SUMMARY
The dramatic rise of mobile computing devices like smart-phones and tablets over the last few years has enabled TV audiences to consume their television practically anywhere, at anytime. For some years now in Australia, platforms such as the ABC’s iView have helped users time-shift their television viewing habits. With the rise of smart-phone and tablet apps, users can now venture away from traditional television ‘spaces’ (ie: the couch in front of the family TV set, or in front of their computer) and now consume television in a very dynamic way, at home, at work, on the go, out in the back yard, etc - practically where ever there is decent WI-FI or cellular coverage.
Statistics from Chris Winter at the ABC confirms this space-shifting trend, as he suggests that there will be a sizable mobile computing market in regards to the consumption of television within Australian borders. Of the 8 million iView views in the month of May (2012), Chris told us that just on 2.5 million of these views were through the iView iPad app alone - once again proving how popular mobile television consumption is proving to be here in Australia. The ABC are also in the process of launching a stripped down version of the iPad iView app, chiefly for the iPhone market - once again, confirming audience’s trend to space-shift, as well as time-shift their television programming (Chris Winter). It also seems that HD content might a little further down the track, as Winter suggests that the ABC will be focusing more on mobile television consumption, rather than pushing high-def content to wired computing devices. As previously discussed, the step up into the HD world is rather large one, with bandwidth still being quite at a premium. The arrival of the National Broadband Network (NBN) should help to curve some of these rising costs, with broadband becoming considerably faster (and one would assume, cheaper) in the years to come. Once again these consumption trends align with our current technology landscape here in Australia - with an connection of 10.5 megabits/second being the average internet speed nationwide on our aging copper phone networks. At those sorts of speeds, HD content in the real world is not entirely feasible - and would possibly lead to a bad experience for the media consumer, say if they are constantly buffering or dropping frames when trying to view television online. |
Ultimately, I think it is safe to say that it whatever happens into the future in regards to television consumption, will most likely be user driven. Everyday more and more mobile computing devices are being purchased, ultimately helping to shape and change for ever, the way audiences consume their favourite television shows. It also very much comes down to user convenience - much like the battle we have seen within digital music industry over the last five years or so. While we quite deliberately haven’t ventured into the world of digital television piracy (a report of its very own), I believe that if users perceive that it is just as easy to purchase and legally download a season of their most favourite show, they’ll most likely favour this approach over the somewhat tedious and sometimes confusing illegal avenues of acquiring media content. If content providers limit the quality or licencing of their legal television content, consumers will simply go ‘shop’ elsewhere - at least until free-to-air and commercial networks start to offer high quality, viable, ‘real world’ solutions, as an alternative to these illegal methods of acquiring people’s favourite television shows.
Whether it be in the free-to-air or commercial television realm, consumers and media gurus alike really have no clear vision concerning the consumption of television in the medium to long term. Chris Winter from the ABC once again best sums where we are in this point of time, suggesting that in “5 years from now, the business model for television distribution is likely to be something we've never heard of” (Winter, ABC, 2012). All we do know is that consumption trends quite obviously seem to be dictated from the end-of-the-line consumers - so I would personally encourage everyone to support the ABC with their excellent free-to-air service (both on the desktop and mobile devices), as well as commercial networks which embrace the internet to deliver high quality television content, on-demand, as a realistic alternative to broadcast television. Thank you for engaging with our report. |