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When TV is not TV |
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Tuesday, 15 August 2006 |
At the moment TV companies are now rolling out reality TV programs like
there is no tomorrow, perhaps because this flirtation with 'reality'
may be their last glimpse of both 'reality' and tomorrow, due to the
emergence of IPTV.
IPTV, internet TV, people TV, call it what you will, is TV broadcast
via the internet and in the new blended jargon of computer
communications means Internet Protocol TV.
It is a spinoff from the same people who have brought the telephone
industry to its knees with Voice over IP, and is considered by those in
the know to be the future of TV and almost certainly means that the
monopolies of the big TV companies and the tyranny of the schedule that
they attempted to impose will be gone for good.
Put simply the internet has taken away from the big TV interests the exclusive means to broadcast.
Now anyone with a camera, a computer and the necessary bandwidth, can
become a broadcaster and this very real competition is scaring the
incumbent broadcasters to death - because for the first time they face
proper competition.
Up until now inflated TV salaries have been largely unmerited because
the TV companies have never ever faced any real competition apart from
within the members of their own club.
Jonathan Ross, the BBC's Friday night chat show host, for instance,
gets a reputed £18m a year from the BBC, presumably because that is
what he might be worth to ITV in terms of the advertising that they
could sell against a show that he fronted.
Why the BBC, a public service broadcaster, should be competing against such advertising revenues is a mystery.
Instead of spending the money better on developing new, cheaper and thus competitve talent the corporation buys Ross.
So though the past opportunities for other wouldbe chat show hosts to
supplant Ross, or the equally smarmy Parkinson were remarkably few, now
not only can those wannabees have their day, they can also go out and
find more interesting people to interview.
Never, I hear you say.
How will they possibly be able to attract the sort of celebrities that
grace our TV screens with their interesting tales of personal crisis or
sacrifice.
The answer is, very easily.
In TV everything is about ratings and that is all that matters. There
is nothing more important to the TV producers than the reviews of the
critics and the ratings from the audience.
One of the biggest draws on the internet at the moment are two teenagers singing the Pokemon theme tune.
Rather than artificially prepared and PR machine groomed celebrities,
these truly democratic celebrities will be the chat show guests of the
future and that is what has begun to scare the broadcasters.
In the TV of the 'telephone age' the broadcasters decided the schedule, and the PR machines decided who would be on it.
TV was pasteurised to appeal to the greatest number of people, which by
definition meant it had to be bland and 'universal', now because of the
potential for internet broadcasting that will not be the case.
Already hackers are creating TV stations, aimed at a youth market,
which are dedicated to alternative uses for technology and have a
refreshing spikiness that the BBC's John Craven's newsround or, Blue
Peter, will never be able to emulate.
Similar niche stations will soon emerge.
Individuals clicking with their mice will be able to make stars and TV
stations overnight, because there is no longer a cost barrier to stop
people from making their own TV.
Rather than having TV 'pushed' at us, we will be able to 'pull' content
at will, and the signs are already there that this is happening.
At the BBC, top executives admit that this effectively means that the
days of the TV schedule are over, now the only programs that will be
time critical are the news and sporting events that we will watch
anywhere on IPTV enabled mobile phones.
To be broadcast it will have to be happening.
Perhaps, the reason for the success of Big Brother and the interest in
generating similar 'happening TV' from the other current
'broadcasters'.
Perhaps reality TV is also an aknowledgement by the TV companies that they can't keep the public out of TV any longer.
Big Brother has another interesting by product, it gerates those
instant TV clips that can be sent around to friends, the all important
'viral marketing' that will make the programmes of the future.
Essentially meaning that in the ampitheatre of the internet, the public
itself will become the broadcasters of tomorrow, as they share the film
clips and urls of websites that they like, the public's choice will
dictate who is a must see and who is a must not.
At last the power has gone to the punter.
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