The typewriter and the television, one is ancient and the other is just about to be. Could it be that young people these days find themselves more hooked on the computer than the TV set for entertainment?

By Wong Yeang Cherng & Nathaniel Phua

It started as a harmless tool for speeding up the process by which we source for information.

When online messaging was popularised, all our conversations, or most of it at least, were taken to the virtual world of online chatrooms and MSN. Then, it happened to our music and now, the Internet has taken over our television viewing habits as well.

Okay, so maybe flipping through today’s papers might get your hands dirty, and chatting online allows for more than one conversation simultaneously. But trading off the good ol’ times we spent on the couch with a bag of chips and the trusty television set for the Internet? Now, what happened there? Don’t get us wrong. Young people still adore their beloved shows like Desperate Housewives and Survivor. Everyone still watches television, just not on the actual set anymore.

To find out the extent of the phenomenon, HYPE polled 100 young Singaporeans, of which 67% indicated that they streamed shows from the Internet more than they watched them on the television. The remaining 33% of them preferred the television because of its better sound and picture quality.

Brian Heng, 19, a San Joaquin Delta College graduate says, “I don’t really need to watch television as I can just stream the shows online for free. No need to pay for cable, pay-per-view or anything like that.”

Control TV
To many, the Internet is like a reservoir of entertainment where users can fish for their favourite TV shows. According to the editor of Singapore Press Holdings Razor TV Jonathan Ng, the Internet has completely refashioned the video viewing habits of youths.

“It’s the nature of the web to supply information on demand and with the slew of video content on the web, it’s the obvious place to go,” he says.

For many like National Technological University student Jamie Phua, 20, the Internet gives them more authority to dictate their viewing habits, unlike the television where the television company schedules the programmes.

He says, “With such an irregular school timetable, I tend to miss out on the shows that I want to watch. Streaming it from the Internet actually means that I’ll be able to watch it whenever I want to.”

Alternative TV
“Research has shown that most young people are unaware that file-sharing is illegal and that it’s stealing,” says Mr Boey, a lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film & Media Studies.

Evidently, the ambiguity and accessibility of the Internet makes it an excellent avenue for downloading television shows for one’s viewing pleasure. According to BBC news, a typical episode of TV show 24 “was downloaded by about 100,000 people globally”. Just imagine how many criminal offences were made for the entire season!

The consequences do not stop there.

Since viewers no longer watch their favourite shows on television sets, revenue from television viewership is stemmed and broadcasters no longer have the budget to produce higher quality shows.

“Illegal file-sharing and downloads will erode the quality of the programmes and movies… And if broadcasters are cut out of the equation, the revenue stream stops and so will good quality programming eventually,” says Jonathan.

Delete TV
Which brings us to the next inevitable question: Does this spell the death of the television set?

Darren Ho, 27, director of MGX Communications, says, “Yes, there is the possibility of [television services] one day becoming passé. But, of course, as for all major monopoly businesses, they will find a way to integrate and work with [the Internet] rather than against it.”

This particular trend is not unique to Singapore. A recent survey of young Americans by the International Business Machines Corporation showed that 60 percent preferred to stream shows on the Internet, which corresponds to the survey conducted by hype in Singapore.

As an effort to integrate television with the Internet, American media companies like NBC Universal and Fox Entertainment Group have already begun working with Internet providers to set up an Internet-based video site, Hulu, which provides free videos from various American networks and studios.

Perhaps the resulting model could be like popular online music store iTunes, where people can download music legally and music publishers still earn the money.

Until that happens, all evidence seems to indicate that trading the big rigid screen for the flexibility of the dot com is the only natural thing to do.

Nonetheless, an entire world that revolves around the Internet does not seem logistically and commercially viable at this point of time.

“I think it isn’t possible right now because there’s a generation gap. Our older generation never believed in going into the Internet. But once this generation moves on, it’s going to be different,” concludes Darren.