Television
To say that TV is suffering because of iDevices from Apple is fallacious at best.
The TV industry is suffering because there is simply so much crap on the air these days. People are starting to realize that they have lives that can be spent doing other things.
I wouldn't have to watch TV anyway. Every last one of my co-workers can, with incredible accuracy, relay the plot lines from all the currently popular shows. I don't watch, yet neither do I miss a thing. Every time they do so, I sit there and think "wow...don't you people have anything better to do? While you are watching TV, I'm tinkering, reading, writing, repairing stuff or learning about something."
On a side note, I've tried a number of TV on PC or DVR solutions out there, from BeyondTV to WinTV. Every last one sucked in some entertaining way. Then I got smart and realized I was fighting to do something I didn't really care about anyway. And my co-workers are doing a more reliable job, including skipping the commercials! (I never did try any set-top boxes or Tivo, though.)
When analog television was still available on the stateside end of the "puddle", I watched TV very occasionally...maybe one or two times a month, or in the afternoon when I really didn't have anything to do. Post digital-conversion-fiasco, I don't even have a truly functional TV any more. My antenna wasn't up to it. I'm afraid of heights and just didn't feel like paying someone to mount a new antenna. I haven't actually gotten around to taking my TV down. It has a basic rabbit ear antenna which will receive a very few things, in the rare case I'd want to watch something like a newscast or weather report. And so, in 2010, I haven't even turned a television set on and watched anything.
Let me get back to the subject at hand here. What's on TV today is mostly garbage. I've read Newton Minow's speech and even fifty years later much of what he says rings true about the state of television and radio. He says that the companies entrusted to use of the public airwaves are duty-bound to provide a voice that inescapably rings with intelligence and leadership. I believe that his speech also states that he believes it to be his job as chairman of the FCC to see that this goal is accomplished. It seems like nobody to have held the position since his time feels that way.
Really...when is the last time that the majority what was on the television and radio made you feel as though the trustees of the public airwaves had communicated something with a voice of intelligence and leadership? I can't remember too many times that I felt that way...the amount of stupid, repetitive, "canned" programming out there today is simply stunning. How many times do you really need to see (random examples) Big Brother or Survivor? Is it really that different every time? Only the public broadcasting services seem to behave any differently.
It seems to me that the way things are run today, only those with deep pockets can play. I'd like very much to get into radio or TV broadcasting to buck the trend of stupid, meaningless programming...but I doubt very much that I can afford to do that with the way things are now. Even if I could get a license, I doubt that I could afford to stay around. Quality doesn't often sell easily, most people don't care.
I've known a few radio and television stations (mostly small, independently owned ones) that tried to buck the trend. Nearly all have folded and closed their doors. Some were bought out and lost all of that character. One such radio station still exists in my part of the world, and has enough of an audience built up that they're actually doing fairly well.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
