YouTube, bought by Google last November, first gained popularity for short, comic sketches that were created and posted on the site by users. It has also faced increasing legal threats from big media companies, including a $1 billion lawsuit from media conglomerate Viacom Inc, angry that the site has become a popular means of pirating their television shows. Cuatro is Spain's sixth most popular free-to-air channel, with an audience share of 6.4 percent in 2006. [source]
Well, it is no secret that a website designed to allow users to post their favorite video content will result in the posting of popular television and other visual media programming. Of course, much of the content on YouTube is user-generated and personalized video, but many people also supplement their online viewing with commercial programming. In many ways, Internet, and computers in general, have become analogous to the television revolution. The difference, of course, is the Internet is faster to respond to the demands of users who want to choose - and, importantly, contribute to - their own content.
It is, therefore, about time that more European television stations realize the possibilities - and financial dangers - inherent in Internet video sharing supplementing existing programming. To what extent the spread of Internet programming is bound to be the death of television reminds me of the debate surrounding VCR being the death of the movie industry or cassette tapes being the end of the music industry.
It is true, as Cuatro argue, that YouTube is an excellent source of young viewers - or viewers of any age - for their programming. The tactic of putting television programmes online for later or continued viewing (including archives of past episodes, previews of newer episodes, discussion groups, photos, blogs, etc.) is no longer 'new'. Most networks do it in some respect. Is there, then, a qualitative distinction between this practice, and using an already popular platform (YouTube) to cash in on an already expansive user base?
As an anthropologist, I am not entirely interested in the corporate economic outcome of these activities per se, but more how they relate to the actuality of human society on the ground (in the home, that is). Are people moving away from collective television viewing and towards more isolated, individualized viewing online? I would venture that there is more convergence. People are more likely to combine various types of technologies (including viewing content on mobile phones or video iPods) than to abandon one for the other. Even if Cuatro and other companies offered full-length episodes of programmes online for free, would viewers abandon their TV sets?
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3 comments:
Hey Fran,
When I first went to Spain, in 72, people went to the bars to see soccer games. Many didn't have TVs at home, and those who did liked to drink canas with friends and watch the game. We also had clubs. These were rented rooms where kids could gather, listen to music, talk, drink wine. I'd go down to this club, called La Fruteria, and just wait for my friends to show up.
In later years, I noticed, the plaza of this town was empty, and so were the bars, and my friends all had tvs at home. Now I can just imagine that it's gone beyond the refuge in the home. People interact with their own digital communities from their laptops and cell phones.
Hey. I wrote a long comment, and the service shut it down. I'll edit. My point was that when I first went to spain, as a teenager in the 70s, I hung out with my
Spanish friends in clubhouses, where we'd listen to records, talk politics, drink, dance. We'd go to bars to watch soccer games, because most people didn't have good tvs in their homes. Now, I'm seeing, people have replaced those geographical "pandas" with virtual ones, and they interact with them from their houses, on laptops and cellphones. Not a healthy trend, I'd say.
One other thing. When I was in this little town as an American, English was a very exotic language, believe it or not. People would ask me to sing songs by the Beatles, Dylan, etc. Now English is everywhere. It's Europe's language.
Hi wfoley,
Thanks for your comments. I'm very interested in the sorts of changes you mention, such as the availability of TV - and now laptops and cell phones - and how this impacts people's daily activities.
It is quite commonly seen as an unhealthy trend, but perhaps where TV and desktop computing saw people relegated to their homes, mobile computing will see a return to the streets? I still think that in proportion to many other countries, Spaniards continue to socialize in public as a matter of course. Bars and plazas are essential meeting places. I was in Spain last year, and the (many) ramblas are always buzzing in the evenings, as are the pubs and cafés.
Thanks again for your comments. It is always helpful to hear about others' experiences. By the way, what part of Spain are you discussing?
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