A Harsh History
When the radio first gained traction it quickly became a household appliance. Outfitted in cars, bars, and any place people gathered, there was a radio playing music or delivering quick and easy news without having to pay for the daily paper. With the radio’s rapid success, it seemed that the later spark of the television would follow in its footsteps, and that it has.
Television news sprung into life in the late 40s and only grew in popularity. By the mid-50s it too was a household necessity. Broadcasts meant easily and readily available coverage of something across the country, it revolutionized presidential elections and impacted the court of public opinion not before seen in the world.
It meant talk shows, TV shows, and news. For a while, it seemed nothing could really compare to the lasting impression left by TV, with many campaigns trying to eliminate the widespread commodity of watching TV over the concern it impacted young people more than anyone knew.
As history seems to constantly repeat itself in many different ways, the same thing happened in the late 2000s when computers and smartphones became the colossal companies they are known as today.
Many of the older generations started to condemn the new technology, saying the tech no longer allowed young people to live the same way they once had. With today’s generation dubbed the loneliest, it was not a surprise to find that they delved deeper into the new tech than even its creators.
With new innovations and new people at the helm for directing the current social climate, a trend of “in with the new and out with the old” began and soon it would sweep not only the nation but the world.
New Numerics
With the added benefits of recency and ease, tech services have only increased in value with services like Netflix and Hulu drastically changing the entertainment industry. The same can be said for websites like YouTube where billions of people watch their favorite creators with the site seeing 52 percent of all internet users on a monthly basis and over 122 million a day. YouTube has split from only sharing videos, it is also now the only TV service provider to not drop in users in 2023.
YouTube TV’s benefits come from solely being over the internet and not connected to any cable or satellite service meaning users are able to access all their favorite channels from their mobile devices.
YouTube TV also beat out DirectTV in winning the Sunday ticket for 2023, with all NFL Sunday games being available in one accessible place means a possibility for even more growth for the budding service.
While Fox News remained the highest-watched broadcast in 2023, it is still averaging an 18 percent decline year after year as more people cut the cord with cable dropping by 2.3 million households earlier this year, the rise of new media is something that cable television no longer has the luxury to ignore.
