TV 2.0

I've never had a casual relationship with television (or, for that matter, much of anything else). I haven't had a TV for the whole of my adult life; I've aligned myself instead with the snobs who read The New Yorker and donate to NPR, and it's made me mostly happy.

But somehow, week after week, there I am, tuned into Veronica Mars, to Battlestar Galactica, to Smallville. Though I've long forbade television from my home, the miracles of DVD and the Internet have allowed these nefarious influences to creep in through every available port: there are movies in my mailbox and in my Xbox, on my iBook and on my iPod.

I spend at least four hours a week watching TV, and I don't even have a TV.

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"Television is dead, long live television. A new study from IBM Corp. confirms many fears that today's television industry is being killed by technology, but it also outlines many ways those same developments are creating new opportunities for creativity and revenue. "The End of Television as We Know It: A Future Industry Perspective" gazes out to 2012. It basically sees a landscape fragmented by consumers now being drawn to specialized content on the multiplicity of channels currently available and predicts that these viewers will move "beyond niche to individualized viewing" as they embrace on-demand, self-scheduling, portability and other emerging options. "Look to see the networks' oligopoly diminish, along with a significant decline in the share of revenue generated from broadcast advertising," said the report's author, Saul Berman, global partner at IBM Business Consulting Services, Media & Entertainment. (Chris Marlowe, Hollywood Reporter)"

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A friend accuses me: "You'll never understand TV because you don't watch it in its natural element." I'm not sure what he's getting at. Does he mean commercials? Because I watch commercials. Does he mean addiction, how some people will build their whole week around the schedule in the TV Guide? Because I am on a schedule.

My friend, I conclude, is an analog snob.

What my friend doesn't know ... My personal TV war is escalating: I've contracted with Comcast for the first time in my life. (It was cheaper to get both basic cable AND high-speed Internet than just the one.) I'm losing more and more time to these infernal shows. And you'll never guess what came in the mail today...