Blog Post #2

"Television Moving Online as Cable Takes Another Blow"

By Brett Stewart

          In a recent article for The Guardian, Brett Stewart writes about how "(t)elevision has reached a breaking point where millennials on their laptops often have a better opportunity to view new content than those with the best cable plans." (Stewart) He is expressing his concern over the fact that internet-based content is now being favored over the traditional means of watching television. Both HBO and CBS are now providing an internet-only platform for content as a standalone platform without the need for a cable subscription. Examples such as this one point to Stewart's thesis in which he explains that "(a)ll of that points to the age of cable reaching an end while internet-based television is just being born." (Stewart) We are witnessing the end of one era and the birth of another.

          Stewart's article brings to mind Anne Friedberg's essay "Spectatorial Flanerie" from the book Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern. In this essay, Friedberg touches upon the issue of the VCR and other such examples of televisual spectatorship challenging the traditional modes of cinema spectatorship. Online content which airs a day or so after the television program itself is reminiscent of the VCR in terms of how it serves as an eradication of time. The "time shifting and movie rental capacity of the VCR" (Friedberg 136) is similar to the advantages offered by online content. Consumers no longer have to watch a program when it airs. It is available at any time, any place on a laptop. 

          Friedberg establishes a solid point when she explains that "(t)he market of commodified video-movies available to the home viewer has meant that the "aura" of the original moment of cinema exhibition also disappears." (Friedberg 139) It is very easy to relate this idea to the loss of aura brought forth by watching a program online. The excitement of watching a TV show on a premiere night has arguably been lost by the recent conversion of television to an internet-based medium.

Stewart, Brett. "Television Moving Online as Cable Takes Another Blow." Liberty Voice. The Guardian, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://guardianlv.com/2014/10/television-moving-online-as-cable-takes-another-blow/>.

Friedberg, Anne. "Spectatorial Flanerie." Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1993. 133-143