The word Television is from the ancient Greek word  “tèle” means “far” and the Latin word “visio” means “sight”. Television is a device or a form of technology that receives and transmits moving images or otherwise known as “movies” that are sometimes monochrome or black and white and at other times in full color.

The moving images that it receives from a nearby broadcasting station is projected in three dimensions by the cathode ray tube or “CRT” and it also has an audio decoder to reproduce the sounds from the transmitted radio signals through the audio speakers. It is mainly used for entertainment, information and education. It is also referred to as a television set, television transmission or television program.

Unlike the internet where it is still struggling to compete with TV even nearing the completion of its third decade since it was made for public use; TV took over print media and radio broadcasting overnight! The world quickly catch on and before we knew it, TV had become a global phenomenon. Today there are approximately 4.7 billion units of television throughout the world and they range from the old cathode ray tubes to the flat LCD and plasma screens and all the way up to the latest LED curved TVs. In fact, there are more TV sets than computers in the world today and it seems computers and the internet has yet to surpass TV’s dominance in the mainstream media world.

Here are some of the latest innovations on television today:

The various innovations that companies have developed today makes television almost unrecognizable except for developers and providers adding the suffix “TV” at each new idea that they conceived. Apparently it’s no longer just about a broadcasting station and the box with moving pictures in it! In order to understand what these innovations are allow me to break it down to you in bite sizes. TV nowadays could be…

1) 3DTV – is a semi-total immersion television system that uses multiple techniques such as multi-view display, stereoscopic display,  2D-plus-depth, and other forms of 3D display which makes the object on the TV screen appear to have dept and form just like real objects are. In other words it makes viewing movies on a 3DTV seem realistic! It is one notch below holograms as you will need a specially-designed 3D glasses in order to see the images projected from this type of TV set. The benefits of having a 3DTV is that it makes learning more fun for kids who wants to learn about space and the universe or what’s in our oceans at the comfort of their living rooms. Watching movies that are heavily incorporated with CGI (computer generated imaging) takes you right in the middle of it, which is a completely different experience than just watching the same movie from an ordinary TV. One way 3D images are produced is by offsetting the images and separating them to each eye (left and right), then use passive color filters and a light source to project the image in a singularity all the while the 3D glasses help solidify the images from the viewer’s perspective.

2) Cable TV – CATV or cable television is a system that delivers TV programs through the use of coaxial or fiber-optic cables. Those who wish to subscribe to TV programs offered by CATV companies has to pay for them and that’s why cable television has been a major success back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The benefits of subscribing to a cable TV network is that you’ll have hundreds of channels and vast TV programs to watch all day everyday; while the disadvantage is that due to the fact that TV shows and movies are sometimes played more than 3 times a day, you will get bored eventually. The take-away is that when you have a busy schedule and you absolutely need to catch up with the episodes of your favorite TV shows or when there’s some very interesting shows that you need to take down notes from.

3) HDTV – or otherwise known as high definition TV or hi-def TV is a modern innovation that came out in the latter years of the first decade of the new millennium. HDTVs has a resolution display between 720p – 1080p which is basically 0.92 megapixels to 2.07 megapixels and that’s like more than 5 times normal! In February 2008 the FCC ordered all TV broadcasting frequency in the United States be set to high definition standards, because the federal government will use all the lower bandwidths exclusively. Perhaps the best benefit that HDTV brings is that you won’t ever have fuzzy signals again.

4) Smart TV – is a cross-between TV and internet as it has the attributes of both. Examples of Smart TV include Apple TV, Amazon TV, Google TV, MeeGo, Plex, Roku, Samsung, TiVo and more! Companies that offer Smart TV programming requires users to buy a set-top-box which is some sort of a receiver (much like cable and satellite TV systems) where you can get exclusive access to paid TV programs. Besides gaining access to TV programs you can also get games, internet access and special offers through the Smart TV vendor which is even better than ordinary TV.

5) Satellite TV – it’s  almost very similar to cable TV except for 2 things: a) network coverage can extend beyond the US, and b) providers always broadcast in HD bandwidth which is very desirable for subscribers. TV programs may or may not be the same as cable TV providers offers and severe weather conditions can disrupt satellite broadcast which is an obvious weakness for satellite TVs. Satellite TV providers also offer a bundled service that includes TV, internet and telephone service.

6) Internet TV – is also called Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) where mainstream media TV and alternative TV programs are converted into digital signals and are offered for either free or paid subscription over the internet through video streaming technology. Advantages of internet TV is that you can access it from your desktop home computer, your laptop computer, your tablet computer and even your smartphone. And what’s not to like about mobile TV watching your favorite shows while you’re on the go? Absolutely nothing! Another thing that you may like about internet TV is that you can participate in their forum discussions in real time as a fan and sometimes even interact with the stars and other people involved in creating and developing these shows.

7) PPTV – another emerging digital television is known as peer-to-peer television or PPTV. It is very popular in Asia, particularly in China, Korea, Thailand and other nearby countries – this is because the technology was developed in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. For now the system is mostly compatible with Microsoft’s Windows OS (operating system) and you can watch TV shows, movies, sports, news and other special coverages right off of the browser. If it will be marketed worldwide, then we may see it soon on other platforms.

Other possible future TV innovations include holographic imaging and virtual reality TV although it may take years for us to see it into fruition as the marketing aspect of these innovations is such a huge obstacle to get around with. Still, the number of innovations that has so far been developed are leaps compared to what we had just a decade ago which are very impressive. Whatever your preference is you can be sure that you will absolutely enjoy these wonderful new innovations for TV.

