Audience and Institution Practice Essay

In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

In film, audience consumption has changed drastically overtime. With it now heavily being affected by how accessible that film is. I feel like audience consumption in the traditional sense like, paying to go the movies has decreased. The reason being so, people are finding more accessible resources like, streaming platforms, illegal downloads, or just buying it online if they are willing to spend the money.

One reason the audience consumption has changed so much overtime is due to the new alternatives that are presenting themselves. What makes these new alternatives seem more preferable is that it’s easier access, mobile, or free. Many of the free options that substitute for going to the movies and paying for regular cable would be streaming devices like firestick or Roku. When people purchase the devices, they often do what you call jailbreaking, where you can get apps like Titanium tv, Morpheus, Mobdro, Torrents, etc. These apps allow you to watch movies while they are still in theaters or live tv without having to pay for it. Usually on apps like Torrents and Morpheus the movies pirated, and illegally obtained and posted to theses sites. For example, the movie Deadpool, produced by marvel was released in theaters February 12, 2016 with a box office total of 783.1 million USD and was illegally downloaded millions of times and was one of the 10 most illegally downloaded movies of 2016, according TorrentFreak, a site that gives statistics and information about illegal streaming services like Torrents.

          Another way audience consumption is changing throughout time is, people are starting to turn to legal streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney plus, etc. You get some of the content that you’d receive from regular cable or movies after they no longer show in movie theaters, in return viewers must pay a fee every month. The fee varies of which subscription you purchase. Since these services often cost less that regular cable and its mobile and easy to access many people often wait for a specific show or movie to be released on these apps instead of just going directly to see them. Many times, these types of services provide their own original content, whether it’s a show or a movie, and the original can be often preferred more than the movies in theaters or shows on tv. Take a look at the Netflix original show Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, Madness; which was released March 6^th, 2020. Netflix just released the statistic report on April 21^st, 2020 showing that in the little amount it was released it already gained around 64 million viewers. According to Kasey Moore in the article Every Viewing Statistic Netflix Has Released So Far (April 2020) on the site What’s on Netflix.

Lastly, another choice that affects audience consumption is cable tv alternatives. Sling, Philo, Fubo tv, Hulu, YouTube tv, PlayStation tv, etc. are all examples of cable tv alternatives where you can pick and choose which channels you want to pay for and just pay your monthly fee. Why this seems like a better alternative to regular cable and movie theaters is because it not as expensive as regular cable, and get to choose which channels you want, instead of having to pay for a specific plan. When you pay for certain premium channels like HBO, Sho Max, Starz, etc. most movies that were just in theaters are eventually released on these channels. According to Forbes and the statistics that Sling tv released, from January 1, 2016 to December, 2016, there was a reported 27% growth in hours watched per day.

As you can see, how audience consumption changes over time is its been made more accessible. Since its been made more accessible, it slightly eliminates the need to use traditional forms of audience consumption like cable tv and movie theaters. I feel that later on in time, these platforms will further effect audience consumption as they grow and expand.