What is the future of Television? Where is this convergence going? What can we envision?

Since its beginning in 1930’s by the Germans the Television market has grown impressively; a faster growth has occurred since 2000. Like every market, three big companies, NBC, CBS, and ABC dominate the Television in the U.S. Those three companies conquered the market by a horizontal integration method; buying small companies and making them affiliates, which means that the big three receive affiliate fees in order for the small TV companies to broadcast their programs. For instance, a few year ago ABC had ABC Sports in order to broadcast sports but in an investment move the company bought the majority of ESPN group.

When the big companies in the TV market made more investments, many houses changed from having basic cable to a direct broadcast satellite (DBS), some examples are DirecTV and Dish Network. According to Robert LaRose in The Media “basic cable is the lowest level of cable service that included local broadcast stations” (The Media, 216), this means that the one who has this plan in Westchester, NY will watch news from channel 12 regarding what happens in Westchester; another person that lives in Long Island will only have news in channel 12 regarding Long Island, having a community access. Meanwhile, who has DBS can watch a lot more channels, especially from around the world since it comes from a satellite connection.

            One of the features that has changed a lot in television since its beginning is the image that we see. Before the image was in black and white, and nowadays we can see the image as clear as possible when we watch in a high-definition television (HDTV). However, in some companies the HD channels are still pay TV, which means that we have to pay extra in order to have those channels and also another channel that we would like. For instance, who has Optimum TV will have to pay extra in order to have NFL Network, Tennis Channel, HBO and other channels.

            We can see major investments in the TV market because many channels are becoming 3D, like ESPN 3D where you can watch sports in a different way, it is almost like you were running with the player in the field. The big companies can invest a lot due to the cost per thousand, how many people will watch it, that they charge when a company wants to put its advertising during a show’s commercial break.  The future of the TV is unknown due to what the companies that produce are doing. Now there is a television that recognized your voice and you can talk to the TV, similar to when we talk to Siri in our iPhones.