasm for these things on to everyone else. How long do you think a TV lasts? My mum's still using a 4:3 21" CRT that is well over 20 years old, with a Freeview PVR attached, and she only got a PVR because the digital switchover forced obsolescence on her VHS video recorder. She doesn't have any kind of internet connection (by choice).

Plenty of people only buy basic and would end up with a connected TV only if that feature was universally available across the range.

We get 2Mb internet on a good day, by the way, and barely receive standard-def quality pictures when we access iPlayer via our Freesat PVR. Slow 'broadband' is a widespread issue in the UK.

And even when the capability to do it is in every home, there is nothing as convenient as a TV schedule when you're tired at the end of a day in the office, and there's nothing as attractive to an advertiser as a commercial break viewed simultaneously by 10 million people.

I confidently predict that linear broadcast TV will be around and well used for the rest of my lifetime.
Again, you are posting what is now, rather than what is to come.

First of all, the Government is committed to extending good broadband speeds to the whole country. So the 2MB issue you mention will not be a problem forever.

The newer TVs don't last as long as the old ones did because the technology is getting so complicated. My TV needed a new motherboard after just three years. I'm sure I will have to change it within the next 5.

You've only got to go on a walk to see the number of people watching TVs with widescreen, so although there are still people, particularly pensioners, who still have archaic TVs, the majority will have more modern sets than they do now, and the price is coming down all the time.

I've heard more than once on these forums people saying that when they were tired, they just wanted to watch what was on. And yet, if you want to watch something you are actually interested in, you still have to look up in the TV magazine or EPG what is on, or channel hop. Yesterday, when my wife fell asleep in the middle of something we were watching, I just went to Netflix and chose 'My Lists' and there was my pre-planned selection just waiting to be viewed. Chose 'Damages' and it was all done about 15 seconds after going into Netflix.

Frankly, I think people are putting problems in the way - I do understand that people are resistant to change. But the confidence expressed that things will remain as they are forever astounds me!

Incidentally, it's pretty easy for the TV industry to force people to change to a newer technology, just as your Mum had to when her VHS recorder became obsolete.

All they need to do is have all programmes in 4K!
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