Are television channels and radio obsolete?

[downtown]

People really arent thinking when they say this. Yes you can watch all the TV shows online... but the TV shows STILL come from TV. Without the studio and advertiser money where exactly do you think the TV shows are going to pop up from?

We have a winner!!!

TV as a method of delivery is becoming less dominant, but not tv STATIONS. Independent internet websites do not have the resources to compete with tv stations as content *producers*.

Eventually, CBS isn't gonna care if you watch at 7 PM on your TV, or at 3 AM on your laptop.

 

[Leoreth]

Yeah, exactly. It doesn't matter if you use satellite/cable or internet as source, but whether the TV stations you watch have themselves any reason to further exist, and that can be answered with a clear yes in my opinion.

It's not even that TV stations still produce most of the stuff that we like to watch on the internet. It's also, at least for me, that the vast array of options on the internet is just too much. Sometimes I don't want to make conscious decisions about what to watch and what to watch thereafter. Sometimes I just want to have the TV running in the background while I'm doing something on my laptop, and then it doesn't matter if it's a show I wouldn't have consciously watched if TV hadn't decided to air it.

Same with radio stations, actually: I don't always wan't to be constrained by my own playlists. Sometimes it's just nice for someone else to make that decision for you.

 

[Disgustipated]

I want to second the random playlist thing. Often this is how I'm turned on to new artists (or in case of tv, new movies or tv shows I haven't seen before). I've discovered so many cool bands just by random radio listening. Why live in a closed world when you can live in an open one. As the above post points out so well is with playlists, we are constrained. Even if our playlists are thousands of songs, it is still constraining.

 

[Silurian]

Regarding play lists I see no reason why tracks cannot be added to in a pseudo random way.

Your computer downloads songs on to your computer that are mainly similar to your playlist and others that are not. If you do not like it you can click do not play that again or play another time. The program will then learn what you like, even time of day or week etc and grow your play list.

That still would not be as good as the radio for discovering new stuff but it could take a big share of the radio music market.

 

[Leoreth]

Does something like that exist for free?

 

[warpus]

We have a winner!!!

TV as a method of delivery is becoming less dominant, but not tv STATIONS. Independent internet websites do not have the resources to compete with tv stations as content *producers*.

Eventually, CBS isn't gonna care if you watch at 7 PM on your TV, or at 3 AM on your laptop.

Yeah, we'll continue having people and organizations that produce the media. Eventually it'll all be streamed online and there won't be any more tv stations or whatever.. but I'm not sure fast this transition will take

 

[W|M]

When watching TV programs, I use the TV due to the screen being much larger and with much better quality than my laptop; Regarding TV screens, bigger is always better.

 

[warpus]

When watching TV programs, I use the TV due to the screen being much larger and with much better quality than my laptop; Regarding TV screens, bigger is always better.

That's why I have a portable media box hooked up to mine - so that I can stream content from the web on it, as well as having a nifty linux-driven interface to all the media I have (backed up) on a couple external drives.

That's the future, really. If it wasn't for HD sports I wouldn't be paying for cable. That's soon changing though

 

[The_J]

When watching TV programs, I use the TV due to the [...] much better quality than my laptop; Regarding TV screens

Laptops can display HD movies now for more than 10 years, but your TV probably still can't ^^.

 

[bhsup]

But then you're still watching "TV" and not your computer. A portable media box hooked up to a TV is no different than a VCR hooked up to a TV in the 70s or 80s. It provides content which you watch on your TV from the comfort of your bean bag chair, couch, whatever.

 

[Zelig]

But then you're still watching "TV" and not your computer. A portable media box hooked up to a TV is no different than a VCR hooked up to a TV in the 70s or 80s. It provides content which you watch on your TV from the comfort of your bean bag chair, couch, whatever.

I stream content over wi-fi from my computer to my TV which isn't connected to any other media source.

 

[W|M]

Laptops can display HD movies now for more than 10 years, but your TV probably still can't ^^.

Actually, I do have HDMI and can watch movies in HD.

 

[LucyDuke]

The thread title references television channels.

 

[warpus]

But then you're still watching "TV" and not your computer. A portable media box hooked up to a TV is no different than a VCR hooked up to a TV in the 70s or 80s. It provides content which you watch on your TV from the comfort of your bean bag chair, couch, whatever.

Sure, but the content isn't coming from NBC, CBS, free to air, or whatever.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I still use a TV (movies, PS3) but cancelled the cable months ago. The only thing I really ever used cable for was Green Bay Packer games, and that wasn't worth $70/month.

Use the radio whenever I drive somewhere listening to usually, YAHOO sports radio.

 

[Alexius08]

I'm no longer watching TV for several years.