There has been both a societal and technological shift on the television industry, including more specifically on audience viewing habits. In Goddard and Hogg’s dossier on ‘Trans TV’ they agree with scholars Jenner and Lotz, on ideas that modes of production, distribution and consumption have been radically affected by the implementation of digital technologies of ‘Internet-Distributed’ television. Viewing has in turn become a lot more accessible in terms of location, practicality and timing.

Conversationally, there is a childhood nostalgia connected with network-television childhood, my brother and I would run home from school to catch the new episode of Pokémon from 3-4pm. Something children from the current generation don’t understand, as they have access to the whole series, whenever and wherever they’d like.

Furthermore, the rise of binge-watching presents the shift through audience engagement, narrative structures, and pacing of storytelling. Netflix intelligently caters to this by instantly playing the next episode of the series, to prolong your time on the platform. This is compared to linear television during the network era, where audiences would have to wait a week for the next episode.

Pic: PC Mag

The dossier also touched on mobile consumption; this allows viewers to watch content wherever they want from their phone with the Netflix app. Data from Statista from March 2023 shows almost 70% of the digital video content audiences in the US watch from their smartphones.

Another way viewing habits have advanced is through the geopolitics of transnational televisions, which advances the global landscape of television. For many years media has been very western-centric, although this still remains true, platforms like Netflix offer a wider range of television that was produced in different countries.  

Overall, audience viewing habits have evolved since network television, with the adoption of internet-distributed television being the “norm”. Shifting to practically watching whenever and wherever you like, from whatever device.

Words by Lucy Snell.

References:

Michael Goddard and Christopher Hogg (2018), ‘Introduction: Trans TV as concept and intervention into contemporary television’, Critical Studies in Television 13:4: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1749602018798217

Michael Goddard and Chris Hogg 2020, ‘Introduction: Trans TV Re-evaluated part II’, Trans TV Dossier 3, Critical Studies In Television 15: 3: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/csta/15/3

Stats from Statista: https://www.statista.com/topics/2725/mobile-video-in-the-united-states/#:~:text=As%20of%20March%202023%2C%20almost,device%20for%20online%20video%20consumption.