I wrote recently here that Google is likely to become one of our biggest paymasters in the future of the TV production industry, but this still sounds like crystal ball-gazing, or science fiction. Right now, most predictions for TV watching in the future, other than the licence funded BBC, are based on viewers paying a little – or a lot – for what they want to watch. And it looks like they want better than they’re getting just now.

When television viewers can choose what they want to view and when, they have less tolerance for low-budget, vapid TV wallpaper. Adam Curtis, maker of The Power Of Nightmares and Century of the Self, recently told C21 Media that the BBC iPlayer is one of the things changing the state of play for documentary production, because people can watch docs again and again, which means they can be “as complicated as you want.” This discerning viewing goes far beyond BBC iPlayer – any digital TV box with a recording facility gives viewers the same power of involvement and will be the kiss of death to patronising telly.

David Cuff is Virgin Media’s Commercial Director, and I recently heard him tell a room full of interactive TV producers that, “there is a flight towards quality. People are watching better quality programmes, for which they are prepared to pay”. But this isn’t just about affluent viewers getting the good stuff. We can still do the traditional thing and pay through our shopping bills by watching adverts, they’ll just be better targeted to each of us. Advertisers don’t really have a problem with smaller audiences if they can get a better focus on just the people they really want to reach.

To see how this works already, check out the 18-month old British online broadcaster, Blinkbox. It currently has about 800,000 viewers, and will probably double that to 1.6 million by next year. This will already make it a more popular channel than Five or MTV. It only operates on the internet just now, but it will probably work on other platforms including digital TV in the near future, which will give it a lot more reach.

It works because it can supply a lot of good quality TV production in a fast and easy format, and because it will be able to work out what you like and give you more of it. I expect Blinkbox or a company very much like it to grow very fast over the next few years.

Blinkbox’s business plan is absolutely dependent on the quality of the audience it attracts. Only 10% of its income comes from viewers actually paying to see programmes and films. The remaining 90% of revenue comes from advertising and sponsorship deals. Even in the longer run, Blinkbox only expects direct payments by viewers to account for up to half of its income. So it must deliver to advertisers’ links to selected viewers who match the right profiles for their brands.

This stuff should make an ongoing difference to your working life. Most television programme-makers of all grades went into the business in order to make memorable productions that would have real impact on the viewers watching them. Many of those same production people have found themselves working on programmes shallower than they want them to be, made for the lowest possible cost, on the basis that people will still watch them anyway.

TV has appeared to be increasingly dumbed-down and compromised for at least the last 15 years, and it has looked like nothing could reverse this process. Maybe the new ‘Flight to Quality’ is the answer. If more money flows into producing higher quality programmes because that is what the audience is demanding, then that is good news for you too.