Now and then, a new innovation comes along that is life changing on a massive scale. One example is the automobile. Another is the printing press. The bedding-in time for these inventions has varied according to the next big thing that came along. As yet, no new idea has come along to rival the automobile. The printing press had several centuries as the only mass media outlet before broadcast media came along at start of the 20th century. Television, however is another matter altogether. Its precursor, radio, which started in earnest in the 1920s only had one generation to get established before television came along. However, television was not a mass medium in the U.S. until the 1950s when receivers came down in price. Habitually watching television became a family pastime over the subsequent decade. From this point each new generation had no notion of what life was like without the box in the corner of the room.

From the 1960s advertisers saw television as the highest platform for products that required mass coverage. The television industry grew from a novelty offshoot of radio into a multi-billion dollar enterprise where budgets for individual episodes of Dallas were rivalling those of Hollywood movies. Things have now changed. The internet started as a novelty in much the same way as television did when it began. Now, video is commonplace on the web and on hand-held devices. The mass end of media has fragmented to the point that there no longer a "mass" to market at.

We know that television has had to give up part of its audience to these new technologies, but is there more to it than that? The internet and new digital video recording services (such as TiVo) have helped to break the habit of watching television shows at the same time each week. Families would traditionally gather round the television for their favourite sequence of shows. Perhaps Tuesday night was a favorite in one household and Thursday in another household. Whichever way, television viewers were slaves to the schedules that were drawn up by the tv companies.

We are now beginning to get used to watching when we want to watch. For many of us, this means we are not as tied to the house as we used to be. We can even watch on our cell phones and laptops while out and about, on a train or in the park, for example. We can gather our favourite shows together and stay in just once a week and catch up with them all in one hit.

I am not so sure that those that are no longer watching scheduled television have neatly transferred to other media. If it were possible to add up the grand total of media consumers now and compare that with the grand total from ten years ago, I am sure there would less media consumers now than there were before. The loss of readership from print media, the loss of tv viewers and radio listeners that has happened over the last few of years are, I believe, not fully accounted for as consumers of new media. There has been leakage away from all types of media. For what it is worth, I am sure that many of those tv shows that have been stored for later viewing, many those podcasts that listeners have vowed to play and much of that music they planned to listen to will stay forever is storage or will be overwritten or will no longer be available. The difference, of course, between now and before, is that you needed to rush back home to catch this or that tv episode and if you missed it you may never have seen it again.

Now, you can always save it for another day. VHS recording has been an option for a few years but taping a show would require you to purchase tapes or to find space on an existing tape. All this trouble you had gone to would need to be rewarded and would probably result in you taking the trouble to watch the show. Nowadays, digital storage is cheap and easy. Often podcasts and digital video is held on someone else's server. The ease by which you can put off your listening or viewing somehow devalues the shows that you had earmarked. Also, the sheer volume of what is out there also has the effect of making any given piece of media that much less valuable. I am sure that the process of putting off the consuming of media has resulted in less overall consumption. As we have been liberated by mobile devices away from our houses, we have discovered a social life that tv had previously eaten away from us.

What is an undeniable fact is that, just as radio and print media has had to get used to lower returns, so have tv companies in recent years. Budgets for television productions have been slashed. Low budget reality shows or audience participation shows have come to the rescue, with their modest demands on budgets. There has still been a need, however, to slash budgets further and surely this must have had an effect on the quality of the finished product. Now, I know a slippery slope when I see one. Less viewers = lower budgets = poorer quality = less viewers. Is the golden age of television gone forever?

There may also be another factor at work here. It may just be the case that the novelty of television is finally wearing off. The first generation that fully embraced television gave birth to a new generation that knew nothing else and saw television as a way of life. Television was our main source of entertainment, news and arguably education. Its powerful budgets and massive audiences gave it access to the top stars and the most senior politicians. Whether deserved or not, it became an authoritative voice in all aspects of society. Perhaps the new emerging media outlets have knocked television off of its pedestal. While it had a dominant position, television wielded disproportionate power over all of us. Perhaps new emerging media outlets are putting television back into context. Television is increasingly being seen as just another media outlet and nothing of any special importance.

And what of the future? Radio managed to survive the onset of television by working to its strengths. It became agile and ever adaptable. Local radio managed to fill a gap that the large tv stations could not. As new technologies make tv production more mobile and less expensive, it is likely that there will be a proliferation of small niche mobile and fast moving telecasters and the old giants will see their empires being nibbled away.

Perhaps the golden age of television is past, but we are now at the dawn of a new age of media that is full of exciting potential?