[Zenon]

With the internet, mobile phones and video ipods now offering television programmes, do you think this will spell the eventual end of the television as we know it? I think Television still has some way to run but will it be around in 50 years?

[iSeb]

As much as 'On Demand' will take off, sometimes people just want to be passive, sit back and watch whatever there is to be watched without having to enter credit card details or go to a website/interactive page, to scroll through a menu to then choose the channel, and then choose the programme.

TV will be around because its Tele-Vision. But in the form we currrently know it, probably not.

[glennjpeace]

I reckon Television will be around in some sort or another. As they are updating the technology every year, it will enhance. Like now, everybody is talking about Hi-Def.

[Adam]

What you should be asking, will radio exist in 50 years?

[David]

Radio will outlive TV.

[glennjpeace]

Yeah Radio will easily outlive TV....for a start, you don't need a license to listen to it!

[MK Chris]

I don't think that's the reason.

Besides, if TV died and the BBC continued to produce radio programmes and other forms of entertainment, they would probably introduce a radio licence instead.

Anyway, that's academic because in my opinion there is no question that in 50 years TV will exist in some form or other, and probably won't be that different to how we know it at the moment. Technology may improve but the basic concept will remain.

[glennjpeace]

I said to start with. I didn't say it was the main and only reason. And yeah the BBC probably would introduce a radio license.

[Console]

The license fee is just for the UK though, I think some other countries may have a slight say as to whether radio lives or dies.

It's tough to say whether TV (as we would recognise it) would exist in 50 years. With everything becoming digital, the ability to have On-Demand content is getting easier and easier, and the internet is a great medium for transferring video content; you can already buy & download some TV programs online. The TV of the future may be as it is now, or it could be a portal to access online/On-Demand content.

[Boboff]

This is all frankly academic, a service will exist that entertains the masses, whether this is delivered through analogue, digital, cable, satelite or broadband is academic.
The BBC will continue to deliver visual and audio entertainment in return for a licence, or useage, or advertised based funding stream, they will make use of the "long Tail" principal and offer more on demand choice from it's library, as well as producing new enetrtainment.

It may not be a box in the corner, but a flat screen in the wall linked to broadband or whatever, but it will always be "TV"

[MK Chris]

The license fee is just for the UK though, I think some other countries may have a slight say as to whether radio lives or dies.

Yeah but what I meant was, were TV to die a death (whoever was responsible) and radio to survive until another era, and were the BBC to keep their radio stations, I would think they would introduce a radio licence.

I don't believe that will happen, but like I said (and boboff just echoed) it's academic.

[glennjpeace]

I have come to a decision. Move abroad and get sky dgital. Get a massive dish, pay for the box...and the best bit is, is that abroad you don't have to pay for Sky! So you get about 800 Channels and about 200 Radio stations for about £100 (if it is Sky +)

[Walter Sobchak]

As a young child in the late 60's early 70's I was a fan of Blue Peter and Tomnorrows World, both of these programs went to great lengths to tell us how different and easier life will be in the future.... but nothing much has really changed, with the exception of computers.
Who'd think that I would be typing onto what appears to be a TV screen, and people around the world would be able to read it, I wouldn't of believed it, but saying that, if someone was to say you would be able to ask a group of people "will we have television in 50 years time?", well, that wouldn't have suprised me at all.
I love programs like The Gadget Show, where last week it appeared we were moving 1 step closer to Star Trek TNG, with a VR ball which you climb in and you can engage in a real-life game (running, jumping, etc), but we all won't have them in our front rooms, no doubt someone will want to charge us money to use one, so it would then exist as a 'day out' bit of kit, at some leisure arcade.
I don't wish to be cynical, but in 50 years there will still be people watching TV's, sitting in a cold house wrapped in a blanket because they can't afford to heat it.

As for Radio, I remember a time when their was certain people boasting that radio would vanish before the year 2000, and there have been times when it has faltered, but then rose back up again proving those cynics wrong.
It's a superb medium, Especially shows such as Chris Moyles', most of the working day people simply cannot watch something, having Chris & co laughing and joking, and playing music (sometimes) cannot really be improved. (In My opinion)

[iSeb]

The license fee is just for the UK though, I think some other countries may have a slight say as to whether radio lives or dies.

Yeah but what I meant was, were TV to die a death (whoever was responsible) and radio to survive until another era, and were the BBC to keep their radio stations, I would think they would introduce a radio licence.

I don't believe that will happen, but like I said (and boboff just echoed) it's academic.

Even though called the TV licence, The License Fee goes to Radio and Online as well. So it would just be a reduced Non-TV Licence.

[Loudmouthed_Cutie]

yeah tv will still be around but it probably wont be the same and they won't kill it cos then there will be less advertising for companies and they will have to take over the rado

[iSeb]

yeah tv will still be around but it probably wont be the same and they won't kill it cos then there will be less advertising for companies and they will have to take over the rado

Google's advertising is worth more than UK TV advertising.

[Sidders]

It will probably be 3D by then.

[iSeb]

Hopefully without the stupid paper glasses.

[Walter Sobchak]

Maybe we would have volumetric display televisions, this is true 3D, like the holodeck on star trek TNG.

Heres an interesting article from Reuters;

TOKYO - Imagine watching a football match on a TV that not only shows the players in three dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe even pat a goalscorer on the back.

Japan plans to make this futuristic television a commercial reality by 2020 as part of a broad national project that will bring together researchers from the government, technology companies and academia.

The targeted "virtual reality" television would allow people to view high-definition images in 3D from any angle, in addition to being able to touch and smell the objects being projected upwards from a screen parallel to the floor.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9007485

[Boboff]

What will they think of next, you won't have to go out to smell the wonderful smell of urine in the stair wells at the back of the Stadium, and the Waft of Cigar smoke from the Drunk bunch of corporate types, and the BO from the Care in the Community chap in a wheel chair at the end of your row, It'll be just like being at your nans !