Thursday, January 07, 2010

The Future Of TV

(I've posted about this before, but my concerns have become a business question.)

The last few weeks I've been watching too much TV. But I've been watching these "TV" shows online, OnDemand, and on DVD. I can't remember the last time I really followed a show on the TV. It isn't just the commercials. Online and OnDemand shows have some commercials too. The question becomes: What is the future of TV?

Shows like Mad Men almost require buying or renting the DVD to really follow them. They're just so well done that they're movies broken into 42 minute segments. Even if you watch every first airing on TV, you want to go back and watch them again. (Mad Men is by far my favorite entertainment going right now.)

Shows like The Office and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia are just 22 minute laugh fests. Extending them to thirty minutes and forcing me to watch them at a certain time each week makes them less funny. They are designed to make us laugh, and laughing isn't about schedules.

So what types and how many comedies or "serious" shows do I buy for the video store?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hulu.com? I watched two office shows on that this week. Every time the prime shows come on the digital antenna, the signal scrambles and freezes.

GGM

Wannabe Bastiat said...

Hulu.com is definitely part of the answer. I go to bed every night watching something from Hulu. I only get basic cable now. It is for some reason cheaper to get basic cable and internet than internet alone.