Future of the Television Industry

            For years, television has been the main media. Almost every household in the country and the rest of the world owns a television. Bob Garfield, however, predicts that the advent of modern technology (read: the Internet) will kill the television industry, pretty much the same as how video or MTV killed the radio. Fact or fiction?

            While it may be true that many television industry players are facing losses, this may not be solely blamed to the rise of the internet. There are many other factors in which the television, and other industries, are loosing money. Sure there is the possibility of less advertisers as an effect of less viewers (according to Garfield) but there is also the effects of the economy. There are many other factors, and despite them and their dim effects on the television industry it is still not safe to say that the tube business is dying.

            For one, both the television and the internet are great fads. They came to be popular because they inform and entertain in a way that changes the lives of its users. They sustain themselves through reinvention. Television and the internet have the ability to change themselves according to how the users want them to be, giving them staying power.

            It is also not safe to admit that ad support is pulling out on television. Advertisers are investing more on online marketing now than they do before, but they are still continuing to use television advertising as well. As marketers, they are supposed to exploit new avenues in advertising, but not all of them are avoiding television advertising altogether because they know that there are still many people who watch television. After a day in the office in front of the computer, people will just need to relax and sit on the couch and watch TV. They will not go to the web watching other people’s videos of themselves on YouTube. There is also the fact that not everybody has computers, and that there are more people who have access to television than the internet.

Garfield also states that television advertisements are interruptive. In return, careful analysis should also be given to web advertisements—pop-up ads and spam most especially—as they may also be intrusive.

            It may be said that Garfield is commenting on the television doomsday prematurely; maybe as premature as fifty or a hundred years or so. The television industry has its qualities that is all its own, and so has the internet. People find both media amusing, and people can’t watch all of their favorite soap operas or comedy shows online (at least not yet) at their designated airing schedules.

            Garfield has presented a thoroughly documented paper, with lots of credible resources saying that the television industry is in the decline, and balanced them with sources saying otherwise. However, Garfield is not speaking on global terms. He dealt with national television industries, whereas every other country outside of America has television stations, some of them just built, to feed the subsisting clamor for television programming.

            However, proponents of the television industry should not be complacent and too relaxed. They should be up on their toes with continuous monitoring of their status, both financially and in terms of popularity, to gauge if they are reaching the point of the chaos scenario. This way, they can take necessary measures to protect their business and the industry as a whole. While that is not happening yet, they should also be able to incorporate the new media, especially the internet, in their leagues. Garfield claimed that many advertisers use the television to drive traffic to their websites, and television movers should exploit opportunities like this. This way, they can co-exist with the other media, and that may dispel the chaos scenario altogether.