For more than fifty years, the manner in which television has been broadcast has remained largely unchanged. A central broadcaster broadcast their content at a prearranged time and those wishing to view it had to make themselves available at that time in order to do so. This changed slightly with the addition of the video recorder; suddenly the viewer was no longer at the mercy of broadcasting schedules and a new flexibility was suddenly afforded to them. Another leap forward came with the digitization of this technology in the form of Sky+.
The biggest and possibly ultimate, step forward has come in the form of streaming. Download speeds are now sufficient enough that high-resolution images can be downloaded at a faster rate than we can watch them, which enables users to watch the content they want in the comfort of their living room without having to wait for the network to broadcast it. The question of how we will consume television in the future has been answered, in no small part by the burgeoning popularity of Netflix.
The direct benefits of this method of delivery are obvious, but the indirect benefits are less so. Since the technology offers a greater choice and since shows are no longer in competition with one another for 'prime time' slots, there is less risk involved in creating new shows. Consequently, networks no longer rely so heavily on big franchises like 'Friends', whose budget eventually arrived at seven million per episode!
The service surprised some when it announced a new, exclusive show, featuring Kevin Spacey. The entire season was released at once, exclusively via Netflix. It enjoyed rapturous praise from critics and audiences alike. The model has been a resounding success with even more Netflix originals like Bojack Horseman and Orange is the Black and Hemlock Grove, while picking up cancelled shows such as Arrested Development. This has been so successful in fact, that corporate behemoths like Amazon have taken note and launched their own television streaming services, with their own exclusive television series, with their own big-name Hollywood stars.
What's so good about on-demand?
With Netflix, the choice of options is limited to one: you pay £5.99 a month; you get Netflix for you and all your family. Though reasonable, to many this may seem somewhat Spartan, especially when contrasted with the range of subscription options offered by Sky. Customer service contact number details are also less easily found on the Netflix website; as you might expect, they prefer to do everything over the internet, which some users may find irritating.
The principle advantage of streaming television is that of convenience; at the touch of a button, many thousands of hours' worth of content are available. There is no more waiting until the following week for the next episode; now it can be view immediately, or watched in a continuous 'binge' spanning many hours.
How many people are watching?
Unlike established traditional television services like Sky, Netflix do not share their viewing figures. They do not have to; they are funded entirely by subscription and have no need to impress advertisers. That said, there are various ways to garner a rough estimate of how many people are watching.
For the launch weekend of the second season of 'House of Cards', Procera put the worldwide audience at around 10% of Netflix's total subscriber-base. In the UK, which has around 1.5 million Netflix subscribers, the figure is around 150,000; around 15,000 of which watched all thirteen hours in a single weekend.
The BBC are more forthcoming with their online streaming figures. The first episode of the latest season of 'Sherlock', for example, garnered 3.6 million requests on iPlayer, while the service as a whole received more than 300 million requests overall for the month of January 2014, more than ever before.
How do I get it?
Netflix is accessible via their website, just as the BBC's iPlayer is accessible via the BBC website and Amazon's service via the Amazon website (though they are launching their own box, designed to slot underneath the television, which is capable of streaming YouTube, Netflix and a host of other on-demand services). Similarly, in the UK, Sky also have their own on demand service - though this can be delivered via the internet, it is principally consumed using Sky's set top box, available only to sky customers. Those that don't already receive Sky, can rectify this with a visit to a sky contact number website.
So does this spell the end for TV as we know it?
It looks more and more likely in today's viewing landscape. It now seems inevitable that at some point, all television will be delivered on demand via streaming, just as all television is now transmitted digitally. There is a rapidly growing market for the online streaming of live events. Sky allow their subscribers to watch via their PCs and other devices, it seems as though the day might soon arrive when there is nothing left for the traditional television schedule to do!
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