The argument is pervasive. Kids don’t want or need cable. They have the internet for content. Why would they pay all that money when they can find most, if not all the entertainment they want and need for free ?
Put another way “kids today”, the twentysomethings, dont follow the same entertainment consumption paths that their parents and elders do. The new mantra is “Never trust the media consumption habits of anyone over 30”
Well no shit Sherlock. Has any generation’s kids consumed media the same way as their parents ?
I’m going to let you in on a secret. The only 20 somethings that are going to consume media in 10 years the way they do today are the ones without a job, still living with their parents.
I’m going to let you in on another secret. The older you get, the faster time goes by. I’m sure there is some scientific explanation for this phenomena. I don’t know it. But I know it is true. Months and years go back faster and faster the older you get.
Which in turn leads to the next truism. The older you get, the more you value your time. You quickly learn that your most valuable possession/asset isn’t one you put on a balance sheet or in your home. It is time. Every minute , hour , day is one you will never get back and there is nothing you can do to earn another.
So what does this have to do with Internet, Internet Video and Traditional TV ?
If you read my blog posts you know that a recurring theme is that businesses must offer the path of least resistance to their customers. If someone else makes their product easier to buy or use than you, that is when you lose customers the fastest. This theme is even more important when it comes to entertainment. If you agree that TV is the path of least resistance to a cure for boredom, then it is easy to see that when someone is bored, the more they value their time, the less they will want to work to find their entertainment.
So to state the obvious: 20 somethings dont value their time as much as 30 somethings who don’t value their time as much as 40 somethings, etc, etc.
Kids have all day to search for pirated music, movies and software. They value the money it would cost to buy the stuff more than they value their time. 20 somethings don’t mind listening to tons of music to find out what they like. They don’t mind rooting through Youtube for hours to find fun stuff. They will listen to music over and over because learning the words and dance steps creates social capital that is more valuable than their time. They can and will spend hours searching for new stuff. Why ? Because they can.
Once a 20 something gets that job and takes on rent, student loan payments, credit cards, car payments,etc the equation starts to change. They order music from Itunes rather than pirating it. They click on links and look to see what their friends are doing on facebook as a short cut to the entertainment they should like. They don’t spend time on news, they believe that if news is important, they will see it when someone posts it on their FB wall or tweets it. Which by itself is a time saving mechanism.
As the real world starts to impact their lives, through job responsibilities , families, whatever else, they start to value time even more and look for ways they can buy time. This is where their entertainment consumption starts to change. They still want to keep up with Jersey Shore and their favorite sports team. They want to watch it so they can talk about it at work, so they can see the shows they are hearing about online and from friends, or just so they can enjoy watching it. So they consider adding cable when they can afford it, knowing they can cut it (but not cut their internet connection ) if they don’t use it or if they lose their job.
Once a family starts, the economic realities and the importance of time change dramatically. No one has time to download all the scooby doo episodes the kids want to watch, and you don’t want them carrying around your Iphone/Itouch/Ipad all day, nor do you want to buy your 3 year old their own device. So you recognize that as much as you hate to admit it , traditional TV has its value . And while you would love to check out those youtube videos the guy in the office sent you, and the ones you saw on your facebook wall, you dont have the time or the brain cycles to deal with it.
By the time 10pm rolls around, you want to vegetate, be entertained and just find a way to calm down so you can go to sleep.
You have reached the point where there aren’t enough hours in the day. The idea of having to expend any more energy than the effort it takes to pick up the remote control, check the programming guide and your DVR list to see what you want to watch is in and of itself tiring.
The examples are different for everyone, and of course there are exceptions, but the underlying principal is the same. The more you value your time, the more you value simple, easy access to cures for boredom, the best of which is TV. Which is why 20 somethings of every generation find their own unique ways to entertain themselves and their parents do all they can to not have to expend time or energy to cure their boredom.
What kids do today has absolutely nothing to do with how they will consume media as adults or what future generations will do to consume media.
Put together a graph of how people value their time as they age and you will see how their media consumption evolves over time. Add to that graph the various media options currently available and you will see that the simpler and more expensive skew old and the cheaper and more choice options skew younger
#fail google translate
Comment by tvangelist -
It´s right,if from children adults become, to change beginning them her life. Job responsibility, family and financial restrictions contribute to it, this has gone out to us to all thus. However, is it real in such a way that they change her acquired abilities and habits with Facebook or other communities as adults? Today many enterprises know the Facebook as a communication instrument the activities of her employees estimate and promote.
