You're Watching Less TV 769
NickFusion writes "With a plethora of online games, chat, IM, email and, well, Slashdot, who's got time to watch television? Evidently, not men ages 18-34. The NY Times (free reg, etc) takes a look at the issue and comes to conclusions that will shock, I say shock, the average Slashdot reader. Meanwhile, Fox Broadcasting Corp. is calling for a recount. Disclosure: I'm quoted in the NY Times article, and so is one Rob Malda. Mom will be so proud!"
No hurry.. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's cheaper than a TiVo and I get to keep stuff permanently. Also, I can enjoy The Sopranos and (before it was canceled..) Jeremiah without having to cough up $$$ for the expensive channels.
I can agree (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was in high school, I had much more free time to just veg out in front of the TV AND there seemed to be a better selection of things on (ST:TNG...BUFFY!). Cable networks are where it's at for decent entertainment.
Then of course the problem becomes the exorbitant rates cable companies want ($72.50/month for basic "digital" + HBO where I'm from. Fuck all that). But that's a rant for another time.
How long? (Score:1, Interesting)
Does it count all the episodes I download. (Score:5, Interesting)
Few bittorrent sites, supranova.org, torrentz.com, and an irc.irchighway.net network later and I've dropped completely off their "This group watches TV" radar, when the fact is I have over half a terabyte of TV.
TV Shows on DVD (Score:5, Interesting)
What should they expect? (Score:5, Interesting)
Give people TV programs worth watching if you want them to watch TV.
It's a cultural change (Score:5, Interesting)
I have noticed that I have almost stopped watching TV altogether not neseccarily because I don't like what's on, but because I don't feel like planning my day around what I want to watch. Sometimes, when I happen to be doing nothing, I will watch the Daily Show, but even a show as funny as that isn't really worth planning my evening around it.
Re:Fox... Why am I not surprised (Score:5, Interesting)
Quitting TV and turning to pr0n (Score:3, Interesting)
There was also a report by Harris Interactive, that while 84% of college students have TVs, 91% have PCs [itfacts.biz].
What is this "t.v." you speak of? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a truly heady experience and one I heartily recommend. Being able to pull down the entertainment you want, when you want it is going to change the way things work at a very basic level. Media executives should be scrambling to figure out how to switch to a subscription model before their ad dollars dry up.
Re:No hurry.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I repeatedly find myself asking what was the point in getting that.
Re:Online News (Score:2, Interesting)
I've always thought: If something so important was happening, that i had to know about it _right_now_, then someone will have posted it on slashdot.
So I just come here instead.
Case in point:
WTC being hit - slashdot
US going to war - slashdot
Space Shuttle Columbia - slashdot
47 hours of live round the clock coverage of each of the above events (most of which is old news anyhow) - cnn
I don't get cnn for a reason.
Haha, this is funny (Score:2, Interesting)
I would much rather play Enemy Territory then watch some poor asian geek sing Ricky Martin!
She bangs, She bangs!
-asoap
I concur (Score:4, Interesting)
1)Reality TV
2)Scifi cancelled Farscape
Re:TV Shows on DVD (Score:2, Interesting)
0890795875906787
San Diego joins a growing trend among U.S. cities using the power of eminent domain -- the government's ability to lawfully seize property -- to tyrannize politically weak individuals. In a recent well-publicized case, for instance, Donald Trump conspired with Atlantic City officials to level a block of family businesses so that he would have more room next to his casino for a parking lot. Just as the ballpark developers did in San Diego, Trump turned to unscrupulous city officials to gain by force what he could not get by private negotiation. Fortunately, these victims were aided by the charity of aggressive lawyers who blocked Trump's gambit.
Although always a violation of property rights, traditionally the eminent domain power was limited to and employed for strictly public purposes such as roads, utilities, and military use. Courts did not allow government to take, for example, a corner mom-and-pop gas station solely to turn it over to McDonalds for redevelopment. In 1983, when the state of Hawaii took vast tracts of land from a small minority of private owners and resold it to the "general public," the U.S. Court of Appeals declared it "a naked attempt" to take private property and correctly identified it as "majoritarian tyranny." Unfortunately, in 1984, the Supreme Court disagreed.
