The proliferation of TV channels: A theory by Dale Wisely

[hathair_blath]

We could consistently get three channels out of the ol’ rabbit-ears in the living room- ABC, NBC, CBS, and when the weather was good we could get FOX. The TV in my parent’s room was hooked up to a bigger antenna, so we could get PBS in their room, but no FOX. (I’m not quite sure what was up with the local FOX station…it was in the same town as ABC and NBC.) Now my grandparents had cable. We were in hog heaven watching TV at their house. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Family Channel, old Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, and The Green Hornet episodes on FX…it was wonderful. Now Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are about worthless.

PBS was the afternoon cartoon stop. There was some nature show hosted by two brothers, then Arthur, then ZOOM. When FOX came in I got to watch Power Rangers, which was awesome. Saturday mornings there was Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Goof Troop, Gummy Bears, The Cowboys of Moo Mesa, REBOOT, and I’ve forgotten what all else. But those were the days!

I love it now how my little brother is “rediscovering” old shows my older brother and I used to watch. ABC Family runs Boy Meets World, Step By Step, and Full House. Fresh Prince is on Noggin. But he was so excited to tell us about this awesome “new” show he found.

[Martin_Milner]

@djm

There is no question that the internet is carving out huge hunks of time formerly spent watching tv or listening to radio (if you’re old enough to remember those days). And the tv and radio people know about this.

There’s a couple of web sites now available where you can stream your favourite tv shows from. These are actually being set up by the tv channel owners. They are making the same mistakes the music industry made - not allowing you to save or copy your shows. It will take some time to settle down, I think.

People still want programming for free without commercials, and the ability to select what and when. The program owners are determined to screw you for every penny you’re worth. The platform may be changing, but the players have not.

djm

Spot on DJM.

I work for an advertising ageny, though I’m actually on the finance side. Only this week the follwing email went round:

Is the digital revolution killing TV advertising?

X and Y (names removed for my security) are to debate whether the digital revolution is killing TV advertising.

X will argue that it is no surprise that the more savvy marketers are turning to the web instead of exclusively TV due to the freedom from time constraints, BACC regulations, lower media outlay and direct interactions or feedback from consumers. Y, on the other hand, will put forward the case that as evidence suggests, so far the shift to a digital world has made TV more effective and efficient.

Says X, “Unless TV radically changes the way it allows consumers to choose content and interact with it, TV companies will struggle to continue generating the revenue they have previously enjoyed.”

Says Y, “My guess is that new technology might change the nature of TV advertising a bit, but it won’t kill it, and it might even make it work better.”

So the advertisers and marketers are worried that we’re not watching enough TV.

With Dr Who off the air until the Christmas special, there’s only one show we’ll sit down specifically to watch all week - Heroes, which is now being aired on BBC2 (no adverts).

Of course we’ll check out the News and weather, but not at any specific time.

We usually watch a DVD if we want screen time, or possibly a program we’ve recorded and can zip through any advert breaks.

[djm]

Mind you, I really got a laugh out of the latest Mac tv commercial where they are dissíng MS Vista’s extreme, all-or-nothing approach to secure communications. http://youtube.com/watch?v=80sWifG40B0

“You are coming to a sad realization: Cancel or Allow?”

Priceless!

djm

[fyffer]

@mutepointe

my wife and i each have our own personal remotes for the same tv, that works for us. we also have seperate peanut butter, pop, ice cream, and toothpaste. this saves our marriage.

Now, if you had separate toilets (one w/seat up by default, one w/seat down), then I’d really be envious. Or better yet: separate bathrooms …

[Charlene]

@djm

@Charlene

but as long as the old TV works we’re not buying HDTV.

Unless I’ve misremembered, all tv signals in the USA will go digital in Feb 2008. You can keep your old tv, but you will need to get some form of digital interface (cable, satellite). The days of the rabbit ears will be over.

I don’t see any use of HDTV for watching tv, but for watching DVDs, and even old VHS tapes, I can’t think of anything I want more. Nothing fancy, of course. A 52" would be fine, thx.

djm

I know. We’ll see if we can watch anything at all, then probably get an adaptor so my husband can watch Seinfeld, Big Brother, Survivor . . . Of course, the best way to assure that something worth watching is aired will be for me to junk the TV set entirely! Then when I want it, I won’t have it.

[Wanderer]

@chrisoff

@buddhu

Get a grip, man.

Guess I’m a child of my times. That opening sequence is burned into my brain. It could be worse, my brother can recite the whole of Will Smith’s hit song “Boom! Shake the room”.

When I got my first tattoo, it took 3 and a half hours to ink, not including all the prep time and after-care instructions and stuff..

The entire time, I was laying back in the equivalent of a dentists chair, forced to sit through a French Prince of Bellaire marathon. Thanks for triggering my PTSD

[The_Weekenders]

I actually think tv quality has gone up recently, but of course, not during the summer, when its mostly contests and re-runs. I found myself resenting my tv time during the regular season this year.

Big-name directors and actors are into tv these days. it seems like their best work is on partial season-shows on the upper channels, like FX and USA.

At Casa de Weekender, the top show is Rescue Me, though it’s WAY too dirty for kids to even hear. I also like The Shield. And we have been Monk fans since the first year. New one on tonight, btw.

I haven’t watched a whole episode of the new Holly Hunter show, but I have been watching Burn Notice and it’s not bad. I really like that Donovan guy, ever since he played the guy with the accidental lobotomy. He’s a very good actor.

My sons and I, but not the other Weekender, like Man vs. Wild and we have also been “Dirty Jobs” fans for a long time. That show started here in the Bay Area, when Mike Rowe was on the “Evening Magazine” and had a “how do they do that?” segment.

