Anyone who follows the media business (or, ahem, works in it) knows well how hard that sector has it in a general economic downturn. But in an intriguing Boston Globe article imagining what an actual 21st-century Great Depression would look like, Drake Bennett raises an interesting point about the prospects for an entertainment medium that’s cheaper than ballgames, trips to the movies, or other escapes that were popular in the 1930s:
Above all, a depression circa 2009 might be a less visible and more isolating experience. With the diminishing price of televisions and the proliferation of channels, it’s getting easier and easier to kill time alone, and free time is one thing a 21st-century depression would create in abundance. Instead of dusty farm families, the icon of a modern-day depression might be something as subtle as the flickering glow of millions of televisions glimpsed through living room windows, as the nation’s unemployed sit at home filling their days with the cheapest form of distraction available.
None of which answers the question of who would advertise on that television, or for what. The rest of the article deals with matters besides TV, but it’s well worth reading, as a speculative picture of what a crisis would look like in a society where people don’t congregate publicly as often as they did seventy years ago. Virtual run on the bank, anyone?
Should that day come, remember Tuned In: the TV blog of choice for pencil salesmen and boxcar hoboes everywhere!