Fandango, mostly known for its ticketing service on the web and for mobile devices for cinema viewings, has also been creating its own TV shows. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday last week, their service announced that its TV shows will soon, in the coming months hopefully, be showing on the Internet streaming service Hulu on a dedicated channel.

This is Fandango’s first partnership with an on-demand video streaming service that runs on subscriptions.

Fandango’s movie focused shows will be featured on a new channel on Hulu. The awards-focused interview show called Frontrunners will also be included. Within the first three months of 2015, the new channel is scheduled to go live. It is not only available to paying subscribers, but to anyone who visits Hulu’s site.

The vice president of business development and strategy, Mark Young, said that this is the next step in the company’s strategy to create videos that can be played on “any form factor or platform”.

“Our goal is to be wherever there’s conversations about movies, with partners that have scale and are in the right context,” he said.

Fandango could strike similar deals with other similar Internet TV streaming services. Since Hulu is largely about TV discovery, Young said it makes sense for Hulu to be a starting point. Fandango is owned by NBCUniversal which also backs Hulu.

Young said that by creating shows Fandango can move beyond being a simple utility. It gives certain benefits as it leads people to buy movie tickets from the company and helps bring in some money from ads.

Fandango say that views of original video content on the service has increased by 38 percent year-over-year.
So even though that is a really impressive growth figure, this new strategy might be paying of, and with new partnerships they might increase the views even more.

Latest TV searches:

In their ongoing competition in the subscription streaming market with Netflix, underdogs Amazon will look to initiate any advantage they can get, even if it is the sum total of $1.

Though not quite that insignificant, their latest plan is to attempt to lure customers in over Netflix by offering slightly cheaper 4K streaming content on Prime Instant Video, with the claim that when they begin introducing Ultra HD titles to their platform, it will be at no additional cost to consumers.

With Netflix currently charging users a slightly higher amount on their pricing scale for 4K access above regular HD, it is something which could prove to be a slight advantage for Amazon in their battle for subscribers, but there will still be the overhanging issue of the number of people currently with access to 4K, and their opinions on whether or not Amazon’s slate of content is preferable to Netflix’s.

Amazon Digital Video’s vice-president Michael Paull said of the plans: “Amazon Prime members will have access to a great selection of Ultra HD content on Prime Instant Video at no additional cost.”

Joining ‘unlimited photo storage’ (Europe-only) as potential draws for users to Amazon Prime (a collective of retail and digital media services) or just Instant Video over Netflix, will slightly cheaper 4K work with a relative degree of effectiveness in their competing markets around the world?

When deciding a TV show has performed well enough to deserve more episodes being broadcast in the current television season, a network will usually make a formal announcement as such relating to the lucky show (or at a push, 2 shows) that are getting the treatment. ABC, though, have this weekend chosen a single announcement to confirm the renewal of no less than 8 pieces of their programming.

The season extensions will have a positive effect on the episode counts of medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and sitcoms Modern Family and The Middle with two new installments each, whilst new sitcom Black-ish and newly-moved show The Goldbergs have also been cleared for two more, all of which are taking their seasons up to 24.

In addition, crime drama Castle has received one more episode to go up to a 23-episode 6th season, whilst fantasy drama Resurrection takes likewise to go to a 14-part 2nd run.

It was also confirmed by Adam Horowitz, the co-creator of Once Upon a Time, that his fairy tale-based drama is to show an extra hour of content this year too, with the broadcast scheduled for 16 November becoming a double-bill, with the chain effect from the network’s request giving the show an extra 23rd episode to its 4th season.

Whilst no formal statement on the matter has been made by ABC themselves, it is fairly clear that the shows they have chosen to extend are amongst their best-performing when it comes to ratings and critics, so will their move to capitalise on that success be vindicated. Any new content has to be better than re-runs at least…

Netflix are currently on an unstoppable roll when it comes to commissioning new content, with their latest announcement seeing their collection of original animated comedy series doubled to 2.

New series F Is for Family will continue the fledgling relationship the streaming service has with stand-up American stand-up comedian Bill Burr, who will be releasing a stand-up special on the site (called I’m Sorry You Feel That Way) on 5 December.

The animated show is noted as being introduced as a 6-episode first season with half-hour episodes, each one based on the comedy of Burr, with a target launch date of some point in 2015, joining the second season of Netflix’s first animated comedy BoJack Horseman in premiering somewhere in that year.

Burr is to provide the voice Frank Murphy, the father in a dysfunctional American family in the 1970s. Also confirmed as voice acting are Laura Dern as wife “Sue”, and Justin Long as oldest son “Kevin”. Working behind-the-scenes (or at least behind-the-voices) on the show will be Vince Vaughn (Dodgeball: The Ultimate Underdog Story) as an executive producer, and production companies Gaumont International Television and Wild West Television.

Burr said of the show: “F Is for Family is the show I’ve always wanted to do. It captures all the characters of my childhood the way I remember it to be. Fortunately Mike Price and everyone at Wild West seem to know the same people I knew growing up. It’s going to be a lot of fun to tell these stories.”

Vaughn noted: “Bill is the funniest, most original voice out there. We’re all excited to be working with Netflix on this project.”

Netflix’s ‘vice-president of original content’ Cindy Holland added: “Bill Burr’s stand-up specials are wildly popular for us worldwide, and we’re looking forward to presenting his at once nostalgic and unflinching take on the family comedy in this original animated series.”

While F Is for Family has a great platform from which to follow BoJack Horseman into success, will its lead character of Frank Murphy be even close to measuring up to the lead character of the only other 70s-themed animated comedy show currently around?