The Golden Age of teleivision

Right so there ahas been quite a bit of talk as of late, about this being the 'golden age of television' which I have to say, is rather ridiclous. Firstly how can we say that now is the golden age, TV barely 60 years old, and colour TV 40, so all we are really saying that TV today is better than it was 40 years ago, and that isn't saying anything huge.

Firstly there is a heck of a lot more TV around today, than there was 40 years ago, in the US alone there are hundreds of channels, and probably about 100 new shows released each year. The television business is booming, with huge amounts of pilots being developed, so yes television is better, but that is partly a numbers game.

Secondly with the huge amount of TV out there, standards certainly have gotten better, just due to increased competition. People may tend to say that shows in the 70's and 80's, where a rating of 30 or 40 was common, were better, as clearly everyone was watching them, but firstly there was no cable, only 3 broadcast channels and thus no competition. Audiences have become more fickle, with so much content, so much internet, our attention span has gotten shorter, and we demand better, if not, there's plenty else to entertain us. So television is getting better, but that doesn't nessiraly mean that we are in a golden age of TV.

One argument people make is that some channels such as HBO and showtime have a model that is designed around producing absolutely stunning content, with long production schedules, big budgets ect,   but I mean this is again like a game of numbers, there are some absolutly crap shows out there, so saying that just because there is quality (that sounds demeaning, there are definitely some great shows out there), doesn't mean we're in the golden age of television.

Also another thing people look at is the dominacne, 98% of americans own a TV, almost all of them have more than one, and cable, and large percentages have more advanced cable. Theres also about 35-40% of americans watching TV each night. While these are all great figures, I don't think this really justifies being called the golden age of television, its more to do with the meadium.

So while I definitly think this is a great time to be making TV and there is definitely some great TV being made, because of this new level of competitiveness surrounding TV, that doesn't necessarily make it the 'golden age of TV' and really I think you can only assign that tittle retrospectively, so this is a good age of TV, maybe even great, but not golden.