"When we install fiber-optic, it wipes out the cable companies." A phone company worker was speaking to my husband last week, as the workers were installing new lines in our area. Fiber-optic so enriches the transmission through DSL lines that internet TV is decimating traditional TV.
The future of TV is on the internet because it can be so niched. For the last fifty years, TV has been a mass market medium. It's been programming produced by a few, for the many. We've been expected to enjoy what everyone else likes.
Internet TV, on the other hand, can be TV produced by the many for the few. But the few are not such a small group. The niche of those who've been raised by abusive fathers, for example, is large. iTV can target the needs of that group. Whether with stories, teaching, or interviewing programs like Oprah, iTV can be more responsive to the interests of specific niche groups, in a way that traditional TV cannot.
Earlier this week, I spent some time at the studios of Hopes, Goals and Dreams iTV network. See the video trailer I made for Trading Fathers: Forgiving Dad, Embracing God. The technology is now so advanced that the quality is excellent.
Blogs and Twitter and the other social media are changing how people connect with others. How will internet TV change the world? I don't know. How will it change your life? My life? Who can say? We are in a time of immense change in the world, comparable to the industrial revolution. Sociologists talk about the unexpected consequences of massive social changes. We live in unpredictable times.
I am grateful to walk with a stable, reliable, good Papa-God. We can rely on him to carry us through, to bring his good from these days, and to accomplish his purposes in our lives and in history. Glory.
Father, May we rest in your arms during these unpredictable days.