5 Key Trends That Will Redefine the Future of Television in India

Today, television viewing is a different experience than the Golden Age of Television, or retro-era. Similarly, tomorrows television experience will be different from todays. Earlier television viewership was dictated by networks. However, todays viewers decide how and when they should watch their favourite TV shows through options including IPTV. Fulfilling consumer demands is one of the big challenges Media and Entertainment(M&E) companies face today. They have to work hard to find a balance among various factors such as fulfilling skyrocketing consumer expectations on quality programs, meeting daily operational expenses, content monetization, adopting new technologies, and maintaining visibility across alternative entertainment platforms. Also, they understand that they cannot ignore these 5 trends including IPTV, which will drive future television & trends in India industry in the incoming years.

Future Television & Trends :

1. Omnipotent Visibility: Today, television producers understand that their regular viewers may not be able to catch up with their favourite shows at a particular time slot. This is why they end up telecasting episodes several times a day. Also, these episodes are available online within a couple of hours after the first telecast. This allows a consumer to watch their show on a tablet, or a phone. Various studies suggest that by 2025, the television program will be made available across various screens at a same time and that will make a change in the future of television in India.

2. Subject-wise Organisation Will Be Possible: The experience of TV browsing is constantly improving. Comcast- the American broadcasting and cable television company has given a cable box, which allow people to organise their favourite channels as per the subject. This cable box is a web-based interface, which allows a user to easily search his favourite channels, whenever he wants. For example, a viewer need not remember the channel number of Star Sports anymore, rather they can use the search to find sports based channels.

3. New Channels are Constantly Added Up: Internet TV or IPTV is becoming a big reality and you cannot ignore it anytime and it is seen as the future of television in India. This TV medium is also paving way for brand-based channels. You can understand it better by seeing a few examples:

• WWE, the leading American wrestling company allows its fans and supporters to access live events through IPTV, and stream video network. Earlier fans had to subscribe these events as add-ons.
• The Beatles Channel was recently launched by the Apple TV to mark 50^th anniversary of the band.Today, every organisation that sells its products or services is eager to come up with its own channel, if their licensing agreement allowed it. According to Neil Hunt, chief product officer of Netflix -in 2025, an average consumer will get a chance to select from 48 Million TV channels. This will include brand based channels, too.

4. Advertisement-free Model Will Become a Reality: Most TV viewers complain about advertisements affecting the quality of entertainment. The advertisement-free TV model is slowly becoming a reality. Netflix is one of the pioneers of this ad-free model. It has built its television business with subscription fees. This model has already received applause from consumers.

5. From a Passive Watcher to a Active Consumer: All these years, television used to be a one-way experience. Viewers had no other choice than flipping away channels. However, the apps like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon are empowering consumers to watch any program, and at anytime. Now consumers can get on to their feet and interact with the TV programming.

The above-mentioned trends will enable M&E companies to enrich their relationships with consumers. To maintain these relationships the M&E brand players should invest in technologies that allow them deliver best user-experiences to their consumers.