Linear News - Not So Much!

By I.J. Hudson

I was reminded earlier this week about how the expectations of people have changed.  Well, actually, the expectations of most people, not the older generation (oops, wait, I’m approaching that group).

I watched a “rerun” of the Arch Campbell Show in Washington, DC on NewsChannel8.  It was actually the repeat of the show from the night before.  I had missed the original time the show aired.

Wait, I missed the original time the show aired??  Is that relevant anymore?  Not really.  Like an unread book, the show was new to me.  I stumbled across it airing in a linear fashion.  Later, I found out Arch provided a link to the show on Facebook.  I could watch it anytime, as long as the link to the archived show was not broken.  Sometimes we simply forget just how “un-linear” our information channels are.

So the question is, “what is a repeat?”  It’s the TV industry’s definition of a show that has already aired by THEIR schedule – not yours.  Appointment viewing, for the most part, has been over since the DVR (remember Tivo?) – we just didn’t know it yet.  And that was just the first strike against appointment viewing.  The internet (small i) was strike two and probably strike three.

The mainstream media will keep trying to keep its core alive – the main news broadcast at dinnertime – complete with commercials for Rx drugs for the ailments of our seniors, and try to pay homage to new media.  They present stories, use Skype, let you vote on stories, let you know that their reporters are tweeting the latest.

I suspect much of that “linear” core will fade – sooner rather than later.

Now that my 85-year old father-in-law has his iPad, it may be much sooner.