Ever since, emboldened mayors and city councilmen have seized property in greater quantity for increasingly specious purposes. In Texas, the homes of 117 residents were bulldozed to make room for a shopping mall. In Detroit, hundreds of residents and businesspeople lost their homes and businesses so that GM could build a new plant. And elsewhere in San Diego an auto repair shop, hardware store, and carpet business were recently forced to close so that a Price Club could claim their land.
Meanwhile in Norway... (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess the sheer stupidity of TV programs and the TV hosts in general (sure, there are exceptions) have finally taken its toll in the TV business. Personally I hate having my intelligence insulted (mmm, make sure there are no typos there now...) and so do many others.
The trend started a few years ago, as trends are want to. Prior to a media conference there was a poll where people were asked if given the chioce of dumping either the TV or the PC, what would they chose? The majority would dump the TV.
Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Of particular disdain is that in order to have the programming loud enough to hear, the commercials are so loud they hurt your ears. Or you can have the commercials at the right volume and strain to hear the programming, if at all. Pop ups killed themselves when they were abused, and thats what tv does with commercials that are significantly louder than the programming. Whatever happened to sound leveling technology?
Re:Tivo... (Score:4, Interesting)
If cost is an issue, then build your own is probably the way to go. There are some interesting projects out there like MythTV that look pretty impressive.
With an Internet connection and some scripts I think you can download programming schedules that make the home-brew devices as useful as a TiVo. Believe me, having reliable scheduling information and automating the recording is useful. It was bliss moving from stacks of tapes, pre-recorded with 10 minute slop intervals on the end, poor quality, to the TiVo.
I paid US$250 about 3 years ago for the service and invested more money in bigger harddrives, time in upgrading, to get my TiVo adequately useful for me. I didn't mind throwing the money to TiVo at the time for the lifetime service; I don't think they were making huge amounts on the hardware sales and they did a pretty nice job with the software.
Re:TiVO Effect (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:TiVO Effect (Score:2, Interesting)
Why? Because it's boooooring, that's why. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I bet same thing happened to newspapers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Business Opportunity (Score:5, Interesting)
What do I want? I want to drive down to the video store and rent these. I heard "24" was good, I wouldn't mind renting the first season over a couple weekends. I never got to see Dr Who as a kid - I would love to rent those. I have seen a few series in the rentals (like south park) but not that many. Of course blockbuster only has so much floor space, and can only have so many DVD's, so why don't they have one megawarehouse per city that is full of all sorts of hard to find movies and episodes. Advertise it in the normal outlets and work it like inter-library loan.
Of course, another solution would be a legit download service, but since there is no way to inforce the rental concept, it would be purchase only if they were willing to do it at all, and at that price point it wouldn't earn my business. So mega-rentals.
Re:Oh really, swan? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Internet and diversity. (Score:2, Interesting)
Unlike television, where only the shows that get the go-ahead to be produced are broadcast. The broadcasting companies are usualy only interested in producing something based on something else with a proven track-record and are less likely to innovate. They try to make it to appeal to as many viewers as possible. Whereas web-pages are just made by someone wanting to share their own brand of 'entertainment' with like-minded people.
In other words, the Internet is helping people break out of the tyranny of popular culture being shoved down our throats by the TV. Once people have tasted this freedom to like what they want to like, they are less likely to go back to the TV.
Re:What is this "t.v." you speak of? (Score:1, Interesting)
Stargate is not even shown on TV in my country. If someone at Hollywood would charge about a buck or two per episode, I'd gladly pay it. Right now I just download the stuff, at 350MB/episode, it takes me around 15 minutes to download one (yay for dorm bandwidth). And that's DVD-rips with AC3 sound. Someone, please, take my cash and give me a complete library of everything ever broadcasted! I don't even have a TV, and have zero interest in getting one.
Re:30 and no TV (Score:3, Interesting)
On the infrequent occasions I see some serial television -- usually when visiting relatives or friends -- and I'm always shocked by how obnoxious it is now. Huge watermarks, commercials in the middle of programming, and completely brain-dead content. I don't miss it even one little bit.
