Death of Television?

Hobbes

Maybe I'm the exception then the norm.

I find I go to less movies, instead I buy DVD's of the movies because it is better quality and cheaper all round and don't have to listen to prats on their mobile phones.

I find I am doing the same with television. I Don't have a VCR and there are prehaps 3-4 programs I watch on TV now. But I am finding that I am watching less and less TV.

With iTunes TV stuff, Online Streaming TV service (100+ channels for 6 euro a month) and general free sites like comedyCentral and youtube.com there is nothing on TV that can compete.

Anyone else like this?

AntiRip

I'm the same. Used to be a telly addict. Watched about 50 hours of tv a week. Might only watch a program or two now like 24 maybe. More to life than lying down comatoed (sp?)

Goodshape

Never really liked television, the ratio of crap to quality was always too high. Of course, there'd always be a few shows I would try and make an effort to watch but yea, these days I'd just download / buy a DVD of these shows instead and watch it on my own time, without ad-breaks.

TV's not doing itself any favours either, by making us sign up for 100+ channels of repeats, filler and "reality"-TV. When all I want to watch is maybe a couple of shows a week I wouldn't see the point.

AntiRip

Goodshape wrote:

Never really liked television, the ratio of crap to quality was always too high. Of course, there'd always be a few shows I would try and make an effort to watch but yea, these days I'd just download / buy a DVD of these shows instead and watch it on my own time, without ad-breaks.

TV's not doing itself any favours either, by making us sign up for 100+ channels of repeats, filler and "reality"-TV. When all I want to watch is maybe a couple of shows a week I wouldn't see the point.

although sky+ has helped tramendously.:)

butts

If you are a sports fan TV still has a lot to offer otherwise there are better alternatives.

lostexpectation

i would have thought things like tivo type stuff and hbo/showtime type channels have rebirthed tv

Tusky

If theres a tv show I REALLY like I will buy it on dvd. Find it too hard to follow stuff on tv.

Pigman II

I think the advent of the net has just woken us all up to the concept of 'going after what we want' when it comes to entertainment rather than just sitting there and taking whatever they dish up to us.

Elmo

I personally like to have shows that I watch.

Like I will look forward to certain days because I know that shows will be on and I enjoy watching them on that day. (That's just me).

I think the soaps and reality TV have ruined TV since they just take up so much of the schedules.

Soon ITV will just be 12 hours of Soap followed by 12 hours of Celeb Reality.

24, Lost, ER (not so much anymore) and DH are the only shows I watch on TV now. Started Invasion on TG4 but haven't returned to it.

Oh Pure Mule and The Clinic but then I don't think you can download them.

TerrorFirmer

Tusky wrote:

If theres a tv show I REALLY like I will buy it on dvd. Find it too hard to follow stuff on tv.

Yeah, same here. I am fed up of trying to watch stuff on tv, to have it interrupted every ten minutes for a 5 minute ad break.....so frustrating, and the same goes for movies.

I usually ever rent a movie, or buy a series boxset now.....don't watch much on tv bar the odd show here and there. On average, I'd watch tv maybe an hour and a half a week.

DublinWriter

Hobbes wrote:

Maybe I'm the exception then the norm.

Nah, I'd agree, and I don't have my nostalgia-goggles on when I say that TV now isn't as compelling as when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's.

The big debate back then was the high number of hours kids spent in front of a TV. Playstations aside, what kid now watches TV for hours on end these days.

Even dramas such as Spooks, Life on Mars etc etc are boring and formulatic, but they are watchable for their slickness of production.

We really need guys like Dennis Potter writing TV drama.

Everything is designed to appeal to the largest demiographic and as such, TV doesn't take risks anymore.

Personally, I'll just watch DVDs, the odd current affairs show, listen to BBC Radio 4, or nostaglic stuff I get off the uknova site.

Elmo

TV now isn't as compelling as when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's.

70's and 80's TV drama was dreaful with the exception of some American Drama's like Hill Street Blues. (Love that theme tune). I cann't think of any other compelling drama's from the 70's or 80's.

