TELEVISION CONSUMPTION

Ananya NETS 1000

Traditonal TV consumption is most often

represented by the classic box TV on the left, but
modern TV consumption has evolved and diverged
significantly. We can think of television content as
the basis for a meal - which has been adjusted for
consumption into many different forms, by a varied
audience as the result of the addition of 2 key ingredients:

Digitisation, or Jenkins Digital Revolution, is the first element that drastically

alters the way in which the average 21st century citizen consumes television.
Traditional media - image, videos, audio et cetera - are created in, or converted
to a format that can be processed by computers, and consumed digitally.

Convergence is the next factor that has a significant impact on the way in which
television is produced and consumed by the masses. Convergence can be:

Technological Media Convergence Cultural Convergence

Convergence
refers to the the
physical devices we use to
consume media becoming
more multifunctional.
relates to media
ownership, and the
monopolization of
major media outlets.
can also be referred to
as globalisation, and the
multidirectional cultural
exchange facilitated by
the digital age.

As a result TV content is now often consumed in forms that look like this:

NETFLIX:
A GLOBAL
2.6 MILLION 40 %
USER BASE U.S HOMES ARE SUBSCRIBE
TO VOD
OF 57 BROADAND ONLY
SERVICES
MILLION

These new platforms for consumption of

television content have changed behaviours
and habits related to consumption style as well

Digital on demand (DOD) services, such as Netflix, have led to a dramatic increase
in binge consumption of televison content - viewers can consume hours worth of
content in a single sitting, instead of following the reccommended serving size of a
single episode at a time.

Digital televison also allows consumption of content at the viewers discretion in terms of
time. While cable TV follows a strict set meal time schedule, DOD allows the viewer to
access their desired content at any time of day.

The final key change facilitated by digital television relates to customisation. Instead of
the set menu offered by cable TV, viewers have a buffet of options to select the exact
content they want to consume in whatever order that they please.

Sources: Jenkins, (2006) Convergence Culture ; Smith & Rowsey (2016) The Netflix effect ; Pittman & Sheehan (2015)
Sprinting a media marathon ; Pagani (2003) Multimedia and interactive digital TV