Let’s face facts. TV is dying. It’s in a state of chronic illness at the moment, coughing and spluttering into the air, shitting its nappy and vomiting Simon Cowell’s bank statements all over the floor while the rest of us stand round its’ bed and mourn. Meanwhile the internet continues to – rightly – take over our lives and provide us with 24 hour access to the entire spectrum of world events, history, entertainment and lovely lovely tits. You’re probably reading this very rant on some kind of screen right now and who could blame you. TV would only be able to wheel out Bruce Forsyth to shout these words at you, at that would just be unkind to a man who has been running on Red Bull and cocaine since 1997.
No no no, it’s time to face it. TV is now only good for Sky Sports 1 – 4 + News. Everything else can gash off. I’m not the only one to think it either – production companies have started to turn to internet streaming sites to broadcast their wares now that TV is running out of advertising revenue.
Some of you may remember a brilliant TV show called Arrested Development which was broadcast from 2003-2006 on Fox. If not, then you should flay yourself as you cannot be counted among our adoring Electric Sheikh public. It’s probably the funniest TV show of whatever we call the decade 2000-2009. It’s pretty much responsible for the careers of Michael Cera & Will Arnett and served as the catalyst for Jason Bateman’s resurgence in popularity. It’s an endless conveyer belt of brilliant jokes and quotable moments, but it was cancelled halfway through Season 3 due to a lack of viewing figures. Since then Arrested Development has enjoyed massive DVD sales and the word has continued to spread over 6 years until demands for either a new series or a film became deafening. It was too much a guaranteed money spinner to be ignored, and so a new series is set for broadcast in early 2013. Not on Fox though. Fox can’t afford it. So the producers have turned to Netflix.
You’ve probably heard of Netflix due to the recent hullabaloo surrounding their launch last year in the UK. They’re slowly growing in popularity over here, but in the US they’ve been active since 1997 and are currently enjoying a revenue stream worth 20 Billion US$. That’s bigger than a majority of TV revenue streams, and remarkably it’s mostly from subscription fees rather than advertising. So people are voluntarily handing over money to Netflix rather than utilise the free TV channels. This is why I think TV is dying.
Netflix (and here in the UK its’ brilliant Amazon owned rival LoveFilm) offers a massive choice of TV shows, movies, stand up routines, music videos, short films, absolutely everything – completely unlimited and available 24 hours a day – for as little as 6 quid a month. Where TV wants me to wait until 10pm to watch South Park on Comedy Central, Netflix will let me watch it on my phone at 9am in McDonalds in Liverpool Street Station. E4 will only broadcast The Inbetweeners post 9pm. I watched it on the bus to work the other day on Netflix. They even show US drama Breaking Bad – and I can’t stress how amazing that is – whereas it’s not shown on any TV station in he UK (definitely check that out – I’m only at the start of season 3, but Nate and Tom are on season 5).
Ultimately we’re about to see the YouTube generation take over, and they’re used to content on demand. Nothing else will do for them. So jump on the bandwagon and start streaming. Netflix, LoveFilm, even iPlayer and 4OD count. TV on demand. Let’s put Forsyth into stud.