Comment by sonnenspitze11 -
Interesting topic, Mark.
I was blogging about the idea of time going by faster as we get older last week. I think there are two reasons for that. One, as Kevin pointed out above, the older we get, a year represents a much smaller percentage of our life. Second, before our early 20’s, years contain a lot of milestones like summer vacation and there’s a clear demarcation each year. We go from Freshmen to Sophomores and so on. That pretty much ends when we finish school so we don’t tend to notice how many years slip by.
Comment by Bill Hibbler -
Almost 99% of the video watched in the U.S. is still done on television.
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/nielsen_threescreenreport_q109.pdf
Comment by tsteven -
By the time 10pm rolls around, on most weeknights, I don’t want to vegetate. This is prime time for blogging, reading, gaming, tweeting and connecting with friends on Facebook—at least in my house. Passively consume televised content? —no way! I tweet with others during Mad Men episodes.
Comment by darryljonckheere -
When you streaming films’s in Germany it’s often that you have a bill in the post about the streaming…i think tv is better.
Comment by hair189 -
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I think the problem is that kid’s streaming not only film’s who
is good 4 the age,like horror or other….
Comment by sanavital45 -
@ Alessandro…I don’t dispute watching behaviour, but who delivers the content? This still can be linear/horizontally programmed, but who programs your night? Your traditional station, your friends or popular online channels; I choose the latter two. Google, Apple and Hulu pave the way.
Comment by markomaximus -
There is too much virtuality in our lives.
Comment by bufinder -
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I have to respectfully disagree markomaximus. Sitting and watching a big screen while on a couch is exactly what people do want at the end of a scorching day.
HD has created such a hornets nest of compression variations of the signal that what you see on your computer most likely is not what you see on your regular television set.
Comment by Alessandro Machi -
Mark, I think you have some interesting insights, but they tend to overlook some very important technological innovations and consumer behavioural changes. Time has nothing to do with how we perceive and consume content nowadays.
We used to have one screen, now we have three. The consumer no longer stays glued to a couch watching a television set mounted to the wall.
The speed of our home internet connections has become that fast, waiting has become trivial.
Television as we know it now is a screen, like our laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc…
And when I press the remote in the near future, will I see a browser screen or a pre-programmed linear TV station…the latter no, the first yes. But…what channel will I watch…what attracts my attention…ergo, what do my friends talk about…which content is the most viral…etc etc. That’s the question. Not time!
Content has to be viral, free or not…that will be the path of least resistance. And in my humble opinion the ‘traditional’ players no longer hold the monopoly to good and viral content. Anything goes…just be out there.
Sorry, Mark, your argumentation is way too easy and one-way-viewed. Online watching will be our future and without the need watching a flickering screen and showing them whatever the time table tells them to, we will find our own way, directed by sites, blogs and friends…
Comment by markomaximus -
One of your points doesn’t really make much sense.
Why would a twenty-something who recently started paying bills STOP downloading pirated music and start buying it on iTunes. They have less money in their pocket due to bills and other expenses so now they start paying for music? Huh? (I would know because I am one of these people)
I understand the general theme of media consumption changing, but I feel like you made some very broad generalizations.
Comment by boofrog24 -
But what if what is on at 10pm is crap? And instead I want to catch up on the last episode of spartacus/cougar town/friday night lights without having to be sure to schedule it via PVR, on a horribly shitty, slow box?
I agree that time is the issue – so give me what I want to watch, when I want to watch it. Netflix just came to Canada – but it’s a waste of time as the library isn’t complete.
Cable companies are trying to protect an old delivery model. Justify however you like – but the primary drive is to protect the current model.
It’s just a matter of time before what is slowly happening with audio will happen with video. Podcasts/MP3’s are much easier to consume these days – and I’m not stuck with the garbage that is radio or fixed schedules that is satellite.
TL;DR (as the 20 somethings say): Cable doesn’t actually help my time problem, if I care what I’m watching.
Comment by chamoen -
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Comment by print06 -
Wizard: Look at it this way. A man takes a job, you know? And that job – I mean, like that – That becomes what he is. You know, like – You do a thing and that’s what you are. Like I’ve been a cabbie for thirteen years. Ten years at night. I still don’t own my own cab. You know why? Because I don’t want to. That must be what I want. To be on the night shift drivin’ somebody else’s cab. You understand? I mean, you become – You get a job, you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn. One guy lives in Sutton Place. You got a lawyer. Another guy’s a doctor. Another guy dies. Another guy gets well. People are born, y’know? I envy you, your youth. Go on, get laid, get drunk. Do anything. You got no choice, anyway. I mean, we’re all f@#$%d. More or less, ya know.
