I don't know, nor do I care, if the internet will ever surpass television as an entertainment medium. I leave that kind of speculation to those who actually understand the technology involved. Me, I'm just a guy who likes to be entertained. I'm also a guy who wonders if I'll still be entertained by online video content when I'm much older.
Readers should feel free to point out any errors in this assumption, but I think that video content on the Web is largely a young person's game. Most of what you'll find on sites like YouTube and iFilm were not made with older folks in mind. Television, by comparison, isn't much better: within the major networks, one would be hard pressed to find a single show an older person would enjoy. Yes, once in awhile series such as Matlock or Touched By an Angel come along, but for the most part, the entertainment industry cares not for the elderly.
Let me take a moment to say I don't think old people only like bland programming – besides, it's a digression from my main point: if online video becomes a truly viable new form of entertainment, will it continue to consist of entertainment for the coveted 18 to 49 demographic, or will there also be some small corner of the Web where shows are made to appeal to an older audience?
Who knows where technology and entertainment will be in forty years? More importantly, what will I find entertaining when I'm older? I'm just imagining life as an old man: yelling at my grandkids to turn off their insipid programs so I can watch my Aqua Teen reruns, my robot maid lighting my pipe while I turn up the volume on my holographic viewing machine.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-24-2007 @ 11:51AM
Bob Jones said...
Boston Legal is for the elderly aswell ... or atleast kinder to them, CBS was for like a decade - still is, the only time their ratings go down is a result of attrition.
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2-24-2007 @ 11:46AM
Mel said...
Another insightful article Finley. Thanks!
It's a real treat to see someone here taking their jobs seriously considering the trite that Sassone has put out lately.
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2-24-2007 @ 12:05PM
David said...
Boston Legal is an everyone show. The older people watch it for the fact that all the older actors are on it, the youngsters watch for the sex jokes. It's a win win.
And I agree, my TV is a 27 inch nothing TV and my computer is a 17 inch. I rather have the 27 inch.
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2-24-2007 @ 1:33PM
Bill said...
Look how many first-run TV shows are online now. My guess is that the line between online video and television will continue to blur, and tv advertising will become targeted to the user, thanks to the data mining prowess of companies like google.
So when you're older, I suspect that after a long day of yelling at those damn kids to get off your lawn, you'll sit down to watch tv (which is connected to your computer), go to some future version of a YouTube like site, call up your favorite show (whether it's new, or one of those old Nick at Nite type shows like Heroes), and before the show you'll watch a single ad for an exciting new product designed to keep kids off lawns, and the rest of the show will be commercial free.
Also, there will be flying cars and we will be ruled by cruel robot overlords.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com
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2-24-2007 @ 10:46PM
Dwayne Conyers said...
Microsoft's WebTV was a bit ahead of its time.
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2-24-2007 @ 10:57PM
erroneous_nick said...
As someone who's only a couple of years away from leaving the age range of the 18-49 demographic, I'd like to think that programming will begin to target a wider range of viewers. People are living longer, we're seeing an explosion in the population of "old folks" and those same old people are often the ones with the money to spend and the spare time to sit in front of a viewing device to be entertained. It would seem a logical move (likely a hugely erroneous assumption on my part) to begin targeting codgers with time and cash.
That doesn't mean that when I retire I want to see "Matlock 2025". The disembodied head of Andy Griffith darting around in a flying jar while solving crimes just doesn't appeal to me. I think that any show of sufficient quality would appeal to a wide range tastes and ages, but as it stands now most shows on TV are definitely targeted to a young audience. The overabundance of sophomoric, sexual humor that sounds as if it were written by a gaggle of 12-year-old boys is often a dead giveaway to what audience the producers are trying to entice.
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2-24-2007 @ 10:58PM
Vito said...
No reason you should assume that your tastes will actually change all that much. What we think of as "old people shows" are really just shows that are more similar to the shows that aired a few decades ago. Our tastes mostly stay the same, the only problem is that they tend to stagnate while the popular culture evolves around us. Then one day, you look up, see something you don't understand and long for the good old days of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Futurama.
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