ABSTRACT
In this final chapter, the book concludes with a study of how television is responding to its convergence with the newer media of personal computers, mobile communications and social networks. It is always risky to speculate about the future, but this chapter considers the extent to which television has recently changed as a medium and how it might change in the coming few years. The next stage in the development of television is to integrate the delivery of programmes with the ability for viewers to access the World Wide Web at the same time as they are viewing. In 2010, about half (12 million) of the households in Britain subscribed to pay television, and the other half were viewing the free-to-air broadcasting on the traditional broadcast channels, via a Freeview set-top box or a free satellite dish system. Many viewers supplement their watching of television as broadcast by using the catch-up services like iPlayer, or by using computers to access video on YouTube. So viewers are already accustomed to watching television in nontraditional ways. For the established broadcasters whose core activity has been to broadcast analogue television, namely the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, the culture of convergence – in which television and interactive internet services come together – challenges their dominance of the television landscape. For these traditional broadcasters, their dominance would be challenged if increasing numbers of viewers subscribe to pay television services in order to experience the new interrelated television and web services. At present, this is a moment of change where it is not clear whether audiences are going to demand viewing that combines television programmes, broadcast at a specific time and watched at the time of their broadcast, with access to the web and computer applications. But it looks as if viewers will want to use such services, and there are many technology and communications companies who are keen to sell the equipment that makes it possible to do this.
