I think TV series also became so popular because they can explore story lines and characters so much better with that much time, over a capped 2 hour film. Imagine trying to get some of the big TV series that are at 5+ series into a two hour film. Impossible. It actually kind of makes films seem lackluster now in comparison. I can't remember seeing a film in the last decade that I watched and thought...wow...perfection. I always feel like they could have done something better, or spent more time on XYZ etc.
TV series actually take it to the extreme now, of having so much time to explore detail, that they are in danger of becoming too dull, being dragged out due to popularity and presumably money. There are many episodes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead that I've had to really motivate myself to carry on sticking with.
In terms of how we watch TV now. I've almost become incapable of tolerating live TV (unless sport or BBC) due to adverts. I watched something the other day on one of the Discovery channels I have in my package, and a hour program had 6 x 5min 30sec ad breaks. That's only 27 minutes of the actual program, which assumes you want to see the same bits repeated again and again. i.e. They show you "what's coming up" and then after another 5minutes and 30 seconds, you get to watch that actual section having had it spoilt for you already. Utter dross.
The quality of productions I think has gone down on average if you look at the utter amount of rubbish on TV, as it drowns out the ground breaking new/good/quality stuff.
I mean look at kids TV. The stuff kids have on these days is utterly awful compared to kids TV of the 80s and 90s in my opinion. I guess there is so much choice, it's become a quantity thing, with a distinct lack of quality. I guess it's about queuing up all the good stuff and watching as and when you can. That's what we try to do.
Some of the reality TV stuff that is on I find unbelievable that people watch and enjoy it. Stuff like Big Brother and Celebrity Get me out of here. Also the mind numbing soap operas like Eastenders and Cori with their stupid predictable and unrealistic story lines. If only they got out of the habit and explored other things. I think of things like that Jeremy Kyle and it just makes me cringe that people obviously want to watch that still and enjoy it. Wow.