Travis Bickle: I don’t know. That’s about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Comment by millionraces -
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The problem is that I can setup a sub-$200 device that will hook to my TV and subscribe to a simple RSS feed and get every show they watch in HD format along with movies and just about anything else. This takes about 5 minutes of setup that anybody can do by following simple instructions. Sure it’s not legal, but once you have something like this setup it is far less ‘work’ than any other current method that is out there.
Netflix is nice, but you can’t get everything on it especially recent television shows. Hulu is nice, but they have all kinds of restrictions. The only way to do things online on the up and up is to have a computer hooked to your TV and use different apps/sites for different content. That sucks. Getting everything you want in one place is the only way people want to use it.
Comment by bradmurray -
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I’m 20 something, and I must say the fallowing thing. Of course we spend our time on the internet, because we find every information we need there, I mean EVERYTHING. My parents doesn’t use the internet so much, because they discover it to late, that’s way they see the news after 5 hours since I already now from online media. When you are almost born with something and it’s crowing in your eyes, you like to play with it and found out more. But when you discover it at 40-50 years doesn’t seam so interesting.
Comment by deedeepoint -
Great Post Mark.
Wasn’t it always the case that youngsters have loads of time and no money and “Grown-Ups” have no time and more money.
So instead of TV and thanks to a digital world where it’s easy to find and copy stuff, they get their media from elsewhere.
I agree that once the time gets precious, simpler ways of consumption become more attractive. The consumption becomes less active as you get older and you let the media wash over you as you relax? So you don’t seek out corners of the internet to find stuff… Unless someone can make that easy and reliable…
Comment by scabraal -
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Very interesting commentary on the plights of cable and internet. Has me rethinking how I was originally pigeon holing different age groups. Compelling new business models possible if willing to “adjust the models” rather than trying to reinvent them. Thanks again for the shake up.
Interesting idea I heard once on the time relationship to age. The reason why time went by slower when younger e.g.: Summer vacations during school is that the time in relationship to how long you had lived was greater hence it seemed longer. 10 weeks to a 12 year old is 2% of his entire life. 10 months to a 40 year old is 2%. So in relative terms, 10 weeks to a 40 year old is a NY minute. To a 12 year old, 10 months seems like a life time.
Thanks again!
Comment by Mark -
vrieling. Two questions. Who makes stars? In my opinion, it’s movies, and television. Stars tend to drive a lot of media.
Second question, when was the last time you googled a “youtube star”. Sure you can subscribe to their channel and whenever they come up with something new, you would be notified, but that is not the same thing as having a choice of several channels you like whenever YOU are available to watch.
And, if you check out google trends or yahoo trends, how do those topics make it to the top ten. I would guess twitter might be a source, but it also might be twitter based on something that was seen on television, or something that was seen on television.
If you have noticed on your google choices, there is a web setting, and there is a “news” setting. Us bloggers generally don’t make “news”, so even if we broke a story, it would not actually appear under news until the AP or Reuters or some huge news outlet carried the story. Those outlets are closely aligned with television news.
Comment by Alessandro Machi -
Regarding the perception of Time, the synapses in our brain fire slower the older we get which means that instead of 1,000,000 firings in an hour when you are young you may have 80% of that by middle age or even 50% when you are really old meaning that us old farts (I’m 52) will actually perceive time going by more quickly than the young bucks.
I think you are projecting a business model that is already outmoded as a default for the future. The TV grid is about as relevant to video search as the Dewey Decimal System is to information search. I can’t remember the last time I went to a library to do research or thumbed through a thesaurus to find the meaning of a word. Why would I when there is an easier method of searching even greater sources of information right on the computer sitting on my lap? At 10pm when I am dead tired and just want to veg-out for a while, I don’t really want to deal with a bunch of linier channels rolling by on my TV like waves that I have to catch in just the right way if I want to watch them, or maybe have a few shows I had the foresight to program in and save on VTR. I want customized suggestions and list of the TV series I watch book marked exactly where I left off last time I watched it. The real question is what is it worth to have that kind of convenience? Would you pay a dollar per hour? Or how about free if the commercials were in included in a way that you cannot be fast-forward through them? (Now that model would really benefit both content producers by much higher fee for view and averters by actually knowing their ads are seen. However right now I have Comcast (with all pay channels) and I am currently paying about $175/ month for content which works out to a little over $2 per hour I watch. For what? So I can have a flood of content shooting at me 24hrs a day (most of which I do not care for and would never pay for if I had a choice?) Who wins in that deal? The average fee paid per hour to the content providers is pennies, Advertisers get fast-forwarded or channel surfed and Netflix grows by leaps and bounds. That is why I am putting my money on ala-cart, pay-per-view delivery with intelligent video search engines as the logical future of TV. That model will win as surely as Google beat poor old Dewey, It will just take longer because Dewey didn’t have the political clout and vast wealth of Time Warner and Comcast to put up walls to keep the tide of innovation and fair market competition from doing what it should be doing.
