I understand your healthy skepticism against proclaiming the end of anything, and many things in the TV space do seem at least on the surface to look very much like they used to ten or twenty years back, especially in the world of the TV networks. However, I do believe that some technological advances over the last ten years have fundamentally changed the way we think about and consume TV.

Television used to be a linear medium. Today, a significant number of consumers have DVRs at home (can’t find the current number for the U.S. at the moment, but I think I remember it to be around 30% of all households in the U.K.), and Hulu likely clocked over a billion video views in December. That doesn’t mean people don’t watch linear TV at all anymore, but it’s mot the only option, and most people nowadays watch TV on their terms. That’s a huge change to the way TV worked in the Nineties.

Another significant change is a much lower barrier of access to the tools and distribution channels. Starting your own cable channel is a very expensive commitment that won’t pay off for years. Starting your own show, or even your own network online is much easier, and some folks have been getting audiences that are en par with the ones seen on cable. Again, that doesn’t mean that ABC is toast and that everyone is now producing Lost in their living room, cable TV has never been just about expensive, scriped content …

There are a few more differences that do make today’s TV a very different medium than TV of the 80ies or 90ies, but that’s probably worth another post.