The Coming Golden Age of Television

Mark Cuban writes:  "... Technology marches on.  BusinessWeek proclaimed this week ”The End of TV (As you know it).”  My perception of the article is that they wanted to drive home the point that technology is expanding how viewers receive content and the number of content choices will result in ongoing decline in audience sizes. The drop could, in turn could destablize the TV business as we know it.  ¶  I think they are wrong.  They are leaving out two key technological issues that will completely change the dynamics of TV, but for the better….for those that recognize what is happening. ...¶... There are going to be fewer networks being broadcast in the future. Not more. That should lead to ratings expansion, not contraction as some would have you believe.  ¶  But wait, there’s more. In an HD universe, not only will there be  fewer channels to compete with in the long term, but because the adoption of HD will happen faster than most people realize, the ratings for those networks that do broadcast in HD will EXPLODE in the next two to three years. The next few years will still have a limited number of HD channels available to viewers while conversion and bandwidth issues are worked out. Which means in HD households, rather than a 150 channel universe, there may only be a 30 channel HD universe. Thats a goldmine for those networks in HD.  ¶  Not only that, but the HD universe has several advantages for advertisers over the standard def world, which of course is money in the bank for networks and their distributors. ..."  Link:  Blog Maverick.