Watching TV

We had a huge plasma screen on demo at work the other day. 103 inches. It was enormous – the size of your living room wall. And it was a seriously good quality picture. Clearly these things are designed for presentation suites, and very large houses where there is perhaps a home cinema. I can’t ever imagine having one in my own home. But then I got thinking about how television viewing habits are changing. Firstly, people are watching less scheduled TV but are using PVRs, Sky+ etc. to watch things when they want to, and also with so much more niche content available, what one person watches may not suit others in the family. So people tend to be watching TV on their own – sometimes over the internet on a PC screen, sometimes when the TC is ‘free’. This solitary experience is very different to the collective family experience of sitting down together to be entertained.

So maybe these huge screens, with the capability of multiple windows on one device mean that families will be able to sit down together once more, this time watching different programmes on the same screen at the same time. A bit far fetched? Maybe. But people already multi-task when it comes to entertainment – just watch a teenager at home. Of course, the sound would need to be sorted out, but that would be relatively easy.

I wonder.