As for regular season shows, I sorta like Numbers, though the actors are wearing thin. I really like 24, too.

For some reason, I can no longer stand LawnOrder of any ilk, though I used to really like CI. I don’t know why. Similarly, CSI has worn thin, all of 'em, mostly because of annoying characters. If I had to choose, I would probably still like the Vegas version, because of Grissom. I can barely look at Marg, tho. She really gets on my nerves.

[djm]

I can’t think of any American comedy or drama shows I have liked for the last twenty years except for a bit of Trek. I have no use for this crime scene stuff that seems to be choking the airwaves, nor for murder or mystery theatre stuff. I have liked a few BBC shows, but even those are few and far between. I don’t understand the label “reality show” when these are the most ridiculously contrived bore-fests on tv. I do like some of the amazing video shows and stuff with real footage taken from cop cars. That’s my idea of reality tv.

djm

[fearfaoin]

@The Weekenders

I actually think tv quality has gone up recently, but of course, not during the summer, when its mostly contests and re-runs. I found myself resenting my tv time during the regular season this year.

I’ve been impressed with what cable has been doing with Summer
TV recently. What is usually a wasteland is made less so by several
new episodes of (occasionally) interesting shows.

I understand HBO’s Flight of the Conchords is an excellent comedy
about musicians, but I’ll be danged if I’m giving Ted Turner yet
more of my money.

[The_Weekenders]

@fearfaoin

@The Weekenders

I actually think tv quality has gone up recently, but of course, not during the summer, when its mostly contests and re-runs. I found myself resenting my tv time during the regular season this year.

I’ve been impressed with what cable has been doing with Summer
TV recently. What is usually a wasteland is made less so by several
new episodes of (occasionally) interesting shows.

I understand HBO’s Flight of the Conchords is an excellent comedy
about musicians, but I’ll be danged if I’m giving Ted Turner yet
more of my money.

Yeah, I should have said “regular network” tv, because shows I like are on in the upper channels this summer.

I have never went over to the dark side and paid for HBO. They started showing the Sopranos on A&E and I caught up with it. I like it because they edit all the f- words out. I am pretty L7, so a lot of profanity makes me uncomfortable, even if the ideas are x-rated.

PS. The “Riches” was an odd show. For those abroad, it was a show about Travelling Folk, impersonating a wealthy family of somebody who had died without it being known to the authorities. It showed the insularity of the community, and the resentment and struggles by the protagonist family to distance themselves from that culture.

[Anstapa]

Three channels from Detroit 2, 4, and 7: Howdy Dowdy Show, Soup Sales, Pinkie Lee, Captain Kangeroo, Ed Sullivan, You Were There, Diana Shore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Roy Rogers, Mickey Mouse Club..original, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Today Show, Art Linkletter Show, As The Worlds Turns, Dragnet and on and on.

The reality shows..suck, the ultra competition show for top whatever..suck! I don’t have an extra 15 grand to just redo my bathroom.

Anstapa

[DCrom]

I work in digital TV (actually, making the chips needed to build HDTV sets, not production) so I often spend hours a day flipping channels. There are some gems out there, but there is also a lot of . . . organic waste.

Fortunately, unless I’m working on audio issues (not too often) I can leave the sound muted.

About all I’m willing to watch at home is the news, occasional cooking or travel shows, or - very rarely - part of Jay Leno’s monolog. I definitely watched more shows when I was a kid, back when we had a 19" B & W set that got about 2.5 channels.

Then again, when I was a kid I was willing to sit through shows like “Hee Haw” or “The Lawrence Welk Show” if that was what was on. Maybe we had higher pain thresholds back then?

[The_Weekenders]

@DCrom

Then again, when I was a kid I was willing to sit through shows like “Hee Haw” or “The Lawrence Welk Show” if that was what was on. Maybe we had higher pain thresholds back then?

We used to groan and roll our eyes when my stepmother put on Welk. Now, I watch it on Sat. night on PBS, sometimes to appreciate the overall musical quality, but also to be amused by the nukular hairstyles and surrealistic clothing.

PS. I think the Mitch Miller show was awesome. Follow the bouncing ball!

[Denny]

still too early for “Nyuk”, innit?

[izzarina]

I really, really love Lawrence Welk…but don’t tell. People might think I’m odd

[izzarina]

Our cable has like over 1000 channels, but that’s because for some odd reason, each channel is duplicated. So once you go through the channels, you get to go through them again until you get back to the beginning. It’s weird.

As for what I had as a kid…yeah, we had the typical 3 networks, plus 2 PBS channels and if the weather was fine, we could pull in a couple of channels from Québec. Sesame Street had French in it instead of the Spanish that most places have. It was really kind of strange for me the first time I saw Sesame Street with Spanish rather than French.

[Doug_Tipple]

When I was a kid, our family got our first black and white TV. When we first got the TV, we didn’t have an outside antenna, so my dad ran a wire up through the hot-air register in the ceiling and attached it to the steel bedsprings in the upstairs bedroom. Most of what we saw were a lot of test patterns on the TV screen, as the few stations that we could get good enough to watch had very limited programming. I became a walking TV guide in that I knew the names and times of all the shows during our normal viewing times. I remember being a lot more excited about watching TV than I am now.

[mutepointe]

hey doug:

i had older brothers who were walking tv guides too. i miss living with them.

[Anstapa]

@izzarina

I really, really love Lawrence Welk…but don’t tell. People might think I’m odd

Then you might, and I say might have enjoyed the Mitch Miller show with the words at the bottom of the screen and the bouncing ball to help you sing along.

Anstapa