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."

Comments

Obligatory from The Onion

[Mean Variance]

An oldie but timeless.

Man doesn't own a TV

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[garcia]

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." :(

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[Gaygirlie]

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.

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[tepples]

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?

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[Randle_Revar]

It ain't a monitor until it does at least 1920x1200

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[Ltap]

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

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[datavirtue]

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.

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[djl4570]

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.

Re:Obligatory from The Onion

[hairyfeet]

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?

Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps because everything on TV now is absolutely shite.

Re:Or...

[ackthpt]

Perhaps because everything on TV now is absolutely shite.

Or it starts out good, but then they beat it to death.

Sponsors pay for the shows and should be demanding better, but then they go and try propping up something like the Simpsons for a couple decades because it's a safe bet for viewer share.

Can't win for losing.

Re:Or...

[antifoidulus]

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.

Re:Or...

[nomel]

They're talking about the physical device, not the content.

I have a "TV", but I use it as a large monitor for my computer. The only difference between a large "computer screen" and "TV" with hdmi and vga ports these days is an integrated tuner and less emphasis on things like color accuracy.

I think their numbers are going to get more and more meaningless as time goes on.

Re:Or...

[mirix]

The commercials. Jesus Christ. When I very rarely watch live TV (say, at a friends house), I'm shocked by the amount of advertisements. How did people ever let themselves become subject to such shit?

I watch a few shows that I DL, and listen to public radio, if I listen to radio. Adblock on the web. Advertising is still stupidly pervasive, even with all that... Why would I pay to watch it?

Re:Or...

[JaredOfEuropa]

Where I live, there are still a couple of good current affairs programs, and I find that lately there have been a couple of very good series (most notably from HBO). TV isn't all shite... but some years ago I've discovered that watching TV live (not live tv) is an utterly rubbish experience. Well, I didn't really discover it; it's just that before PVRs made time-shifting practical and easy, there was no real alternative to viewing everything as it was broadcast. That meant wasting time channel surfing, waiting for your favourite show to come on, and sitting through endless, repetitive commercial breaks... I can't imagine how people were/are able to handle that crap.

I still watch a fair amount of TV, but it's all time-shifted. I can download the series I want to watch, and most of our TV channels have a rather good service for watching their shows of the past few weeks on-line. And I still own a TV to watch it all on.

And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv.

[unity100]

'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.

Re:And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv.

[Ethanol-fueled]

Yes, this is it.

I remember when the Discovery Channel was actually educational and even thrilling, showing a packs of lionesses hunting gazelles and whatnot.

Now, it's a bunch of bullshit "reality" shows which all could be titled something like, "Ignorant wooden-acting rednecks hamming it up while doing tedious or dangerous jobs." Seriously, the West Coast Chopper guys?

Disco, get your fucking cameramen back out to the damn jungle or rainforest. I want to see strange animals and their mating habits again.

Re:And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv.

[game kid]

So you're saying "ignorant wooden-acting rednecks" don't count as "strange animals"?

Re:And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv.

[datavirtue]

wow.....on so many levels. "Here we see the north american fleetfooted flannel shod redneck about to make an attempt on this particular female........she's not having it, oh oh, oooohhhh, no one saw that coming!"

Reasoning

[dcray2000]

What's required to be on modern 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 can't imagine why people don't have a TV.

Re:Reasoning

[eulernet]

You forgot:

- Always use a pessimistic point of view. Happiness doesn't drive audience.
- Use cheap emotions whenever possible. No emotions except sadness or joy are allowed.
- Hire fake audience to represent your audience in your poor shows, and make them laugh when you need (remember Pavlov ?).
- Give random (poor) people access to the american dream, by giving them shiny objects.
- Explain with lots of details terrible crimes. Morbid fascination everywhere.
- Let people believe that possessing objects lead to happiness, and do that every minute, to be sure that they won't forget (ads).
- Always paint the world in white and black (if possible black). Never use another color, it's too disturbing.

Re:Reasoning

[Larryish]

The Big Bang Theory uses a studio audience.

They record the audience laughter during taping.

They use that recorded laughter as a laugh track in post, to fill in places where several re-takes meant less audience laughter.

Also the show is f-in brilliant, laugh track or no.

Seems like a meaningless metric

[Meshach]

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...

Re:Slashdotted already?

[Samantha Wright]

The link is actually an ugly frame-wrapping news aggregator. The actual story is from Entertainment Weekly. For shame, submitter. For shame.

On the plus side

[nightfire-unique]

This can only be good news for North American politics. Die, TV, die!

Not Watching TV...

[ackthpt]

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.

The poll takers realized...

[damn_registrars]

... 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).

Computer monitors and gaming systems

[antifoidulus]

In addition to watching shows online, the ability to easily connect the XBox 360 and PS3 to a computer monitor has to be having a dampening effect on TV sales, esp. among the young. For less than $200, I can get a 23" LCD monitor that I can connect to my laptop for computing and watching shows online, and can connect to my console for gaming. Why on earth then would I want a TV, especially if I am living in a dorm or small apartment where space is at a premium?

Re:Fad

[ackthpt]

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.

Article is bereft of real numbers

[mad-seumas]

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?

Re:some shows to check out

[bloodhawk]

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.

What is a TV?

[Bent Mind]

After glancing at the article, I have to ask, what is a TV? From the article:

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.

You all missed the most amazing thing from that

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Content worth watching, instead of bashing?

[Gaygirlie]

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!

The shows are not the point

[DragonHawk]

"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)

Predicted by Star Trek

[Hadlock]

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.

Okay, explain the BBC then?

[SmallFurryCreature]

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.

Actually a dutch company

[SmallFurryCreature]

But I can see how you can confuse us Dutchies with a divine god. We are pretty amazing people. And humble.

Re:Slashdotted already?

[Ihmhi]

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.

Re:I have an additional theory

[mikael_j]

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...