Stephanie Fan's Blog

The introduction of Television along with cable has definitely marked a huge milestone in technological advancements, however, are we ready to move on from this wonderful innovation?

Now, companies are beginning to offer an alternate way of viewing television: Internet TV.  Currently in Canada, Netflix is the most popular Internet television provider and costs only $8 per month to view.  Netflix is amazingly convenient because it can be accessed from a smart phone to an iPad, to video game consoles like Xbox 360.

Analysing this situation, media analysts have suggested that the demand for cable Television will drop and that the popularity for Internet TV will increase.  However, this forecast is incorrect.  Other than the fact that it is extremely difficult to make future assumptions since external factors may also vary the outcome, forecasts are meant to show the different possibilities or probabilities of the potential outcomes.  For example, a weather forecast will announce that there is a 30% chance of rain the next day.  Therefore, there is 70% chance that it will not rain as well.

These analysts have failed to provide accurate forecasts and this is further proven by looking at the disadvantages of Internet television.  Although sources like Netflix are able to offer movies at such low prices, they are not able to offer the most current shows that the audience wants to view.  As well, the picture quality is simply incomparable with the cable Television.  Therefore, although Internet TV may have a decent amount of supporters, it is not enough to threaten the existence of cable and satellite TV.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/personal-tech/hugh-thompson/will-internet-tv-change-the-way-we-watch-television/article1782864/