I’ve gotten into a number of discussions recently about how broadcast and cable TV is dieing, that there is a new wave of Internet-centric content that will wash away the ‘old media’ and a new generation of kids will grow up that never experienced waiting for their favorite show to air once a day at a specific time and on a specific channel. I pretty much agree with all of it except I don’t think b’cast and cable are going to shrivel up and blow away anytime in the near future. Expanding into new models doesn’t necessarily mean the imminent death of the old model.
I also see many people taking the position that the success of traditional TV content is tied to the success traditional TV distribution. So as broadcast/cable viewership declines so will the desire to watch the content that broadcast & cable typically carry. I don’t buy that at all. For example, the success of Netflix and Hulu are based squarely on people desiring the same content but delivered in a different fashion. That’s a problem for the content distributors but it’s not a problem for content creators.
Netflix, Hulu and YouTube are already creating original content (‘broadcast quality’ content for lack of a better term) because that’s they only way they’ll be able to compete and survive in the future. As an editor, a person that works in content creation, this is great news for me because it means more job opportunities. If I was a traditional content distributor though, I’d be worried about what the future is going to look like.