Did you really celebrate World Television Day on Sunday? Or did you celebrate the No TV Day that one print media group would observe. Well, while there can be no denying that video content will never fade away, the longevity of television as a format – and specifically the good ol TV set, has been questioned. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das the question for the November 23 edition of Das ka Dum.
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Q. It was World Television Day on Sunday. Would you say that as a format, the future of the TV set is bleak given that an increasing number of people consume it on personal screens?
A. What is the timeframe you have in mind when you mentioned future. In a non-defined future, one can easily say all of us would be dead. I doubt you have meant that. In the short- and medium-term, there is no chance as TV is still the largest medium. Incidentally, even when viewers consume content on their personal screens, they might be playing catch- up TV content. Besides, after the NTO regime, the subscription revenue of pay channels has gone up. One may surmise that consumers don’t pay for what they don’t want to see. Consumers are increasingly getting format-neutral when consuming content. Hence any prediction about obsolescence of any medium is at best a guess. You may start thinking how the future in general would look like in metaverse.