The evolution of the personal TV

You read that title right! One of the really interesting differences that I have seen in London compared to South Africa is how people watch TV. South Africans have perhaps started to see this evolution with the introduction of DSTV Catch-Up as well as Netflix. But the really big difference in how people use these services is due to the superior mobile internet options that are available. It would seem inconceivable to a South African that you could stream a whole TV show on your phone mobile data, even if you could afford it - the internet is just too slow. Here in the UK however, both of those problems are taken care of; 3G, and in many cases 4G, is the norm and fast enough to watch a show on your phone with no buffering. Added to that is the low price of internet data. Most people I know here have not only got unlimited talk minutes and text messages but also unlimited data on their phone contract plans as well. This means that many people watch TV programmes on their phones, iPads and other tablets.

What this means is that TV seems to be going the way of radio. In the old days, families would gather around the wireless in the evenings and listen to radio shows as a group. Story lines were discussed the next day at school and the following episode was highly anticipated by all. Nowadays however, we listen to a lot less radio as that role has largely been taken over by TV. But my opinion is that the way we watch TV will end up changing too. Just as we now tend to listen to the radio on our own, whether it is on in the kitchen keeping you company or more commonly when you're driving by yourself, the ability to watch TV on a device means that people are watching TV while they commute on the train and are watching more and more personally specific shows and watching them by themselves.

I've been watching a lot of TV by myself in the past few weeks. As some of you may know, I have become a fan of The Tour de France, fairly recently compared to many people as it was only a year ago that I even learnt what a peloton is (it's the large bundle of cyclists riding together in a group to benefit from the protection from the slowing effects of the wind). Anyway, I am able to watch the Tour live on my iPad, and since Frans has little desire to have the quietness of the flat ruined by the droning (although fascinating) commentary, I take my iPad to another room and watch it alone. I have repaid him for my three-hour-a-day, three-week-long commitment to the race by ironing his work shirts for him. And yes, I do those two simultaneously!