TV is dying, says Vint Cerf one of the builders of the Internet and now an executive at Google. Perhaps Vint is saying this because he works at Google (which also owns YouTube). Or perhaps he really believes it. Hearing it come from Vint, however, makes it seem like he’s ready to officiate the funeral.

People have been saying this for years, however. In the last 1o to 20 years, TV ratings are down dramatically. And surveys of U.S. consumers show that more and more people are tuning into the Internet and avoiding TV. Looks like “lean forward” is beating “lean back”.

But I think it’s more accurate to say: “TV as we know it is dying”.

Consumers face more choices today than ever. Things like Internet video, DVD rentals, video-on-demand, and others are cannibalizing prime-time viewership. Cerf said that in the future almost everything you watch will be on-demand:

“85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time,” said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world’s largest search engine.

“You’re still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later.”

HDTVs are growing in popularity here in the U.S. and many people love to come home, turn on the TV and veg out for hours. It’s such a force of habit for many people.

Linear, live TV won’t disappear anytime soon, but things like Tivo and other DVRs are definitely changing how we view TV.

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