Lamenting the demise of the water cooler
A former TV editor acknowledges the changing of the guard in television viewing habits.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Another television critic has recently left the print building, in The Australian’s TV editor Ian Cuthbertson.
He leaves after 11 years with the newspaper, as Lyndall Crisp joins erudite Graeme Blundell as the newspaper’s sole television critic.
His departure follows the exit of a number of television and media journos from News Limited and Fairfax over the past twelve months.
But today he has an article published on the subject of the changing landscape of television. Just as journalism has changed, so too has our viewing.
He writes in part:
Television today is an enormous landscape of entertainment options. When I started reviewing programs for The Australian in 2005, appointment TV – the quaint notion that we would all watch the same high-rating show at the same time – was still pretty much the norm. You could bump into people in the tearoom at work and talk about the latest episode of Rome, Weeds or Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. We watched and listened as one.
Now busy workers series-record programs on an array of devices to watch when convenient. TV series you missed can be bought on DVD or Blu-ray. Legally or illegally, they download episodes. Files are swapped. Feeds are streamed. Viewers catch up with things on channel websites such as the ABC’s excellent iView service. Foxtel has a to-go app that allows portable viewing of its programming on tablet devices anywhere customers care to take them. The water cooler conversation is officially dead as mutton.
There are now hundreds of sources for TV programs, from free-to-air and pay TV to the brave new world of IPTV (internet protocol television), which may be the future of home viewing.
In the meantime, TV drama is better than ever and there are more ways to watch it than could have been imagined in 2005. Now all anybody has to do is find the time to see it all.
You can read the rest here.
Updated.
7 Responses
I believe water cooler talk still exist, the discussions just occur in a different way, either tip toeing around spoilers or discussing the show in full.
For what it’s worst Game of Thrones still provoked the same old water cooler experience as when everyone catches up they are always watching it as soon as possible.
My guess is that television is about 5 years behind print media in feeling the impact of the internet. The old print media classifieds cash cow has gone and mastheads are battling to save readers. Pay walls are not the answer unless you have something specific like The Australian or the WSJ. FTA TV is going the same way and in all honesty, 7, 9 and 10 are little more than a TV version of the SMH, Courier Mail et al.
Clutching at straws like Fango etc, shows just how desperate the FTA networks are in trying to retain viewers and the ad revenue that goes with flakey OzTam stats.
I predict a clearing out of TV over the next 5 years and one of the main drivers of that will be watercoolers such as David Knox and TV Tonight. Big responsibility on your shoulders there David. You’re going to need a bigger server for this site.
Yikes!
Ian Cuthbertson was a gentleman reviewer and I will miss him.
Yes, this site itself is a watercooler, although I think David should spike it with a splash of Vodka occasionally.
Watercooler talk isn’t entirely dead, it’s just done online. Now you can chat about a show internationally, preferably without fear of spoilage.
A legal example is Doctor Who, where the UK, US, Aus, and presumably NZ, all get to see it within hours of each other and can all discuss it together almost immediately. Soon this will be the new norm; it’s already what everyone demands.
Yes good point.