Comment by vrieling -
Allow me to clarify…my goal is not to MERELY cure boredom. Obviously, crafting stories that inspire compassion and action usually means the storyteller has created something that connects on an emotional level…and entertains as a result.
Comment by J.C. Christofilis -
I think this is a simplistic correlation of media consumption behavior with time available. I would look more to Technology Adoption Cycle as defined by Geoffrey Moore in terms of disruption/discontinuous change being driven by value that is perceived in the early markets.
The bleeding edge innovators will always look for new and cool ways to “play” with new products and distribution strategies. The early adopters will look at how they can define themselves as cool or hip with their avant garde consumption trendiness. If in the process they can establish a compelling value proposition for absorbing the disruptive change a switch in platforms, standards, devices, then the beginning of the early majority can be established. If these things can be embedded in current or easily shifted to no-brainer enablers, then we can get the majority on board.
Right now the thought of extending my home network to my TV via direct connection or game systems with Netflix capability has less to do with time and more to do with the hassle factor which is key in terms of adoption.
Comment by kite1956 -
Henri Bergson gave us the notion of Bergsonian time which attempted to explain the phenomena one experiences of time slowing down, especially in traumatic moments. Most of us have likely momentarily experienced life in “slo-mo” during life-threatening events such as a car crash. But every single one of us experience what Mark discusses here- time speeding up as we get older. Let’s call it reverse Bergsonian time…the phenomena we experience when our lives our become compartmentalized into a mind-numbing, monotony of daily routines that seem to universally define “adulthood.”
But what I truly find fascinating is the fact that my 60 year old mother- typically a baby boomer luddite- has suddenly become a vocal evangelist for Hulu. Sure both the twenty-something “kids” and boomers over 60 have more time on their hands to discover and consume media. But I’m starting to believe that they don’t necessarily place less value on their time, but simply place more value on what really matters in life…a passion for truly living [often purposely for boomers, but perhaps unwittingly for kids]. And noting in our lives captures our human condition better than stories conveyed in art [and, as a result, the media that allows us to connect with art such as music and film].
It’s a shame more of us Gen Y/X folks entering our 30s and 40s lose sight of that passion for living, and life indeed passes us by so fast- perhaps deservedly so. Some would argue that’s simply because we’re focused on selflessly serving our children’s lives. But I would argue back that expressing the desire to retain and share some more passion in our own lives will give our children the role models they truly need to fully enrich their own lives, and our world as an extension.
It’s a worthy aspiration that inspires me to work hard to muster the extra energy needed to continue my quest to discover and consume art in new and exciting ways. I don’t always succeed. But I try. I guess that’s why I usually seek out work that will allow me to develop compelling content for much more interesting and dynamic generations. My goal is not to cure boredom, but to inspire compassion and action.
Comment by J.C. Christofilis -
I see your point on wanting to expend as little effort as possible if you value your time, but the idea of simply turning on the TV and watching the crap that is on at at any point in time is very unappealing to me. Not to mention the ads. I’ll gladly pay for a show (in money, and time to find) so I can watch it when I want, and without wasting time on ads. So as I get older I have cut the cable down to a few local stations (which I don’t watch), and get almost all my media though Netflix (both streaming and by mail).
But I do have to ask: why are you watching TV at all if you value your time? How can you have hours of time you are trying to kill (because you are bored) and still value your time? Seems if you are bored you have too much extra time. I watch TV to kill time on exercise equipment because I can’t read or create then.
Comment by LL -
Wow, you’re absolutely right in this post. I haven’t read your blog for years, just thought I’d stop by.
It’s so true, and I just wanted to add… at the end of the day we should design for people and humanity, and create value in the world. Long-term I’d rather do a business like that than one that just generates pure money.
By the way … I was looking up RadicalBuy to see what happened to it. What’s the story with that?
