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There was a time back when I was young (or even four years ago) where people would have to schedule their time and events around television shows and movies that they wished to watch. Kids stayed in on Friday to watch TGIF on ABC or woke up early Saturday for Saturday morning cartoons. Adults made sure to go to dinner before their programs started at 8pm and definitely made it a habit to stay in all night Thursday for NBC’s Must See TV. After you watched your show, you would have to tune in NEXT week at the SAME TIME to view the show again.
Films would air in movie theaters, then be released periodically in a “video rental store.” These movies would usually be watched on Fridays, but parents coming home from work on Friday would make sure to get to the local Blockbuster early before all the copies of the new release were rented. But in order to watch a movie in your home, you either had to purchase it, or drive down to the store and rent the film; then you had a window of two days to watch it.
Sometimes the gods would look favorably down upon humanity and allow people to view them significantly edited on Saturday afternoons or Sunday evening.
The sad thing was, your time was held hostage by shadowy men in corporate citadels.
This was before a revolution of viewer-controlled media. There has been a sudden release these last few years of technology that has allowed the consumer the chance to control when, where and how they watch the television shows and films that they desire.
DVRs allowed people to take back their schedules. You don’t have to be home to watch a television show. You don’t even have to remember to tape the show every week. One setting and the show tapes every time it airs. Missed taping an episode or even want to catch up with a series you started watching halfway through a season, products like Hulu.com, TV.com and others provided consumers the opportunity to further customize their viewing schedule.
With films, initially rental stores extended the time they allowed a film to be released, but there was still the issue of physically driving to the rental store, returning the film and, even then, the desired film didn’t have any copies available. Products like Netflix satisfied the hunger for delivered movies to your door with NO LATE FEES AT ALL. But even with this advancement, consumers wanted instant gratification, so products like Cable Video On Demand and Netflix streaming allowed consumers to view films at any moment they desired, whether day or night.
With the added ability to watch films and television programs on televisions, gaming consoles, computers, tablets and smartphones, consumption of media has never before been easier for the public. We are truly lucky to be living in an era of instant gratification.
Two questions remain, though: with the “have it your way” mindset, are we becoming too ungrateful, and do any other parties benefit from this arrangement outside of the consumer?
My next post will attempt to answer these questions…
