Remember when you could switch on the TV and flip through all three channels, and, strangely enough, you would actually find something to watch?
Yeah, I know that was a long time ago, and anyone under 40 has no idea what I’m talking about. When I was a little kid, there really were only three channels. If you were lucky, you had four. The additional station was on UHF (ultra-high frequency), which brought you either an independent local station or public broadcasting.
Ah, but those days vanished with cable television and high-speed broadband. In case you haven’t noticed or live somewhere off the grid (and only read print newspapers like this one), television has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. No, scratch that. Make that five years.
Scrambling for a foothold in the battle for the mass audience, the broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX) are now taking a backseat to streaming services. Also known as “connected TV” or CTV, streaming television is programming provided on a specific carrier app. You may have heard of Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, or Hulu, to name a few. Netflix, which started in mail-order DVD rental, hit the ground running as one of the early streaming channels.
In recent years, streaming services subscriptions have increased. In February 2023, streaming accounted for more than one-third of total TV usage. By July of the same year, streaming had taken nearly 40 pecent of total viewers, a new record. And it’s big bucks. Last year, video streaming services raked in an estimated $70 billion across their industry.
One way the big networks — well, they used to be big — are trying to keep up is by running a streaming channel of their own or providing their content to an existing platform. For instance, entertainment behemoth Disney owns the ABC television network and two streaming channels, Disney+ and Hulu. So, original ABC television programming is featured on those platforms on a time-delayed schedule from over-the-air broadcast.
Once upon a time, people gathered around their TV sets nationwide to catch that one show you couldn’t miss. Many of the 1990s sitcom hits like “Friends” and “Seinfeld” were known as “appointment television” because people would clear their schedules to watch. Many viewers even watched as they sat on the phone to talk about the episode while it was on. Today, we call that a “watch party.” If you’re unfamiliar with it, that’s when many people sign into a streaming service to watch one program and have a text chat during the show.
Whether you’re a fan of streaming television or not, it’s here to stay. The hard part is keeping up with the changes. Since CBS announced it was selling the Paramount Corporation, concerns have been raised about the future of Paramount+ and its long-running franchises like “Star Trek.” In the 1990s, Paramount tried to use “Star Trek” as its cornerstone program to create the United Paramount Network. It was less than successful.
However, launching independent networks was much more complicated than starting a streaming channel. Now, the process is beginning to go the other way. Once distribution providers only, streaming platforms have become production companies. Netflix and Amazon started cranking out award-winning original programming some time ago, and others have followed suit. Even the free channels, such as Tubi.tv, are beginning to produce original material. That means more trouble for the networks as they constantly try to keep up.
What does all of this mean to us viewers? That’s a really good question. There’s no doubt in this reporter’s mind that costs will rise continually. Streaming subscription fees will be far higher than basic cable at some point. Owning a TV equipped to handle all of this will also cost more. Smart TV sales — those equipped with built-in streaming capability — have increased by about 40 percent in the last two years.
My question is when is enough too much? I ditched cable several years ago, keeping only a few streaming services and over-the-air TV. However, even with that, I don’t think content has improved much, if at all. Most of the time, I find myself flipping through dozens of streaming apps and finding nothing to watch.
Gery Deer is a Greene County resident and columnist. He can be reached at www.gldcommunications.com.