Comment by egreg -
I remember as a student I rented records from the record library and recorded them on cassette tapes as I did not have the money to buy the records and I had time to do that. These day the most perishable item on the planet for me is time when you have lost a minute it can never be regained and it has no scrap value.
I agree with you Mark.
Comment by alode -
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I think that this is absolutely a correct assessment of our world and our lives that are swamped by TV and all things that people think we should be doing in TV! It is a realistic reflection and observation of the following: Marc is a “Humanist” in a Technological world not a Technologist in Humanity: Technologists are creating things they think we want because they can not because it is required. I hate it when technologists say “It is what the Consumer wants”…most of them have never been a real consumer or know any real consumers. I have blogged this at WordPress (TVANGELIST) covering the aspect of TV consumption and use amongst the differing age groups many moons ago. I am in Europe and see a whole different set of more complex dynamics than the USA with fragmentation with respect to language and a myriad of different rules per country.
When I work I do not consume TV at work although I am in the TV business. When I travel I do not consume TV other then when I get to put my feet up in a hotel and I am not allowed to put Movies on my Hotel Tab. CNN and BBC seems to get the most of my attention…If I am not at the bar watching a football match or drinking with colleagues. Or emailing because I am out of time-zone sync. When I get home I have to kiss the wife, hug the kids, get re-settled into my family life which as Marc says results in the TV only being available to chill at the end of the evening. The PVR is full, AppleTV is available, Blu-ray is available, I have DVD and Video-Cassettes available. I have IPTV available from a Telco. Now I have mobile Handheld video and and iPhone, PC access via my MediaCentre…But I have little or no time to consume or at least little or no time to be searching the “world” for a show that I and my spouse might like that moment in time….
My streaming Internet Radio gives me a variety and selection process that is built by “someone else” creating a playlist…just like TV gave me a TV line-up…
My Children are 26,20,7 & 4 – So I get to see a wide spectrum of use and I once again claim that I concur with the article.
http://tvangelist.wordpress.com
Comment by tvangelist -
Cool post.
But I am a twenty something and I already feel like I’m out of time!
Comment by dawmanik -
I think this is an incomplete assessment of the value of time on media consumption because it begs the question of whether you can efficiently use your time and energy to find the media you want.
I grew up using a computer and am probably a little above average in terms of computer literacy. Even with my level of “skill” I can find pretty much any media available online in a matter of minutes. However, my grandfather has not grown up using a computer and has no interest in learning how the internet works. Because of his ignorance he misses out on a lot of the media he would otherwise consume, but doesn’t want to learn to look for. He would rather watch T.V. and listen to the radio hoping to catch his favorite shows or music because “the google-net” simply escapes him and he doesn’t have an interest in learning.
Now, it could be said that this another form of saving time. There are time and energy costs to learning to use a computer. But, I can’t believe that his specific refusal has anything to do with time, because he is the only person in the world I know (and want to know) that actively watches the House of Representatives sessions on CNN. That is the ULTIMATE time waster.
This is all anecdotal, but I think that this is fairly true generalization: the older generation has a harder time understanding computers and how they work currently than the younger generation. As a result, they are not able to use computers as efficiently as the younger generation to find the media they want to consume. Therefore, they cannot realize the time benefits the younger generation has of consuming media online.
So, again, I think that this assessment is correct but incomplete.
Comment by notagambler -
hey kevin, that is kind of what I was talking about in my prior post. Consumption versus creation. What you do during the day may determine how much energy is spent at night looking for entertainment.
Comment by Alessandro Machi -
2 thoughts:
1) The perception of time increases as you grow older. Why? Here is my non-scientific theory. As you grow older, each discrete length of time becomes a smaller percentage of your experience, and this increases the perception of how fast time goes.
For instance. To a one day old baby, a day is equal to their entire lifetime. It is an eternity.
To a 30 year old, it is 1/10950th of his lifespan. A blink of an eye.
Same length of time, but contrasted relative to your experience, it goes by much faster.
And for human perception, relative truth is the whole ball game.
Which brings to an interesting questions. Mark’s theory is that rational people value their time too much to search for entertainment, but he has already defined television as time travel, as the easiest way to waste time, or cure boredom.
Doesn’t it make sense that if these rational actors (old people) REALLY valued their time, they wouldn’t consume any information that served only to ‘cure boredom’ and, hence, waste time?
Or is there an upper bound to how much ‘productive time’ one can have, so there will be x wasted time regardless, so let’s get right to the point with it?