I used to enjoy my share of tv, but when most of the sci-fi shows I liked got canceled and reality TV started to take over, it didn't take much for me to lose interest.
I also agree with you on the issue of backlash. I don't think not watching any serial television makes me better than anyone who does -- by all means, do what you enjoy, I just really don't enjoy it and find it hard to believe now that I ever did. What's funny is how many people I know who watch a lot of TV and complain ceaselessly about how crappy it is. "God this show sucks. It's so stupid. Why am I watching it?" Why indeed? Yet, mention you don't watch any yourself and they compare you to the Onion Doesn't Own a TV Guy.
I'd like to say something pretentious and highbrow like "I'd rather spend my time with a good book," but usually I don't.
I do (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't like commercials in the middle of shows so much, but can tolerate product placement. I think more shows will head that way. They pretty much have to!
Re:TV isn't worth it anymore (Score:3, Interesting)
Why do we need "channels" or networks anyway? That's a concept that will soon become obsolete. At some point we'll be getting our programming a la carte (as discussed in another article the other day) on something resembling a pay-per-view basis. It's happening in music, and it'll happen in video entertainment as well...
Demographics (Score:5, Interesting)
You've unknowingly hit on a very fascinating sub-world of advertising, the "target demographic." If you want to know who the networks think are watching, then pay attention to the commercials. This is actually one of my morbid curiosities. I sometimes get a kick out of flipping to some outrageous, twisted show, just to see the commercials and see who the network thinks is watching. Sometimes its funny, sometimes its scary.
For example. What kind of commercials do you see during "The Apprentice?" I would think that a show like that would appeal to men, so I would expect to see manly commercials. Yet if you notice, you'll see that there are a surprisingly high number of commercials for feminine hygiene products, cleaning products (whose commercials always feature women, exclusively, by the way - so much for equal contributions in the home and eliminating stereotypes, eh? Where are the men in those commercials? At work? Is that what we're supposed to conclude?), and vaccuum cleaners.
Now flip over to SpikeTV. I guarantee you'll never see a maxipad commercial there.
Finally, one last, even more revealing example. I was home sick from work the other day, and had the TV on. To entertain my little voyeuristic interest, I had it on FOX for a while. Examining FOX's target demographic is among the most easiest, funniest, and scariest, all rolled into one. You can immediately tell that FOX caters to the heavily conservative, religious audience, with low income and a very gossipy nature. The shows they run during the daytime are trashy talk shows and court "reality" shows with lots of yelling. The commercials are even more revealing. Lawyers come on once or twice every commercial break asking if you've been injured. Apparently, if you've been hurt, even through your own stupid fault, they'll find someone else to blame (and, of course, to sue).
Scads of credit counseling/consolidation commercials. Lots of ads pitching trade school or diploma programs. Apparently, the demographic that is home during the weekdays, watching FOX is poor, uneducated, conservative, voyueristic, and looking to get rich quick.
I don't do it often, but when I do watch TV, I enjoy trying to read between the lines and see what networks and advertisers really think of their viewers. It can be quite enlightening.
Re:I bet same thing happened to newspapers... (Score:1, Interesting)
TV may not be so lucky. TV doesn't actually add as much as you may think to radio. It takes away quite a bit in fact, since it's not portable. The internet is MORE ubiquitous than TV can be, so just maybe TV will eventually totally die.
Free PORN for all (Score:5, Interesting)
The NYT article states that
TV networks are expensive, actors, satellites, cameras, etc all paid for by advertising, having to buy a TV to watch it all, etc, yet it's all free to me the consumer.
Porn sites are much cheaper to run and seriously less to produce content. I doubt any porn star gets a Million a pop.
OK, so we know where the guys are, it's cheaper to operate, plus you can even determine if they saw and/or clicked on your ad.
QED
Advertisers should pay porn sites and they should all be free. Free porn brought to you by Doritos, Mountain Dew, and the new Mitsubishi.
Re:TV isn't worth it anymore (Score:3, Interesting)
The first question was "How many hours of radio did you listen to in the last week?"
I thought long and hard about it. I got on the subway and... put on my mp3 player. I got home and I
"None."
