People won't consume if there isn't much choice in what they can consume.
@"Despite all the hype around so-called smart TVs, there appears to be very little consumer demand"
For a start downloadable content is crippled compared with cable/sky content. (Exhibit A, compare BBC iPlayer output with normal BBC output).
Also the TV companies need to start providing more varied content if they want to increase downloadable viewing figures, but then conventional broadcast TV companies haven't worked that out for many years. They all arrogantly think that all we need is ever more reality TV and then they tell us viewing figures are going down, yet they refuse to believe they are to blame.
Reality TV is a dream come true for needy attention seeking histrionic people (which is the behaviour of people with a Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD)). These are people who desperately want attention at almost any cost, but for the rest of us its extremely boring watching such endlessly desperate attention seeking on TV. They need help and support not a TV camera in their faces.
Meanwhile the vast majority of comedy the TV companies wish to show on TV these days is hitting down at disadvantaged rather than hitting up at injustice and lying authority figures and the vast majority are greatly lacking in intelligent writing. They all too often go for the easy targets with the basic mentality of an inane sneering bully type which is the behaviour of a Narcissist (which is the behaviour of people who have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder). Clever comedians with good writing on TV seem to be a dying breed.
Meanwhile Sitcoms and Documentaries are also dying breeds on TV these days. Both are all too often dumbed down to ridiculously low levels these days. Yet in decades gone past both were highly prized for clever well thought out writing that was enthralling viewing.
TV in almost every genre of writing is turning into banal mediocrity. Also even the few things that are interesting that get made, end up suffering being killed off far too quickly to (yet again) make way for yet more reality TV.
So is it any wonder TV viewing figures are struggling and yet the vast majority of TV executives absolutely (and frankly arrogantly) steadfast refuse to believe their single minded pursuit of reality TV is to blame. They do not want to hear they are to blame, so they will not learn they are to blame, therefore they will not change their current course of action.
The irony is the TV executives are behaving with a Narcissistic arrogance so its hardly surprising that they only support people like them. TV has been taken over by the Narcissistic and attention seeking people and that is all they want to create TV programs for these days, yet these loud and arrogant people are just a small minority of the whole population.
So is it any wonder viewing figures are struggling! … but the TV executives will continue to refuse to listen to anyone who doesn't agree with them.
Streaming video and Smart TV could be wonderful if only the people running the companies were smart in how they used and ran TV, but they won't change any time soon. The technology isn't the problem, its the people running the TV companies.