Comment by kevincherrick -
I’m not convinced that the younger generation is as savvy as we give them credit for. I agree that the younger generation is probably very savvy if put in front of a buffet of video and audio choices, but if they spend too much time focused on that one buffet, they may be losing sight of other types of buffets and as a result they may actually become less savvy than the generation before.
Comment by Alessandro Machi -
“… If someone else makes their product easier to buy or use than you, that is when you lose customers the fastest. ”
Except if those customers have nowhere else to go to get that content. 🙂
One reason cable, and satellite aren’t losing customers is because content providers aren’t letting someone like Netflix become a true competitor to cable or Satellite.
Imagine the Netflix interface and their on-demand model, but with all the content of your cable subscription at the same price you pay for that cable subscription.
That would be an easier product for consumers than the current cable model. Yet we don’t have that product. Instead a company that started with much less resources and 0 customers has that interface and accomplished that in the past 5 years or so.
Yes cable has on-demand, but it’s nowhere near as slick to use as Netflix is. And the content is much more limited. And to think cable controls the pipe.
Another reason for this could be that cable and satellite are an oligopoly. Are they colluding to prevent innovation in this space?
How come Netflix can offer so much more VoD content from what I can see? Is it content providers telling Comcast etc what they can do? Is it collusion via oligopoly. Or maybe it is the de-centralized cable business model that makes VoD expensive on cable. Or maybe the outdated video delivery systems?
So while I agree that this internet hype about cutting the cord is just that, I don’t think cable as it is now is the easiest viewing model. Netflix is.
And, for many who value their time, watching less tv is a side effect. 🙂
Then they start doing the math. I can watch Netflix for cheap. I can rent new movies on the side. Get network shows from antenna. And I can buy a few extra shows through iTunes or Amazon to supplement that content.
And yes I miss some sports, but the networks give you weekend sports. The reality is I don’t have enough time to watch more sports than that anyway say the not-so-young-anymore people.
Netflix has no commercials. Big time savings. Same with iTunes/Amazon.
… I’m a FIOS subscriber, but hey the (cut the cord) math is starting to make more sense to me.
IF FIOS didn’t cut me such a good deal for the next year I would have tried to go the no-cable route.
I showed the wife Netflix 2 months ago and she has watched cable once. Maybe it’s temporary because Netflix content is all fresh and new to her and who knows if it will become stale. Who knows if she starts missing cable content.
Comment by trip1ex -
One needs to take into account that the younger generation is savvy and will remain so as they get older. If traditional media does not adapt to their needs, one will find that the younger generation (as they get older) will go out of their way to consume media the way they want to.
For example, the category “Movies” in iTunes only has a limited number of titles. How is this the case since the iphone and ipad is so popular? We all know why more titles are not available. The fact of the matter is, “8 Mile” should not still be in the top 75 of the most popular iTunes movies. There is little to no change in the iTunes store from week to week.
Personally, I find myself renting movies on itunes and if they are not available, I go to other sites like http://www.iphonevids.tv
I pay for preference, not necessarily convenience and I think others do to.
thanks,
ryan
Comment by ryanmendezstreetball -
This reminds me of the comment I made in the last topic about digital versus analog, aggregators versus ala carte. If I were still in my 20’s, I would have been thrilled to get a whole “tier” of movies from my cable provider for 5 bucks a month. Now, somewhat older, I really just wanted the two channels that I wanted, and would have been willing to pay way near close enough to five bucks for each channel just to avoid the channel clutter two more tiers would bring.
On a separate but related note, television consumption in the evening, regardless of age, may be related to whether or not people are creating or consuming during other parts of the day. If my daytime job requires I use my mind to create and fulfill obligations, I probably relish watching television at night much more as a way to relax than if my daytime job offered virtually no creative outlet.
Comment by Alessandro Machi -
As Mark gets older, his demonstrable grasp of the obvious is increasing. Kudos for another brilliant posting
Comment by joryan44 -
Also, the idea that kids today are scouring file-sharing networks for the content they want is kind of laughable. Nearly everything except live sports and cable programming is available on Hulu or one of the network sites.
Comment by Ryan Lawler -
Mark, have you seen the quantity and quality of kids content available on Netflix nowadays? Much cheaper and easier to sit a kid in front of a TV connected to a Roku box than it is to buy a bunch of DVDs, or pay to have cable deliver Nickelodeon.
Comment by Ryan Lawler -
Why are you writing articles about the internet? You declared it dead 3 years ago.
Comment by mateo2 -
By the time these kids are in their 30s and 40s, they won’t need to download torrents or visit shady chinese streaming sites.
Comment by mateo2 -