The Written Podcast: Streaming is the New Terrestrial TV

The Golden Age of Television. A phrase that’s well known across the world. The first known era of the golden age is when networks were only showing live broadcasts of shows and many associate the end of that era when there was more demand for pre-recorded shows. Since then, that term has been used across the eras, and as TV became even more popular and accessible across the world, and more networks were being created, either showing repeats of shows they purchased from other networks or airing their own original content before repeating them, that phrase has since been attributed to the past and not to the present. Many people believe that the Golden Age of Television is over.

What intrigues me about that statement is, I’m inclined to believe it. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that Terrestrial TV itself is starting to fade away. And when I say starting to, I mean we’ve still got a few years to go before we can say it’s extinct. Terrestrial TV is still a major contribution to everyday society. Networks across the world airing their shows at set times each day, whether original content or repeats; as I’m writing this my mum is watching a repeat of Murder She Wrote on the TV, with adverts. Terrestrial TV is still something we enjoy, but isn’t something we’re worried about anymore. During the first era of the Golden Age of TV, if you were to miss a show that was being performed live, then you’ve missed that show. There were no repeats. When shows were being pre-recorded before airing, maybe you’d get a repeat of a popular show, but generally, if you missed an airing of an episode of a show you wanted to keep up to day with, you missed it.

Nowadays, if you missed an episode, no worries, just watch it on catch-up. On demand streaming services are becoming an increasingly popular era of TV. A Television is a device that lets you watch shows, but the word “television” has morphed to become an umbrella word for any device that allows streaming of content. Desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, all have the ability to stream content, and yet we still associate that act as watching TV. Sure, we have smart TVs that can connect to the internet and therefore has access to the popular streaming services, so by that context you are watching shows on the Television, but you’re not watching terrestrial TV, you’re watching an on-demand streaming service, and we are in an era where there are so many of them our bank accounts are looking like a TV guide.

Netflix is essentially the company that pioneered the streaming service and brought the ability to watch whatever you want on demand, at a touch of a button, into mainstream society, and since then we’ve had what can be dubbed as The Golden Age of Streaming Services. TV has evolved. Maybe the large amount of streaming services available is just another era of The Golden Age of TV, but since the majority, if not all, streaming services can be accessed by multiple devices, can it really be called TV anymore?

The problem is, as terrestrial TV is slowly fading away and streaming services are growing in popularity, companies are jumping at the chance to start their own and as a result we may have one too many of them, each offering their own competitive subscription rate and original content, it’s quickly becoming equivalent to sitting down in the evening with you meal on your lap scrolling through the channels not knowing what to watch and by the time you find something interesting you’re meal’s grown cold. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, Sky Store, Now TV, Britbox Apple TV HBO Max. YouTube Premium, Crunchyroll, Curiosity Stream, and all the on-demand content by networks such as BBC, channel 4, and Discovery, with iplayer, 4 On Demand, and Discovery+; and more; where the heck do we even begin?

I haven’t watched terrestrial TV in years. I’ve watched only on-demand catch up and streaming services, which means the only adverts I see on the TV are when I’m passing through the living room, and TV adverts are another conversation to have at a later date, because they’re getting crazier and crazier with time.

Whether you class a streaming service as a branch from terrestrial TV, or is its own separate entity, we’ve either entered a new era of The Golden Age of TV, or began the first era of The Golden Age of Streaming Services. Whatever that conclusion may be, streaming services are certainly becoming more and more the new form of TV.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)