Television: An Obit

It has taken 50 years for the power of television to begin the shift from a few large media companies to empowered individuals throughout the world. Now that transition has begun. It will surely be marked with fits and starts, as old media companies fight to hold onto the past while a new generation takes control of the future.

The time is rapidly coming when television producers will sell their programs directly to individual viewers online. With the middlemen diminished, the consumer wins: The price for programming will drop dramatically. Viewers will pay for only the shows they choose to watch. Pay providers will finally lose their immense power as bundlers and aggregators of programming. In an equally dramatic shift, ordinary people and businesses will make their own video for use on the Internet.

Of course, it's already happening to some extent. However, higher-quality video made by individuals will arrive as the skill sets are acquired to do professional productions. Already, YouTube and streaming media sites offer a free distribution system for video. This video interconnects with blogs and Web sites. All that's holding most enterprises back today is the lack of skill and expertise in producing and distributing professional-quality video. With the roadblocks mostly gone and the democratization of video nearly complete, the future rests with the skill and talent of empowered individuals and small groups to make compelling programming. As always, most of this video from the masses will be pure drek. Unfortunately, that's a price we pay for ending the era of tight corporate control.