Television on Demand

Book excerpt: Since the beginning of broadcasting, radio and television producers have pushed their shows to audiences in controlled environments that end in a discrete and quantifiable site to be transformed into advertising rates. Today's viewers program their DVR's to create their own viewing schedules, wait to watch entire seasons in marathon DVD viewing sessions and stream shows to their mobile devices. The rise of a curatorial culture where viewers create their own entertainment packages and select from a buffet of viewing options and venues has caused a seismic shift for the traditional television industry. While audiences clamor for more story-driven and scripted entertainment, their new viewing habits undermine the dominant economic structures that fund quality episodic series.Television on Demand examines how we have reached this present moment; and considers the viable future(s) of this crucial culture industry. This leads to an understanding of an empowered audience that realizes its means of control of how it consumes media, as well as a new way of looking at the industry we have traditionally and currently call 'television.'