Is Dollhouse Doomed? 7 Trouble Signs

[AndrewCrossett]

It's obvious that on-demand services are just gonna get more popular but I don't believe for a second that all live TV will be on-demand and not aired on a weekly schedule as well. At least not for SEVERAL decades, but I really just don't see that EVER happening. And if it did, watercooler talk would cease to exist, too, and who would want that? I think people enjoy watching TV live overall and then discussing it with their friends the next day.

I don't see one single reason why it wouldn't.

As for "water cooler talk"... episodes would, of course, have a date on which they'd first go live, and most serious fans would make an effort to watch them on that date or as soon as possible. In that respect, it wouldn't be that much different from today, with some people watching the show when it airs and some watching it later on DVR.

Honestly, I don't see one single downside to universal on-demand, and I don't see a single upside to continuing the way it is now. It would certainly be a much better situation for scripted TV shows that don't get 25-shares in the ratings (such as... everything Joss Whedon has ever done or ever will do.)

Without this change, shows of the type Joss does will not continue to be produced. There will be nothing at all left for those of us who like intelligent scripted TV, because the reality shows and game shows are miles cheaper and get huge ratings. They will therefore be all that's left in the end.

 

[Silum]

Still requires you to remember to take action (programming) before a certain time, and is liable to user error or machine error or power failure, and requires you to use up resources (disk space) if you want to keep the episode, and once you've deleted it it's gone if you decide you want to see it again.

There are still lots of ways to miss a show with DVR. With on-demand, there aren't.

Just do it like Hulu.com, except on the TV screen instead of the computer screen. Choose premium view (small fee per view, but no commercials) or commercial-supported view (free, but with non-fast-forwardable commercials.) Watch episodes from any TV at any time. Never have to worry about remembering to do anything... watch it whenever the notion strikes you. No more bad time slots, no more shows dying because they're on against more popular shows.

This has to happen eventually, but it's happening too slowly.

Uk already does something similar with great success. They do a hybrid, with timeslots for all the shows but then they are accessible on-demand afterwards for a week. BBC, ITV, and C4 all do this and its accessible via the internet or if you have cable/satellite then right from your TV.

I'm pretty sure most US stations are doing this aswell (at least the internet side of things). You have to remember that On-demand requires a provider (cable etc) since on-demand air broadcasts arn't feasible.

Maybe in the future everything will be internet based (actually AT&T's U-Verse is just that) but the cost is far too huge to change the way we view TV anytime soon.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Uk already does something similar with great success. They do a hybrid, with timeslots for all the shows but then they are accessible on-demand afterwards for a week.

Is there a reason why they limit it to a week?

I fully expect TV and computer will be the same appliance before long. Then again, I would have thought it would already have happened a good ten years ago. It's amazing how quickly technology changes in some respects and how slowly in others.

It would work the same as on-demand movie channels, except all TV episodes would be available and indexed alphabetically and by date. It seems like the technology is already in place and proven successful. It would just require people to make a break from How It's Always Been, and that's the hardest part.