OK, I'm showing my age here a bit, and maybe you'll admit to remembering TV back in the day. As in back in the late 50's and 60's. We had the first TV on our street. A 13 inch Crosley and we pulled in the couple of stations available with rabbit ears.
They usually sat on top of the TV and if you turned them just right you could pull in a nice black and white picture on Sundays to watch Bonanza.
More stations came, followed by cable and satellite and rabbit ears pretty much became a thing of the past, especially when television stations started broadcasting in digital format. Digital versions of rabbit ears became available and if you wanted, at least at our house, you could plug them into the back of a satellite receiver and receive all sorts of local programming off-air, in a digital HD format. Or directly into a digital TV.
A new study by the Pew Research Center shows some significant changes in what we're watching and how we're watching it. Especially news. Pew reports "Almost half of those surveyed say they watch local news regularly, but the future is dim for local TV content; "regular" news viewers under 30 dropped from 42% in 2006 to 28% in 2012." Younger consumers are getting their news and information from tablets and smart phones. I doubt that trend will change. It's certainly changing at our house. When we watch TV, it's with iPads in our laps.
At one time we had 4 satellite receivers with a package of 250 channels. A lot of channels and receivers for just 2 people. Also a lot of expense as we maybe watched 10-15 of those channels at the most. To be fair, satellite and cable providers are at the mercy of the program providers who "bundle" programming. That is, if a satellite or cable provider wants a popular channel they're forced to include 6-7 more less popular ones. Regional sports channels, like the ridiculous Longhorn Network are the big culprit. All the costs of course, passed on to you and me. But enough is enough. There are other choices.
So we began to cut back. First it was reducing our 250 channel package to just 120. Then recently we added Apple TV. It's hooked up to a 50 inch screen along with a satellite receiver. But gobs of programming available streamed via the Internet to our TV. Last week we bought our first "Smart" TV. It's a 46 inch flat screen that not only receives digital off-air signals and streaming content available via Internet, it's essentially a computer in itself. Even has Apps! The picture quality is awesome.
So then we cut our satellite receivers from 4 to 2. Our monthly bill is now half of what it used to be and we still have more programming than we can possibly watch. But sitting in front of that Smart TV, which only receives programming with rabbit ears and wireless streaming content, it's ironic that rabbit ears have outlived far more advanced technologies.
Ultimately what all this is doing is providing consumers something we've always wanted and deserve. A la carte programming. Just paying for the channels we want. We're not there yet, but getting closer. For us it may mean saying goodbye to ESPN. But it's becoming the norm where we live, that if it isn't available digitally off-air or by streaming, it doesn't exist.
Technology, including those good old rabbit ears is making it all possible.
Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"
They usually sat on top of the TV and if you turned them just right you could pull in a nice black and white picture on Sundays to watch Bonanza.
More stations came, followed by cable and satellite and rabbit ears pretty much became a thing of the past, especially when television stations started broadcasting in digital format. Digital versions of rabbit ears became available and if you wanted, at least at our house, you could plug them into the back of a satellite receiver and receive all sorts of local programming off-air, in a digital HD format. Or directly into a digital TV.
A new study by the Pew Research Center shows some significant changes in what we're watching and how we're watching it. Especially news. Pew reports "Almost half of those surveyed say they watch local news regularly, but the future is dim for local TV content; "regular" news viewers under 30 dropped from 42% in 2006 to 28% in 2012." Younger consumers are getting their news and information from tablets and smart phones. I doubt that trend will change. It's certainly changing at our house. When we watch TV, it's with iPads in our laps.
At one time we had 4 satellite receivers with a package of 250 channels. A lot of channels and receivers for just 2 people. Also a lot of expense as we maybe watched 10-15 of those channels at the most. To be fair, satellite and cable providers are at the mercy of the program providers who "bundle" programming. That is, if a satellite or cable provider wants a popular channel they're forced to include 6-7 more less popular ones. Regional sports channels, like the ridiculous Longhorn Network are the big culprit. All the costs of course, passed on to you and me. But enough is enough. There are other choices.
So we began to cut back. First it was reducing our 250 channel package to just 120. Then recently we added Apple TV. It's hooked up to a 50 inch screen along with a satellite receiver. But gobs of programming available streamed via the Internet to our TV. Last week we bought our first "Smart" TV. It's a 46 inch flat screen that not only receives digital off-air signals and streaming content available via Internet, it's essentially a computer in itself. Even has Apps! The picture quality is awesome.
So then we cut our satellite receivers from 4 to 2. Our monthly bill is now half of what it used to be and we still have more programming than we can possibly watch. But sitting in front of that Smart TV, which only receives programming with rabbit ears and wireless streaming content, it's ironic that rabbit ears have outlived far more advanced technologies.
Ultimately what all this is doing is providing consumers something we've always wanted and deserve. A la carte programming. Just paying for the channels we want. We're not there yet, but getting closer. For us it may mean saying goodbye to ESPN. But it's becoming the norm where we live, that if it isn't available digitally off-air or by streaming, it doesn't exist.
Technology, including those good old rabbit ears is making it all possible.
Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"
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