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TV Ownership Declines For Second Time Since 1970
bs0d3 writes "Almost every year, the estimated number of U.S. households owning TV sets goes up. Until now. This year, for the second time since 1970, TV ownership has gone down; by about 1%. TV ownership among the key adult 18-49 demo also declined even steeper, down 2.7 percent and percentage of homes without a TV is at the highest level since 1975. The reasons behind this appear to be online media content and the recession."
Perhaps because everything on TV now is absolutely shite.
'If it sold, rinse and repeat it' -> the same principle corporations employ in everywhere else including game sector is employed the same in tv sector for a long time now. so, we get shows that are repetitions of each other, totally geared towards keeping high ratings than viewer satisfaction nomatter what the cost in the long run (hence shows like american idol), creative talent getting tired (writers) of having to produce content too frequent and starting mold-cast repetitions and ...... you get the idea.
Thats also a reason why there is so much piracy. Shit is not even worth paying cents. There is so few content that actually is worth it, and they are being bundled with 100s of useless crap in order to bump up prices and sell everything over those few shows. A good example is sports broadcasts (only for popular sports though) -> bundle sports broadcasts with 100s of shitty channels and sell people. they will have to buy it for sports from those exaggerated prices. or, a few quality shows - all the same format. NO different than how music industry has been selling us albums containing sub-par 12 songs bundled with chart topper 2 songs for the last 2 decades.
Natural result of profit maximization of capitalist system - maximization eventually results in trying to achieve maximum possible profit with minimum effort in shortest amount of time, and you end up getting 'crap' as the product.
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What's required to be on modern TV
... I can't imagine why people don't have a TV.
- Be as cheap as possible and thus totally suck
- Continue previous statement, but add shocking situations or violence
- Tell a story that induces anger about everything that's wrong with the world
- Have a panel of judges review the performance of yet another reality star
- Cook something you will never eat, or see, or see before you eat
- Watch fat people get skinny
What's banned from modern TV
- Good Science Fiction or Fantasy (you know what I mean)
- Truly deep and telling story lines that make you think about the wonderous possbilities
- Show all the good things that are happening 100 feet outside your door 5,000 times more often than the bad
I wonder how much of a correlation there is between people watching the television and the number of people who view a given program? Just because the TV numbers are down does not mean people are not watching the show online, on their phones, in a pub...
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
This can only be good news for North American politics. Die, TV, die!
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
The shows which have appealed to me had dwindled to a few.
Then there was one.
Then there were none.
Television has become so many over-hyped, insipid or worn out shows. Last show I watched was 60 Minutes. Now if I can remember, it's on the radio. My television hasn't been turned on in 10 years. I used a TV card in my computer for a while. Now I read books, watch movies or get the few DVDs of shows which really were worth watching and view them in my own good time sans commercials.
I get antsy when TV shows are on, like I'm being bombarded with some some radiation and want to get up and out of the way. Probably something to do with writing. Something else to do with horrible actors - we don't have many quality actors, so many are there because they are young, look good or were comedians. Few really can act. I feel the combination of watching people terrible at the craft, mixed with uninteresting writing have failed to keep my attention. No problem finding things to do with the time, though.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
... that indeed, there is nothing worth watching on broadcast TV. Cable is the easiest bill to cut out entirely, and would be the first I would axe completely if I lost my job (and of course that same demographic is also very much impacted by the crappy economy and high unemployment).
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Ha! I told you so. TV is just a fad (says dead guy from the early 50s).
You probably mean Fred Allen, a great (nay, brilliant) humorist who hosted a radio variety/comedy show. He was well known for poking fun at Television and show characters, like Titus Moody the farmer saying he was doubtful of it, but had (by the early 50's) determined that Radio was here to stay.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
He had already mentioned good sci fi and fantasy as being absent, no need to give examples of some of the current truly cringeworthy crap they are trying to push.
a few factors that could be at play, including more people watching TV shows online
So that tells me that a TV is not a video unit capable of displaying television shows. Perhaps they are referring to those old all-in-one units that had a television decoder built into the display? I have a 42-inch plasma display connected to a computer and home network. It is primarily used to view NetFlix, Hulu, and some light gaming. I also have a DTV tuner in a different computer on the same network. It can send video out to about ten other computers scattered around the house. Not a single display in the house has an integrated tuner. Does that mean I have zero televisions, or ten?
On a side note, I do laugh when I read Hulu's message that the current program is not viewable on televisions, then proceeds to display the show on my television.
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People are still staring at screens a lot, it is just now connected to a general purpose computer and it's not called a TV.
But are they sharing the experience with other people in the living room while on a comfortable recliner or sofa, or are they forever alone in their own bedrooms?