It was hilarious how taken aback he seemed at this answer, he undoubtably was expecting a big number, considering the amount of time I took to come to my conclusion. "None at all?"
"Nope... haven't listened to the radio all week. Last week... none too. Any more questions?"
"Umm, no."
I really don't watch TV or listen to the radio, but with the internet, I seriously don't feel like I'm out of the pop culture loop. I read articles on the occaisonal "big" TV show -- the ones people actually talk about, like The Apprentice -- so I don't sound like I have no idea what's going on, but I really just don't have any need to actually waste my time with crappy ad-filled television or three-song-deep radio station playlists.
Re:Demographics (Score:4, Interesting)
While there's certainly some truth to the target demographic angle, it must also be considered that a lot the ads you're going to see on cable, especially smaller cable stations, are after the cheap rates more than the target demographic. Target demographics are for much more for million-dollar Super Bowl ads than they are for buying cheap spots in bulk (ever notice the same ad gets run on almost every break on some channels?)
Also: cable providers also sell ad spots on some channels to local advertisers. I suspect these are done with no concern for targeting at all, given I've seen the same spot everywhere, and again, several times an hour...
Re:Trolling? Or just thieving? (Score:3, Interesting)
And the only reason people do this is a combination of impatience and television companies not developing the technology to deliver advertisment-free programs via the internet on a per-episode basis for a small ($1/episode or so) fee.
When people do things like this, then TV companies shouldn't be spending their time bitching and whining about copyright and spending their money on lawyers. They should be working out ways to screw money out of folks to allow the consumers to do what they're going to do anyway.
It's called marketing.
What does TV offer? (Score:4, Interesting)
2. News -- Nearly a joke at this point. I cringe at the thought of watching any TV news and do so at this point only when I don't have control of the remote. (Normally I still have control of my feet luckily and proceed to leave the room at that point.)
3. Ads -- Wow, here is a big suprise. People don't care to subject themselves to countless ads about stuff they may or may not want to buy. Small wonder TiVo and the likes do so well.
4. Sports -- While this catagory could be lumped in with entertainment and news it really can be considered almost seperate to a degree. It's one of TV's few saving graces as sports fans can watch things that might otherwise not be able to see.
You're right and you're wrong (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm completely the opposite. I rarely watched TV before TiVo because I felt like nothing was ever on, so why should I have to flip through channels to find it? With TiVo, I rarely miss a Daily Show episode (that's at least 22 minutes more than I usually watched because I'd miss it somehow), and I've discovered at least half a dozen other shows that I didn't know I liked. I watch more TV now than I did before. When I am bored, the TiVo always has at least a dozen STTNG, Buffy, Simpsons, Futurama, or Family Guy episodes sitting around to peruse.
So I think it largely depends on your viewing habits pre-PVR. The only downside now, I guess, is that my wife feels out of the loop when people at work discuss funny commercials. Then she realizes that it was during a lameass reality TV show, and she feels better.
The big picture... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:the 61 minute hour (Re:TiVO Effect) (Score:3, Interesting)
As for the 40-minute shows. They had a "supersized" Scrubs - normally the shows are 20 minutes without commercials. I think Scrubs (supersized) was 23 minutes without commercials.
Re:If they would stop cancelling my shows... (Score:3, Interesting)
How sad is it that even with free admission I don't want to go to the movie theatre?
Re:30 and no TV (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Tivo... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not having to dedicate a power sucking ($$$) PC to catch tv shows is nice too.
Re:What needs to happen, IMHO. (Score:2, Interesting)
You reminded me of my recent rediscovery of Roseanne on Nick@Night.
Now that I have my own kids, I can't believe how funny and real that show really is.
Re:Tivo... (Score:3, Interesting)
Troll ebay for a used Panasonic showstopper. They are a replayTV unit with lifetime subscription. I bought a used one for line $160, upgraded the drive to a 120 gig for another $80 or so. For $240 (less than the $299 sub. on a new replayTv unit), you get a 120-hour (extended, i.e., low, quality) unit with lifetime sub. Sure, doesn't have the new broadband features, but it works great. Wife and son LOVE the thing...