TV is increasingly for old people
washingtonpost.com
TV is increasingly for old people
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#2The plethora and popularity of reality TV doesn't say much about our older generations.
Sarcasm aside, the relative popularities of Fox News on TV and Vice on the Internet are pretty good examples of what this article is talking about.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#3This should more accurately say "traditional broadcast TV is increasingly for old people".
There's still plenty of people watching content in the TV format, they just are not doing it from exactly 8pm to 11pm in the way that they used to.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#4Calculating "percent increases" of the median age of a population doesn't make any sense at all.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#5Same in the UK, average age of viewers on BBC is 59-60:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2014/telev...
I shudder to think what the average age is of broadsheet newspaper readers is...
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#6Calculating "percent increases" of the median age of a population doesn't make any sense at all.
They likely did that to make the increase seem more significant. A "6 percent increase" to 44.4 years is an increase of only 2.5 years.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#7> And he’s part of one camp that believes young professionals and students will eventually become cable subscribers.
> “We suspect they will trade up,” Skipper said.
The implication here seems to be that cable is the premium/preferred product, and people will switch to it once they can afford a cable subscription. That does not at all strike me as being the case in this day and age.
The internet, and piracy, created an even more extreme shift in how you can consume video than it did for music. At least when you shelled out a ton of money for a CD, you still had the same experience when listening to the music. When you pay for cable or watch broadcast TV, you then not only have to wait for the scheduled viewing time, but you spend half as much time watching commercials as you do watching the actual program (10 minutes out of a 30 minute block).
Then on top of that you have to deal with the famously awful cable companies?
I think piracy + netflix have probably irreversibly changed people's willingness to sit through commercials, wait for the scheduled time slot, and put up with the other inconveniences associated with the whole process.
I understand some of this has gone away through video on demand and DVRs, but I still have to think that Netflix is superior when it has something and Popcorn Time when it doesn't.
It's not even the cost issue either. The cost issue is what got me started downloading music and video when I was a teenager, but nowadays (even though I'd be willing to pay a couple hundred bucks/pounds a month in theory) I've just had too much frustration and annoyance every time I've used a set top box (mostly in hotel rooms these days) to even have it on my radar as something that has the potential to make my life better.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#8> And he’s part of one camp that believes young professionals and students will eventually become cable subscribers. > “We suspect they will trade up,” Skipper said. The implication here seems to be that cable is the premium/preferred product, and people will switch to it once they can afford a cable subscription. That does not at all strike me as being the case in this day and age. The internet, and piracy, created…
It's sort of accurate. I mean, I don't know that I will ever subscribe to cable, but if I was a billionaire- sure, why not?
Which means the flaw in their theory (for me) is the level of income I must attain is unrealistic.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#9The plethora and popularity of reality TV doesn't say much about our older generations. Sarcasm aside, the relative popularities of Fox News on TV and Vice on the Internet are pretty good examples of what this article is talking about.
In my experience, only people above 30 watch reality shows. Virtually all reality shows are for old people. Real Housewives, everything on HGTV, everything on the History and Discovery channel... the only network that's associated with youth that has reality shows I can think of is MTV, but even that is probably more watched by aging men trying desperately to relive their cool days.
Re: TV is increasingly for old people
#10I don't understand why older people hang on to less optimal way of doing things? I hope I never do this. Being able to watch content at any time you want is better than having to schedule your time around broadcasts. No advertisements is better than having to endure advertisement breaks in the middle of a show.
Same with newspapers. You can't share newspaper content easily. You can't click on a word and Google it or look up information about Ukraine's president while reading the news paper. Newspapers take up space in your house and unread newspapers are a huge waste. I get some people like distraction free reading, without a glaring bright screen so the case here isn't as clear cut as with a TV, but the point is valid.
Older people, by virtue of having been around longer should be more capable of recognizing the pattern of new innovation leading to improvements, and not get stuck. I just don't get it, and I hope this doesn't happen to me, I'm already nearly in my 40's so we'll see.