Friday, 15 February 2013

What Was Life Like Before Netflix?

How was Television Broadcast?

The way in which television has been broadcast has not been changed in quite some time but has been shown to be a system that has been shown to be quite a successful system, this has been tied and tested to work. The format in which television has been shown is that a series will be shown an episode a week for the whole of a series, this creates a sort of event and routine that people will look forward to each week and get into a routine of watching each week. This has been the way in which TV has been broadcast in the sense of scheduling for a very long time and the only difference in this sceduling is the new approach from Netflix with House Of Cards, delivering all episode of the series in one hit from the word go. The Technical changes in the ay in which TV was broadcast before the internet however are vastly changed in the last decade especially with the digital switch over which finally ceased all analogue transmissions of TV on 24 October 2012 forcing many people to upgrade either thier TV or the format in which they recieve thier TV signals (i.e. Swapping thier analogue Set Top Box for a Digital Set Top Box).

What channels tend to dominate similar genres of TV show to House of Cards?

There are many channels that show Drama on TV but only a few of them are seen to be the place to go for this genre of TV. One of the main Channels that are seen to be the best for Drama and other high quality TV programs is HBO. HBO is an American Premium Cable Television Network that is a subsidary of the Time Warner Company, It was first launched on November 8 1972 and quickly became one of the biggest pay per view broadcasters in America and quickly became associtated with big name TV Shows. As of today HBO broadcast many of the biggest and most anticipated TV shows in america, but due to a new deal with BSkyB a new Channel under the name of Sky Atlantic is now able to broadcast most of these big American TV shows on nearly the same day as the Americans will be recieving them from HBO, these shows include Game Of Thrones, The Sopranos and Broadwalk Empire, This has been a huge deal for Sky viewers in the Uk as it gives them access to all of Americas big shows without the long wait that used to be accosiated with recieving these big shows.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to this system?

The advantages of the new system that Netflix has been experimenting with on House of Cards is that it allows people to watch the entirety of the series when and, also due to the nature of Netflix being a universally accessable service on many devices, where they choose. This means that people are not forced to watch and episode at the same time each week and if they are unable to make it miss it making them feel as if they have missed out on that episode. But on the other hand many people feel as if this is one of the best things about TV, the feeling of having that set in stone event that will happen each week that they can plan and look forward to, with the new system that Netflix are trialing with House of Cards this is no longer possible as there is no set schedule for people to stick to. Another bad point that many people have brought up is that TV has now, due to the rise in social networking, become a very interactive medium. No longer do people watch the latest installment of a TV show and then gather in a group to have a chat around the watercooler about it, but rather while watching the show they are able to tweet or post on other social networking sites their live views and feeling of what is going on in that exact moment of the show, this in turn allows thier friends to get involved with the conversation creating can be seen as an online water cooler moment for that moment in the show.

Due to this I think that the new system that Netflix has been trying out with House of Cards is a good idea in some respects as It allows people to watch as little or as much as they would like whenever and where ever they would like, but due to the fact that this can create huge spoiler moments not allowing people to talk about the show with people who may or may not have watched the episode they have seen the new system can be seen to destroy the social aspect of watching TV which would allow people to have a conversation about the newest episode safe in the knowledge that they had all watched the same episode.

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