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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."
I own two TVs. I use one for DVDs, Netflix Instant, and OTA NFL games. The other is collecting dust in my bedroom, I really should have it recycled.
So while I own them, I don't watch much TV--at least not until it shows up on Instant. 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." :(
I own two TVs. I use one for DVDs, Netflix Instant, and OTA NFL games. The other is collecting dust in my bedroom, I really should have it recycled.
So while I own them, I don't watch much TV--at least not until it shows up on Instant. 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." :(
There's two TVs in this household too, but both are only used as display devices for PlayStation 3, PC and my tablet. None of them are used for watching actual TV - shows or such. Why? Because most of what is there is just plain crap and more annoying than entertaining. Watching TV is a terribly passive experience so if I'm going to sit down and just stare at the screen then I atleast expect it to be worth my time. Alas, if there even is a good TV show going it's always pushed to really late hours, it's shown only once a week, and there's only ever at most one, single good show running at any given time. Never more than one.
Household that do not own a TV set? Or households that own a TV set but don't have cable, OTA tv? In our case we dropped cable several years ago, still have OTA TV thanks to an antenna on the roof of our condo, but consume the vast majority of content through a computer hooked to the TV. So we own a TV, but according to Neilsen's rules maybe we don't own a TV? Maybe we just own a huge monitor? Maybe we don't qualify to be a Nielsen Family so we don't count?
But increased "sponsor time" is at least in part to blame for the declining quality, esp. of comedy shows in my opinion. When the Simpsons started, they had two and half minutes, or roughly 10% more show time per episode than they do now. The extra time gave the writers more of a chance to better pace out their jokes and had time for better B and C stories. Some of the funniest Simpsons moments are the B and C stories, but there is no way any of those could have stretched into a full story. Part of the reason I think they do some of the extended couch gags nowadays is that the A story isn't enough to fill the whole episode, but whereas in the past they would have had enough time to do a good B story, now they are forced to make up the gap using a couch gag as there is no way they could fit the B story into the time allotted.
Monstar L
Apparently it's not about the 1%ers, because 56% of us are rich:
"Meanwhile the rich get richer: Homes with three or more TV sets will climb a notch to 56 percent."
WTF?
This may not directly relate to the article itself, but how about trying to be a little bit constructive here instead of only offering criticism? What kinds of TV-shows or series do you view as being worth watching, worth your time? Are there some that you'd feel others might also enjoy and thus you'd like to recommend them?
I personally do not have any specific genre that I enjoy as I can watch mostly anything, it's the flow of the story and the believability of the characters and their actions that matters the most. Then again, as I watch movies most of the time and not TV-series I don't really have all that much experience on that field. I still do offer two recommendations that I personally feel that are definitely worth watching, and if you can afford it, they're sure worth owning, too:
* Breaking Bad: A high-school chemistry teacher in his 50s hears he has a lung cancer, realizes he has been an under-performer his whole life and wishes to be able to leave his family with means to get by even if he isn't no longer supporting them financially, and derails completely and decides to take part in meth-cooking business.
* Walking Dead: As if the name isn't already descriptive enough or anything, but, well, a small-town sheriff gets shot, is taken to hospital, is unconcious for some time only to wake up to a seemingly empty hospital and the rest of the town either empty or trying to eat him. From there, it's only downhill!
I was watching an old episode of Star Trek: TNG (on netflix... on a computer!) and they had revived some cryogenically frozen people from the year 2000 who were shocked that nobody watched TV anymore. One of the cast members explained to them gently that TV had been a entertainment fad, and died out as a passtime by 2040.
I'm sure TV audiences watching Star Trek in the late 80s who had grown up on a healthy diet of 4 hours a night of TV found that hard to believe, or impossible even. Looking back twenty years, it is looking more prophetic than ever.
moox. for a new generation.
Cable is putting out Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones, all of which feature interesting plots, very good acting, and engaging writing. (Dexter was pretty weak last season, but I've been pretty happy with this one.)
The BBC has cheerfully dived into the abyss for years nows, farting upwards to accelerate its descend. Want to see what a thousand TV cooks look like? Just turn on the beeb. It will show you.
They even got so desperate that when they finally do manage to get a program that people watch, they run repeats off it during the same WEEK. QI, QI repeat and QI XL. Same with Have I Got News For You. Oh and both programs are now in double digits. Not because they are that fresh anymore but because there is absolutely nothing else that has the slightest appeal anymore. This all despite the fact people can rewatch it on the BBC iPlayer... what better way to advertise you don't have any content worth watching then repeating the same half hour program 3 times and adding material you left out the first time on the third run. Oh and then repeat the entire running between this season and the next.
And all this crap, without any advertisers.
If you don't believe me that cooking shows are out of control, they got a cooking game show that when it ends, immidiatly starts up again. There is no end to it.
And if it isn't cooking then it is some lightweight back into history program that glorifies everything and examines nothing.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Funny but I've found at least when it comes to the cableco my experience is quite the opposite, in that while I personally don't mention the fact that I don't own a TV the girls at the desk mention it constantly when i walk in. There always seems to be a new girl there and the others are like "That's the guy that doesn't own a TV" and the new girl is ALWAYS like "No, really, you have at least one, right? What do you mean no?" and when i point out that while I do have a capture card in my desktop I frankly haven't fired it up since 2009 the look I get, its just shock.
The hilarious part is the thing that seems to cause them vaporlock is NOT the fact that I don't actually own a set so much as I don't watch reality television which I swear the way they react I have to wonder if there is some hidden signal in that tripe that makes people addicted to that shit. Frankly I do NOT care who got voted off some island, or who was voted the best at singing some crappy old song and I sure the fuck don't want to watch anything called a Snooki. And when did the world start caring about such things? did I miss a memo again?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.