22 Nov 2010

How Twitter is killing Channel Krish

Twitter is forcing me back into making “appointments to view”. It is forcing me to watch the boring bits, and the adverts, if I want to share my TV viewing experience with everyone else. Twitter could be killing off Channel Krish.

Over the last five years I have stopped watching everything except the news at the time it is broadcast. The PVR (Sky+, V+ or Freeview recorder) liberated me from the tyranny of the scheduler and let me create my own “Channel Krish” where I could watch what I wanted whenever I wanted. Most of the time Channel Krish has included a movie, a US show like The Event or Desperate Housewives, possibly a documentary or current affairs film and quite a lot of kids stuff. But its days could be numbered.

Channel Krish had great advantages besides time-shifting such as being able to speed through the boring bits (like the X Factor profiles, or most of the Sunday night show up until the results) and the adverts (although I usually forget I am watching time-shifted TV so end up watching them too). But this is changing. It started with the general election TV debates, where watching them with twitter open on an iPad or laptop transformed the experience. Now it is spreading to more general TV viewing. When I watch X Factor, Question Time or The Event time-shifted I feel like I’m missing out on the fun of watching it with my twitter friends. Chatting about the show online is quite different to talking over a TV show with whoever is in the room – which is just annoying. I’ve even tweeted about the show I’m watching in the vain and absurd hope that somebody else is, by coincidence, doing the same or still wants to talk about it. Of course they don’t – most TV is pretty ephemeral and once it has gone it has gone. All you get back on twitter is slightly irritated “that’s so last night” type responses.

Twitter is forcing me back into making “appointments to view”. It is forcing me to watch the boring bits, and the adverts, if I want to share my TV viewing experience with everyone else. Twitter could be killing off Channel Krish.

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