The Cycle: the Relationship Between Convergence and Fragmentation in Media.

Media changes drastically over short periods of time because of digital convergence. Just in the past decades it has become much more advanced and useful for people all around the world. There has been an extreme advance in media technology, especially that used in film industry. This includes the creation of analog-to-digital converters, technology convergence, and the changes in the media industry and audiences. In this article, I will analysis how digital convergence impact on the film industry structure, forms of consumption with the innovation of revenue models and cultural production.

Recent and historical events throughout television history have demanded a redefinition of the medium in contemporary culture. Throughout its history television has predominantly relied upon industry practices established early in the 1960s, however, the turn of the century has produced such divergence from these practices that some scholars are defining it as an entirely new era of television. Lotz, for example, employs the term ‘post-network’, an indication of televisions separation from earlier dominant network practices (9). For the most part, Lotz and scholars alike agree that this transition has stemmed from changes in the industrial norms of producing, financing, and distributing television, as well new introductions to the industry such as the arrival of digital technologies. This essay will agree with these scholars, arguing that significant changes to the Western television industry has resulted in a new, distinctive era of television culture.

Technological advances have made a significant impact on the television industry in Australia. While new technology encourages the TV networks to improve the local content to satisfy the demanding young audience, it also scatters the audience into different media platforms and drives them away from traditional TV broadcasts. The first part of this essay will analyze the current trends in the Australia television industry. As the audience tends to spend more time on the Internet interacting with the live TV programs and watching videos content, the commercial TV networks still broadcast quality local content to attract the audience. The second part will address major challenges that television industry is facing and how particular companies including Optus and Channel Nine cope with this hardship. These challenges mainly emerge from the development of the streaming video on demand services. The final part will discuss the future of the free-to-air television in Australia as the audience keeps fragmented.

Everywhere people look, there is a screen. Whether it’s a laptop, television, phone, tablet, or a cinema, screens encompass society. Additionally, the content we watch on these devices is growing at a prolific rate. This is due to easy access of programs, like Final Cut, Premiere Pro, and iMovie, that allow basically anyone to make their own video or movie. Some say that this ability to produce movies easier than ever before poses a threat to the integrity of the movie industry, claiming streaming sites, legitimate or otherwise, are shifting people away from the theater and moving them toward home entertainment.

Online media has the ability to fit in with the public service model. Mark Andrejevic (2013), explain it as an “archival function that has the ability to engage easily in time shifting, location shifting and platform shifting through catch up TV. The relatively low cost of data storage, distribution and fault free digital reproduction and the flexibility of access”. Explaining consumers now have the ability to watch TV whenever and wherever they are not being constrained by access. In contrast to commercial broadcasting media, which relied upon the ability to control the audience in space and time.

Unlike any other media, the TV industry has grown dramatically throughout the U.S households. A concept known as TV Everywhere, is a model for the cable systems that offer online television programs for free with an authentication that the subscriber has paid their monthly fee. Users can access their subscription through the Xfinity portal or the web, with the proof of their subscription (Waterman, David). The growth of films and television shows are becoming more consumed on the digital platforms. Exploring the delivery of cinema within households, is alternating the concepts of spectatorship. Many media companies have been creating models that engage viewers in order to sell the mobile technologies. Companies often do this by promoting “platform mobility.” This term refers to the ability to start watching a show on one device and finish it on another device. Even though it is very difficult to measure the use of the “platform mobility,” the use of the mobile devices impact cultural imagination. Since the mobile technologies can be liberating, they must be put to use in a way that is normal, including advertisements (Tryon,

The impacts on the Film and Television industry by discussing the positive and negative socio-economic effects of streaming services and pay-tv on sectors such as retail, exhibition and free-to-air television.

It is clear that there are many more choices for media consumers to interact with in the present. Moreover, this drastic shift made more visible when one views

Media convergence involves combining technology content of different types of mass media. What was once a

Convergence in media is extremely important. (1) Media convergence is the flow of content across multiple media platforms. (2) There are three elements for convergence to occur in mass media; corporations, content and computers. Media companies and marketers target and segment their audience. Psychographics plays a role in audience segmentation. In order for the consumer to be reached the media companies must be able (3) to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms. In today’s society much of what we know comes from what we see and hear in media. Marketers and media companies target their audience based on how they view them.

Secondly, different delivery medium are changing the television industry in a fundamental ways. Digital video recorders (DVRs), Internet television, satellite video-on-demand(VOD)

In particular, this impact is of high-profile concern in the music industry, where profits have been impaired as music becomes available on these services soon after its production (Milne, 2014). With regards to TV shows and Films, streaming services are often the last in the release window for content distribution and can only attract users that want to re-watch shows or those they have missed them during the previous windows. At the same time, a greater degree of autonomy provides consumers

So as to be able to analyze crucial characteristics of media innovation, we will look at two specific areas which are; the things that are changing and the degree of novelty.

What do we really mean by television? The way we watch television has drastically changed over the last fifteen years due to new technologies such as digital television and services providing on-demand access. These drastic changes have had a huge effect on viewers and have “allowed online streaming platforms to dominate and revolutionize the way the audience consumes” (Aliloupour) media, ultimately allowing the viewer to be in total control of how, when and where they want their content. The idea of only being able to watch television on a television set is now a thing of the past. Due to technology, the audience now has a vast variety of options on how they can access content. By using scholarly articles, research in new media and Internet sites I will be analyzing current television and where the future of television will be heading.

First of what is Digital media convergence? It can be simplified as several processes, these are technological, social, industrial and cultural convergence. It also means the digitizing of old media so it can be incorporated into new media.