Morley 1
Alexander Morley
Dr Eleni Liarou
Television: History & Future
17th March 2020
Identify some of the areas of convergence of television with new technologies (e.g. DVDs,
digital, internet, mobile telephones). What are some of the consequences of this merge in terms
of production? Illustrate your answer with specific examples.
The evolution of how we produce and consume media has changed drastically over the
years. The journey from VCR tapes to streaming services such as Netflix has caused an alteration
in demand, audience feedback, and the culture surrounding how we consume content, the
consequences of these differing factors affecting the production of the content we’re consuming,
and our own lives due to how cleverly designed these newer technologies are. All companies
want to be successful, even if their success relies on people’s lives getting sucked away by a
constant stream of audio-visual content. As long as they’re getting money, right? While each
new generation of television-preserving technology provides many new advantageous features,
they also drive us closer and closer as a species to a life full of passivity and consumerism. But
how did we get to this point?
A common medium for watching television show episodes on demand was through the
form of VHS (Video Home System) tapes. These tapes could either record television shows
directly from your television set or they would be sold with the episodes already on them after
release of full seasons. These then got replaced with DVDs (Digital Versatile Disk).
DVDs were a leap forward in technology. Their display quality was an improvement
, Morley 2
from VHS as the visuals were at least as good as television and the disks allowed for
multichannel sound as well as different aspect ratios. Language options, bonus features, and
menu screens were an addition which improved user interaction and usability (Roberts, 2006:
32). DVDs cost less to produce than VHS tapes ever did and also gave studios the chance to
resell box sets of shows on this new platform, giving the ability for more money to be made
while less is being spent. As Roberts pointed out in an academic text, “[...] any new medium
equals a chance to recycle your back catalogue.” (2006: 33). A lot of people feel the need to
collect DVDs, so this only increases. The only real downside is that DVDs are less secure and
allow the occurrence of pirating with more ease, causing more pirated versions to be available.
Something that got eliminated in the invention of DVDs was the ability to record directly
from your television set when a show airs. This ability quickly became available again though
with the creation of DVR (Digital Video Recorder) boxes or DVR services such as Sky+. These
served the same purposes as VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) did, but instead of burning the
footage onto a VHS tape, a DVR box burns onto a harddrive, and services such as Sky+ make
the recording readily available in a built-in menu specifically for your recordings. The downside
to these advances however, is that they rely on scheduling and have limited storage space,
meaning that you’re still required to wait for an episode's release and can’t keep a backlog of
every episode in a series. In cases such as Sky+, there are also rules that limit how many shows
can be recorded at once, meaning you have to pay extra attention to the TV guide’s schedule.
With the rise of the internet’s popularity, the concept of ‘streaming’ also increased in
popularity. The ability to stream a television show using your internet connection and nothing
else, allowed users to have a non-linear viewing of their favorite shows, watching them at
whatever pace they desired with no worrying about storage space or schedules. The emergence
Alexander Morley
Dr Eleni Liarou
Television: History & Future
17th March 2020
Identify some of the areas of convergence of television with new technologies (e.g. DVDs,
digital, internet, mobile telephones). What are some of the consequences of this merge in terms
of production? Illustrate your answer with specific examples.
The evolution of how we produce and consume media has changed drastically over the
years. The journey from VCR tapes to streaming services such as Netflix has caused an alteration
in demand, audience feedback, and the culture surrounding how we consume content, the
consequences of these differing factors affecting the production of the content we’re consuming,
and our own lives due to how cleverly designed these newer technologies are. All companies
want to be successful, even if their success relies on people’s lives getting sucked away by a
constant stream of audio-visual content. As long as they’re getting money, right? While each
new generation of television-preserving technology provides many new advantageous features,
they also drive us closer and closer as a species to a life full of passivity and consumerism. But
how did we get to this point?
A common medium for watching television show episodes on demand was through the
form of VHS (Video Home System) tapes. These tapes could either record television shows
directly from your television set or they would be sold with the episodes already on them after
release of full seasons. These then got replaced with DVDs (Digital Versatile Disk).
DVDs were a leap forward in technology. Their display quality was an improvement
, Morley 2
from VHS as the visuals were at least as good as television and the disks allowed for
multichannel sound as well as different aspect ratios. Language options, bonus features, and
menu screens were an addition which improved user interaction and usability (Roberts, 2006:
32). DVDs cost less to produce than VHS tapes ever did and also gave studios the chance to
resell box sets of shows on this new platform, giving the ability for more money to be made
while less is being spent. As Roberts pointed out in an academic text, “[...] any new medium
equals a chance to recycle your back catalogue.” (2006: 33). A lot of people feel the need to
collect DVDs, so this only increases. The only real downside is that DVDs are less secure and
allow the occurrence of pirating with more ease, causing more pirated versions to be available.
Something that got eliminated in the invention of DVDs was the ability to record directly
from your television set when a show airs. This ability quickly became available again though
with the creation of DVR (Digital Video Recorder) boxes or DVR services such as Sky+. These
served the same purposes as VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) did, but instead of burning the
footage onto a VHS tape, a DVR box burns onto a harddrive, and services such as Sky+ make
the recording readily available in a built-in menu specifically for your recordings. The downside
to these advances however, is that they rely on scheduling and have limited storage space,
meaning that you’re still required to wait for an episode's release and can’t keep a backlog of
every episode in a series. In cases such as Sky+, there are also rules that limit how many shows
can be recorded at once, meaning you have to pay extra attention to the TV guide’s schedule.
With the rise of the internet’s popularity, the concept of ‘streaming’ also increased in
popularity. The ability to stream a television show using your internet connection and nothing
else, allowed users to have a non-linear viewing of their favorite shows, watching them at
whatever pace they desired with no worrying about storage space or schedules. The emergence
