TV has been central to American family life for the best part of a century now yet, up until the turn of the millennium, it had been quite a static, unchanging thing, right down to the fact that many of the same shows had been on the air for years at that point. Classics like M*A*S*H (1972-1983) and Cheers (1982-1993) might have already expired by the turn of 2000 but future icons such as The Simpsons, E.R., Law and Order, South Park, and Family Guy were just beginning their days in the sun.
Physical Things
With the advent of streaming services, TV’s long resistance to change has started to falter. This means that everything from advertising, pricing, hardware, and how and where people watch the venerable “box” could be about to change. To give an example, the ability to watch TV – even live broadcasts – on a mobile phone means that the traditional image of a family sitting down to watch their favorite shows is starting to fade. Why fight over the remote when four people can stream four different programs on their iPhones?
Of course, TV isn’t alone in this revolution. Entertainment media of all descriptions has become unrecognizable when compared to the face it wore in the 80s and 90s. The most prominent example of this rapid change is, of course, video gaming. During the era of the Sega Genesis, what historians refer to as the fourth generation of video gaming, game consoles actually shared some similarities with VCRs, i.e. titles could be bought and sold as physical things – and even rented from the same aisle as video tapes. Mercifully, there was never any need to rewind game cartridges.
This trend continued in some form right up until the last days of Blockbuster when digital media started to become much more prevalent on the hard drives of the world. The first console to contain a hard drive for music and other media was the Xbox, which appeared in 2002. Now, physical storage devices, i.e. DVDs, are rarely included even in boxes bought in a real store, meaning that games must be downloaded via a code regardless of how they were purchased.
Single-purchase Model
Within this period of change, the games themselves have stayed roughly the same – just like the humble TV show. Sonic: Frontiers (2022) still plays much like Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), even if the former has a 3D perspective (and not just because Sega has been reusing the same basic ideas for thirty years). Granted, modern games can be played in different ways, such as in virtual and augmented reality, but the act of pressing buttons to make something happen is still central to the wider gaming experience.
There have been efforts to make games much easier to access, dispensing with the single-purchase model altogether in favor of a subscription or rent-to-play model, ironically, taking us right back to the 1990s again. The Xbox Game Pass is a good example. Recently, a concept known as cloud gaming has taken off too. Computing company Nvidia lets subscribers rent connections to its network hardware so that games, not consoles, are the only things required to get going.
In a similar vein, browser-based games offered by new online casinos have been the subject of developer experimentation. Traditional slots like Fishin’ Frenzy are well-suited to the mobile environment because they require little in the way of device power or internet bandwidth. However, “live” casino gaming is arguably where sites like Buzz Casino distinguish themselves from more traditional modes of playing. These games make use of real human dealers on a webcam to increase immersion.
Headsets and Headphones
For newcomers to this kind of thing, it’s best to imagine it as similar to a TV game show, where a presenter controls the game by either making moves on behalf of the player or directing their assistants to do the same. Just as Pat Sajak and Vanna White dictate the proceedings on Wheel of Fortune, a live casino croupier is responsible for placing the players’ bets, spinning the roulette wheel, and dealing cards. In more conventional online gaming, this is handled by a computer.
TV has had such capabilities for a long time. TV was broadcast live long before it could be pre-recorded. However, one thing that gaming has that TV doesn’t is interactivity, i.e. the ability to control exactly what’s occurring on screen. Netflix’s 2018 show Black Mirror: Bandersnatch experimented with the “choose your own adventure” concept, breaking a 2.5hr-long movie into 250 chunks but, for all its novelty, it seems to have produced about as much excitement as 3D TV, i.e. none at all.
Oddly enough, the Investopedia website predicts that interactive TV will have a place in the future, albeit not in Charlie Brooker’s storybook style. The ongoing development of VR and AR means that physical TVs could one day be replaced entirely with headsets and headphones, something that may seem undesirable to many current viewers. Whatever happened to not sitting too close to the screen? It’s debatable whether this kind of media can even be called TV though, given its resemblance to VR gaming.
Commercials
As mentioned earlier, TV’s longstanding love affair with commercials and advertising, in general, is likely to see more turbulent times in the future. While Netflix recently debuted an ad-supported tier for its streaming TV, bringing it in line with Hulu and other platforms, broadcasters seem to be turning away from traditional commercials. Why? They’re annoying for consumers and all the evidence suggests that media companies can make money without them, using a range of subscription models.
In a similar vein, browser-based games offered by new online casinos have been the subject of developer experimentation. Traditional slots like Fishin’ Frenzy are well-suited to the mobile environment because they require little in the way of device power or internet bandwidth. However, “live” casino gaming is arguably where sites like Buzz Casino distinguish themselves from more traditional modes of playing. These games make use of real human dealers on a webcam to increase immersion.
Headsets and Headphones
For newcomers to this kind of thing, it’s best to imagine it as similar to a TV game show, where a presenter controls the game by either making moves on behalf of the player or directing their assistants to do the same. Just as Pat Sajak and Vanna White dictate the proceedings on Wheel of Fortune, a live casino croupier is responsible for placing the players’ bets, spinning the roulette wheel, and dealing cards. In more conventional online gaming, this is handled by a computer.
TV has had such capabilities for a long time. TV was broadcast live long before it could be pre-recorded. However, one thing that gaming has that TV doesn’t is interactivity, i.e. the ability to control exactly what’s occurring on screen. Netflix’s 2018 show Black Mirror: Bandersnatch experimented with the “choose your own adventure” concept, breaking a 2.5hr-long movie into 250 chunks but, for all its novelty, it seems to have produced about as much excitement as 3D TV, i.e. none at all.
Oddly enough, the Investopedia website predicts that interactive TV will have a place in the future, albeit not in Charlie Brooker’s storybook style. The ongoing development of VR and AR means that physical TVs could one day be replaced entirely with headsets and headphones, something that may seem undesirable to many current viewers. Whatever happened to not sitting too close to the screen? It’s debatable whether this kind of media can even be called TV though, given its resemblance to VR gaming.
Commercials
As mentioned earlier, TV’s longstanding love affair with commercials and advertising, in general, is likely to see more turbulent times in the future. While Netflix recently debuted an ad-supported tier for its streaming TV, bringing it in line with Hulu and other platforms, broadcasters seem to be turning away from traditional commercials. Why? They’re annoying for consumers and all the evidence suggests that media companies can make money without them, using a range of subscription models.