电视特别报告 毕业论文外文翻译.docVIP

A special report on television Changing the channel Television is adapting better to technological change than any other media business, says Joel Budd (interviewed here) ?Apr 29th 2010 ONE evening last year Steve Purdham noticed something odd(奇怪). The flow of data into and out of We7, a British music-streaming website he runs, had abruptly（突然地） slowed. An hour later it returned to normal. Such a sharp fluctuation （波动）usually means a server is malfunctioning（失灵）—a potentially ruinous problem. But when engineers checked the computer system they found nothing wrong. So what could have happened between 8pm and 9pm on a Saturday night to cause such a sudden drop in use? Suddenly it dawned on Mr Purdham: “Britain’s Got Talent” was on television. ? At its peak that show drew 68% of all British TV viewers and notched up the biggest audience for any programme since 2004, when the English football team played Portugal in the European championship. It also turned Susan Boyle, a middle-aged Scot, into an international star. Video of Miss Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream” ricocheted around the internet and caught the attention of news outlets. The singer became a fixture of talk shows and tabloid newspapers, which dubbed her “SuBo”. Her first album sold more quickly in America than any other by a female artist since Nielsen Soundscan began tracking music sales in 1991. ? When it comes to mobilising （动员）a mass audience, nothing can touch television. On February 7th this year 106m Americans watched the New Orleans Saints defeat the more favoured Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. The nation spent more time glued to that one match than it spent on YouTube, the most popular video-streaming website, during the entire month, according to ComScore. Remarkably, television can deliver these huge audiences even though it provides more choice than ever. ? In 1992 Bruce Springsteen, a rocker from New Jersey, released a song called “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)”. There are now hundreds o