Today in class on October 27, I will be discussing how old media are influencing new media markets by using the Roku Player as an example for this. First, I will give you a brief history of television in order to help you understand how television has evolved over time, particularly through the development of new media devices. I will also take you through a brief history of Netflix, which was the inspiration for the invention of the Roku Player. Although Roku is not necessarily a form of new media, it is a new media device, and Roku’s strategy is to focus on costumers who already have cable or satellite subscriptions. Secondly, I will show you a video about Roku just to demonstrate how it works. The main use of Roku is to stream Internet content on your television—the old way was to connect multiple cables to your TV from your laptop of computer. Most importantly, I will talk to you about Roku’s impact on television. The component of television that will be most affected will be cable companies, which is what I will spend most of my time talking to you about. The programming, production, and sales of cable companies is very likely to be affected by Roku, which allows for cheaper ways to watch your favorite shows. Not only is it cheaper than cable, but it also offers less commercials, time shifting, and it is asynchronous, meaning that viewers are no longer watching shows at the same time because they have the ability to choose when to watch their favorite shows. All of these aspects of the Roku Player will ultimately affect advertising revenues, which is a very important in order for TV networks and cable companies to make money. After offering three discussion questions to the class, I will end my presentation with a conclusion, highlighting the key points of my presentation.
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Today in class I will be discussing how he introduction of smart television has ensured a place for TV in new media markets. Old media is defined as static/fixed; one – to – many broadcast, anonymous and it has professional gatekeepers. While new media is defined as interactive and mobile, many – to – many interactive, and it has the ability to narrowcast.
We will talk about how Samsung Smart TV is changing the way you watch TV. You can stream movies, TV shows, and even YouTube videos. Plus it gives you recommendations based on what you've watched, and how you've rated movies and shows. Smart TV’s have the capability to scan your recently watched movies or any of your favorites online and narrowcast options that you may like, for example if you watched the movie Jurassic Park then your smart TV would recommend other dinosaur movies that you may enjoy.
Next and the most important part of the smart TV that makes it truly a new media outlet is interactivity. Users are no longer bound to gatekeepers, such as major broadcasters, being able to dictate the media that they see. Interactivity has made gatekeepers obsolete because the public can now choose what content they want to watch. Now in the age of social media and websites such as facebook, twitter or YouTube, traditional consumers of media can now actively produce the media generated on the internet
I will discuss in the conclusion that the Samsung “smart” TV has enabled the convergence of old media (television) and new media (internet) markets. The digital age has threatened the television industry but thanks to smart TV software, Internet integration has become possible and may secure the future of the television industry. Smart TV’s interactivity is the driving force behind consumer participation. Due to old media informing new media markets audiences can now control media content on their television sets.
On Thursday I discussed the possibility of devices such as the Roku player taking over cable television in the future. This question was posed to the class at the end of my presentation, and I wasn’t surprised to hear that the majority of people didn’t think that Roku would eventually take over or lead to cord cutting (the elimination of cable subscriptions). We concluded that cable TV would remain alive simply because of what digital television services like Roku cannot offer, such as live programming of sports and popular television dramas. We also discussed convergence, and how Roku is the result of a convergence of new media. This is true because Roku takes a form of old media, television, and combines it with new media, the Internet. This creates one little smart box that people can hook up to their TVs in order to have a new media experience on their old media devices. I was surprised by the shock people had upon hearing of Roku—many of my classmates had not heard of it before although it is becoming a very popular new media device. Lastly, we discussed how television is keeping up with new technologies in order to remain alive. The class and I concluded that television is being forced to make its services more user friendly, more personal, and up to date with technology. So far, television has progressed throughout the ages and has remained a popular form of media, and it will continue to have to do this if it does not want to go down the same path as newspapers.
Here is a helpful link to an interesting blog titled “Future of Television in the Digital Age,” which discusses the possible future of television like we talked about in class. http://giovannigarcia.posterous.com/future-of-television-in-the-digital-age
Here is also an article called “You Can Only TiVo So Many TV Shows — Why Everybody Loves Old TV” that talks about new media and old television with discussion about Tivo, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/old-tv/
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