No, you were modded to oblivion because you came off as a douche in the post. The reason The Onion story in the GPP that you replied to was funny, is because the guy in the article is a smug asshole which seems stereotypical for people who claim to not watch TV.
Because of that, and because of everyone else being totally obsessed with TV, it is very hard not to point out that I have no fucking clue what they're talking about when they tell me about "New Show 131". If you just nod your head and pretend they catch on quickly and ask "WTF?"
You're an idiot either way for not watching the "idiot box." :(
It is understandable that you seem frustrated that people talk about shows you don't care about. Many people feel that way, but the tone of disdain in the message makes you come off as smarmy prick. That is why you were modded down, not because you don't play games.
You know, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Mark Twain, Mozart, Picasso, Warhol, and all the other names considered to be "real arts and culture" started out as "frivolous and trite" pop culture. Pop culture is just the art and culture of the modern era, the rest is just that which has seemed to stand the test of time.
Just remember that when you are not being a pretentious asshole.
"Television [network] companies are not in the business of delivering television programmes to their audience; they're in the business of delivering audiences to their advertisers." -- Douglas Adams
(From "What Have We Got To Lose?"; first appearance in Wired UK #1, 1995; reprinted in The Salmon of Doubt)
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Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
One of the annoying things about this "issue" is that "TV" is treated as a single, discrete entity, when it is really three things: a) the device, b) the programming, c) the delivery system (e.g. cable, satellite). Many people in their 30s and above think of them as insepar
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http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
I own one TV but only use it for watching movies via DVD. I have no cable or reception since I opted out of the digital receiver conversion thingy. I haven't had TV since. It is actually like breaking a drug addiction. You always think about it and wish you could tun on the news, but I know I'm better off without it. I only watched PBS before ditching it anyway, which is OK. The real issue isn't the recession OR streaming, it is a lack of notable or appropriate content. Seriously, all the network stuff was trash. When I did switch off PBS to another channel it wasn't for long.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Back in 1982 the TV I owned died. I did without for a few years and didn't miss it. During that time I read lots of books and high quality magazines such as Parabola and Verbatim. Guests thought I was weird because I would leave back issues on the top of the toilet. I finally bought a small portable in 1986 so I could stop telling people I didn't own a TV. I wonder if the advent of entertainment media in the technological age is why SETI has failed to detect any signals. We are trapped by a vast wasteland of programming that is crap. Otherwise healthy minds zone out and atrophy while sucking on the glass teat. Perhaps alien cultures fell into the same trap. First it was television, then video games, then internet porn, then blogs and more porn and finally pontificating on Order 66 at Wookipedia. If I could do one thing over in my life it would be to get rid of the television when I was in grade school.
Lets not forget that it was approved by a slashdot editor as well. This is yet another of many reasons why I don't bother logging in anymore.
Thanks for the clean link.
You don't get it man. They do this stuff on purpose. They deliberately misquote and mirepresent stories in order to generate discussion. It's all about increasing the traffic as much as possible! IT'S A CONSP- *hurk*
Ha ha. Just kidding. I enjoyed the story immensely. I live for reading Slashdot and it's masterful articles.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I love this - when was the golden age of television that didn't pander to the lowest common denominator, didn't thrust into your eyesockets with advertisements, had shows of culture and integrity that challenged and invigorated its audiences? When was that?
Well, where I'm from the advertising laws have definitely gotten more relaxed in the last couple of decades (how many minutes are allowed for a specified length of programming as well as the number of commercial breaks allowed during that same length of programming and the allowed length of a commercial break). Not to mention the increase in product placements, sure there have always been product placements but not to the degree we're seeing now.
TV today is as good or better than it ever has been. There are quality shows with believable, complex characterization and multi-season arcs that don't always center upon the medical or legal system. Sure, they don't build radios out of cocoanuts or learn valuable life lessons on a Princess Cruise, but you can't have it all.
I actually think a lot of the current TV shows are very good (if you can just find them and manage to ignore the commercials), the problem is TV as a medium has turned more and more into garbage (at least from my POV as a Swede).
Of course, I don't even have a TV these days, I just download the shows I want to watch. This has also resulted in me thinking of US "30 minute" and "one hour" shows as being "20 minute" (20-22 minutes to be more precise) and "40 minute" shows.
BTW, I'd love to download the shows I watch legally (without commercials in exchange for money) but I can't. Really. My option if I want them legally is either to wait until they air here in Sweden so I can watch them on the TV I don't have or I can wait until the season ends in the US plus another couple of months at which point they may become available on DVD (add another two months for the Bluray version, not that I have a Bluray player). And since a lot of shows end up airing several months after they air in the US (which these days is due to local TV networks caring more about how they want to schedule shows than when episode become available) buying the DVD will quite often allow you to still watch the last few episodes of the season before they air in Sweden...
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