By Ranjona Banerji
I can actually remember the last few times that I watched a TV broadcast through a set-top box subscription in the past three months. The 2019 Lok Sabha election results on May 23, the French Open and the Halle Open, which finished on Sunday. One major news event and tennis.
Last week, I got an urgent call from close family friends, in their early 80s. Their Fire Stick wasn’t working! What were they to do? How would they cope. I had helped fix up this Fire Stick only months ago. It turned out to be an internet problem and by that evening, they had rushed out and bought a back up internet device. They have, you know, satellite TV and all that. But.
Convenience and choice. That’s what we want. I pay as much for Netflix as I do for TataSky but I feel that Netflix gives me more bang for my buck. There is no extraneous matter, there are no rain clouds to disrupt transmission and there are no intrusive text messages. It is a seamless experience, which I can share with friends and family. I have the whole Star package on satellite TV. But how does one watch Game of Thrones or Masterchef Australia on a satellite subscription, 24 hours late or worse, three months late? Instagram told me who won last year before the serial was aired on TV, so Hotstar it is!
The television industry hasn’t fully twigged on yet, I fear. “Television is here to stay,” says one head honcho. “Streaming services are a disruption,” feels another. The coffee has gone cold, gentleman, before you’re even woken up to smell it.
The manufacture of TV sets will possibly continue until we get live interactive walls built into our homes or something. But buying a cable TV subscription or a satellite TV subscription, how long will that continue? There was a time when we had antennas, remember? Where are they now? Wirelesses? Storytelling around a fire in the village? Under a tree? Things change.
My Father is 81. He watched cricket and the news on subscription TV for two nights this week and decided that since nothing had changed, he’s done with it. Back to streaming.
Years ago, when sports channels refused to show the tennis tournaments I wanted to watch, I learnt how to stream and taught my parents too. Given the way the internet and its services have improved since then, watching sports online is a breeze. And a legal breeze too. The same providers which won’t show you tournaments on subscription TV, will stream them on their online platforms. Go figure!
For viewers, the choice and variety in OTT platforms is a huge boon. Apart from Netflix and Amazon Prime, there are all the traditional TV channels which offer online services. Hulu is awaited. All we need is for the BBC to twig on! It’s not just English though. OTT platforms are picking up in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil. It’s just a matter of time. Manufacturers have jumped in with Smart TVs. Google needs to rework the roadblocks on Chromecast to stay in the game. So that we have more choices.
The multiplier or whatever the jargon is, has to be improved internet services. And after that, the spread of smart phones. Indian TV companies may be happy that as long as India remains at this level, and feel that they are safe. Maybe. But for how long? I know no young people who actually sit down and watch TV in the traditional sense any more. And increasingly, all the older people I know have jumped ship too.
Of course, people being people. They still get confused. A US-based Christian group petitioned Netflix to stop the Terry Pratchett-Neil Gaiman show, Good Omens.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/20/petition-netflix-cancel-amazon-prime-good-omens-christian-neil-gaiman-terry-pratchett
Netflix sarcastically agreed.
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/06/24/netflix-sarcastically-bows-erroneous-petition-calling-good-omens-ban
The show runs on Amazon Prime. Ah well.
It is an excellent show though. Funny, irreverent, clever. And you can “binge-watch”! I do.