Future of Black TV is Online
It seems like not long ago, we were making great strides on television. Remember, The Cosby Show? I use to love the feeling of Thursday nights. It felt like that was OUR night to shine on TV. Back then, we had a couple of all-Black shows on a major network and then they (the networks) gave everybody a show. Those days were short lived, though.
Today, if I want to see more than one Black face in a show, I have two and a half options: BET, TV One, and the CW on Sunday (or is it Tuesday?). Even when I get to see an Oprah episode, the audience is sprinkled with people of color. It seems as if the only time I see a lot of Black faces on TV is when I watch the NBA or the NFL. Nothing wrong with that, I only wish we were behind the scenes as well.
I like to watch Jeopardy and usually watch Wheel of Fortune as a prelude. Now I have been watching for awhile and I have yet to see an episode with all Black contestants. Could it just be a coincedence or is it that Black people don’t try out for the show? Who knows. All I know is that it appears we are not making as much progress in television as we are in other media areas. We definately are on television more playing multi-deminsion characters on multi-cultural shows and doing more producing, writing and directing.
We’ve come a long way with 3-4 network shows ( Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, I forget the rest) 4-5 cable shows (The Wire, Whatever Russell Simmons and Diddy want to produce, Run’s House, That’s so Raven, I may be missing maybe 1-2). The problem is if you add all of those shows together for one week, you would have about 8 hours of programming. That’s about .04% of what’s on TV (do the math, 24hrs. a day x 7 days a week = 168 hrs).
Excluding BET and TV One, there’s a lot of room to grow in television (even they have a way to go, but they are trying). If we lose Debbie Allen and Alfonso Riberio, we lose half the Black TV directors, so there is room to grow.
Unfortuately, we lost Ed Bradley, last year. We miss and desperately need a voice and face in news that we can identify with. Soledad O’Brien is carrying the torch well, but there is room for more. Maybe I’m greedy because I want more!
Where are we on TV? I can’t tell you where we are, but I can tell you where we will be. The evolution of broadband and new media (i.e.YouTube) is allowing us to change all that. Now that we can create our own networks, shows, stars, music, and films, and distribute and market them via the internet through links, emails, blogs, text, etc., we can make sure that we are ‘there’ because we can put ourselves there. You can’t do that with TV. You can upload your songs to iTunes, become a virtual celebrity on MySpace, create videos for people to watch when they want to from anywhere and hold a meet-n-greet with your virtual avatar in Second Life
Our presence on the internet will evolve faster than our presence on television. So if you want to see more Black faces like I do, look online. Check out some of the broadband channels and the original programming. There may not be any money in it now, but the advertisers follow the people and the dollars won’t be far behind. In 2-5 years there will be more Black shows, available via the internet, than there have ever been on television at one time.
By the way, I’ve only seen the previews, but if Tyler Perry’s new show is any indication of the future of Black television, there is little hope.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Do you really think Black people will produce quality shows on the internet? All the stuff I see on YouTube is stupid kids stuff. It’s definately funnier than what’s on TV these days, but I’d rather watch TV. Not my computer. You are dead wrong if you think the internet video will replace TV.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The computer won’t replace TV; the TV will become more like a computer. Smart set-top boxes — think what TIVO could become - and applications such as slingbox will combine to create interactive television that is portable to wherever you might be. We are just now starting to see the evolution: you can program your DVR to capture your favorite programs and you can do VOD for episodes or movies you want to see. Now, combine searching and uploading capabilities from the Internt and now you are talking!
There are so many exciting applications being created now. I saw a demonstration recently of something that was similar to the matrix Tom Cruise used in “Minority Report” where you navigate through a wall-high video screen using your hands to push, pull and turn “pages” or screens. You can see if for yourself at JFK airport next time you are there.
The future is now; the content just needs to catch up.
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