Have Online Videos Lowered The Standards Of Television Production?

With millions of home made videos being uploaded on to video sharing site such as Youtube every day, domestic productions have never been more popular. Video technolgy is easily acquired so anyone can make their own shows and even whole series of programmes just with a  £50 camera and a computer. People have become sensations just from these videos but with so many people making their own programmes it has slightly devalued professional productions.

 While people still enjoy professional productions, quality is no longer an issue with viewers. They will happily watch a low quality home movie and enjoy it just as much as a high quality professional production. Professional production will use  high quality, high definition and expensive camera equipment and the lastest editing software to optimise the quality of their final products whereas most domestic productions are done with a cheap video camera and a home computer with basic editing software.

How Has The Digital World Changed The Way We Consume And Create TV?

With modern internet and mobile technology, television can be watched anywhere at anytime. This means you can view your usual programming at a time to suit you. With most broadcasters offering an on demand service that you can watch online, on your mobile phone with most of the latest handsets and even on games consoles such as the PS3. This is a big step from people crowding around a single television set fifty years ago.

With most phones having some form of video camera and with video cameras being cheaper to aquire, more people can create their own shows and programmes without the huge cost big broadcasters have to pay. Also with video sharing sites such as Youtube, these videos can be easily accessed and watched by the entire world.

However generally what cheaper cameras lose in cost they also lose in quality. But with more amatuer videos being shared and watched, people are not fussy about quality. Before now people would go to the cinema to see a big budget film with a lot of special effects because it would look spectacular. But now with films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield which are filmed as if from an average handheld home video camera, people are not as bothered about quality.

Brief History Of TV in the UK and Abroad

Television has been running publicly since the first television broadcast in 1936 which was broadcast for the Alexandra Palace using Baird's 240-line broadcasting system. The year after, the BBC made the first outside broadcast with King George VI coronation but the ceremony was not broadcast as it was thought to be too sacred. Almost a decade after, the BBC creates the first television programme for children. In 1948, the first Olympic games after World War Two are also the first Olympic Games to be televised. That same year, the first regular television news programme, Newsreel, is broadcast. In 1950, the BBC had the first broadcast from in the air. This was above Saint Paul's Cathedral and they had mnay technical problems such as the vibrations from the plane causing problems for the camera. Later that decade, Queen Elizabeth I's coronation is the first coronation moment to be televised and over 20 million people watched.
The BBC were the first major broadcaster of public television for 19 years until ITV was introduced. ITV stands for Independant Television.

Every Country uses a different broadcasting colour standard. They all use either PAL, SECAM or NTSC or some variant like PAL-N. In the UK we use PAL as does most of Europe and Africa, Australia and some of Asia and South America. France, Russia and some of Africa uses SECAM whereas North America and some of South America uses NTSC.

PAL or Phase Alternating Line is a 625 line of resolution system at 25 frames per second.
SECAM or Sequential Colour with Memory is also a 625 line system and was the first colour broadcasting standard in Europe.
NTSC or National Television Standards Committee is 525 line system instead of 625 and is 30 frames per second instead of 25. This system has lower resolution compared to PAL and SECAM but a faster frame rate.

But television stopped being limited to a box when internet televsion arrived. This started in 1994 when US broadcaster ABC's world news programme was broadcast. Many television broadcaster offer their television servies online with various on demand and catch up services such as BBC's BBC IPlayer or Channel 4's 4OD. This means people can watch their regular shows whenever they want.

This means people don't have to schedule their life around a television and can watch what they want, when they want instead of the scheduled programming of television.
In 2005 Youtube was launched. A video sharing site whos poularity boomed. It allows users to upload videos and share them with the world. This makes it easier for people to produce their own shows and share them with the world.

HD or High Definition television is television with substantially higher resolution that standard definition television. The majority of television available today are High Definition. A lot of broadcasters have made HD versions of their regular SD channels such as BBC HD.

3D technology is the latest technology to be brought to televisions. Broadcasters are already making 3D versions of their channels.