Is Live Media Dead?

When I was a kid Brent Mussberger ruled my Sundays. From the time I was five years old, I was hooked on The NFL Today on CBS. I used to love Mussberger's opening line: "You're looking live at..." (insert stadium here). You really felt like you were there - even though there were lots of "there's" and they were thousands of miles from Long Island.

There were lots of great sports and moments I saw live on TV when I was a kid. The Drive. The Buckner Ball. The Berlin Wall. It was a badge of honor to have seen event live - either on TV or, even better, in person. The older you are, the more events I bet you're proud to say saw live on TV. But something is happening. Live might be dead. It doesn't feel the same way it used to

Thanks to advances in digital technology we don't have the same need to see events live the way we once did. We're too busy. And we have lots of tools to time and place shift these events. We have DVRs, Slingboxes, podcasts and RSS. Sure, there are exceptions. Millions watched when Taylor Hicks was crowned American Idol. We still gather to watch the World Cup or the Super Bowl live. But these are communal experiences. They're more rare these days.

Have you noticed there aren't as many "Who Shot JR?" moments anymore? The world doesn't stop for live events the way it used to. So maybe "live" is dying?