Even dramas such as Spooks, Life on Mars etc etc are boring and formulatic, but they are watchable for their slickness of production.

British TV Drama has died a death. They continue to try to copy the americans and forget what they are good at. American Drama continues to go forward and its not Nip/Tuck that is the driving force of American TV drama, with it spirlling shocks its not much more then a fancy day time soap.

I mean really what other drama are the producing in Britian other then soap.

cosgrove80

There is still a lot of great TV out there. The problem we have to wade through hours of crap to find them. As it's been said, there are 100s of channels available but most of them show dreadful reality TV shows and the like. Channels have so much air time to fill, the quality of the content has dropped as a result of quantity.
There are just as many good shows out there as there has every been, there just happens to be far more bad ones

Shows like

Prison Break
The Thick Of It
House
My Name Is Earl
Battlestar Galactica
Lost
24

are all worth watching at the moment and there are several more that can be added to the list. More again if you include shows being shown in the U.S.

I watch less TV than I used to as well but there is plenty of quality out there to watch. Just takes some effort to find it.

Scobie

All you need are The Irish Channels and the UK Terrestrials. All the rest are a load of crap. Been watching them for years. My kids had to be weaned off MTV etc but we survive. I now have an aerial for the Irish channels and a freebie sat dish for the uk channels. Great! No charges and great reception.

Cabaal

More or less gave up watching actual tv over 24 months ago, now its my PC and my trusty X-Box with XBMC that allows me to watch whatever I want.

How I hate adverts.

Lump

Hobbes wrote:

Maybe I'm the exception then the norm.

I find I go to less movies, instead I buy DVD's of the movies because it is better quality and cheaper all round and don't have to listen to prats on their mobile phones.

I find I am doing the same with television. I Don't have a VCR and there are prehaps 3-4 programs I watch on TV now. But I am finding that I am watching less and less TV.

With iTunes TV stuff, Online Streaming TV service (100+ channels for 6 euro a month) and general free sites like comedyCentral and youtube.com there is nothing on TV that can compete.

Anyone else like this?

That's one of the reasons the BBC and other stations are putting a lot of money/research into TV on Broadband and podcasts etc etc.

I'm like that myself, buy DVD's, or watching stuff online.

John

Telefís

I'd agree about the medium that television is - I too like 'looking forward' to certain days and certain times to watch particular programmes. Indeed rather ridiculously it helps to define your day; you mightn't be able to remember what day it is and then you think 'oh the West Wing is on tonight - it's Thursday', or regulars like Prime Time, Q&A, certain American dramas and of course soaps do it too.

But moreover it is the 'collective' experience of television that really does it for me - the idea that 300, 400, 500, 600,000+ in Ireland are watching with you, or 5,6,7 million in the UK - it's that feeling of being part of something that makes television so great. Watching a DVD is so dead by comparison, though of course they have their place and can be preferable for certain content.

But for me it is the build-up to a certain programme being broadcast, the promos and trailers during the week, the ad break leading up to it that's on in the background as you prepare youself to sit down on the night, the station ident playing and the continuity announcement, the sense of anticipation.....
Nothing can beat it! Even on a minor level, even if just the News or a half-hour factual or 'lifestyle' programme; they all still incite a certain pleasure in looking forward to them.

I think that's why The Late Late Show, for some of its faults, is currently having the most successful run it has had in seven years. So much of television nowadays is given over to trash that it's rarely worth turning on before 9 o'clock. And so much of it is distant, detached and somewhat dead, saturated by 'cutting edge' production values, lightening speed action or edited within an inch of its life.
By comparision the Late Late is probably the only programme on at the moment that combines the best that television has to offer: variety, 'real life' content, content that is relevant to the viewer, and crucially is live. There is the most fantastic collective viewing experience with the Late Late that just cannot be replicated on any other programme in these islands. It makes the programme almost unique - there's nothing like it.
Recently a quarter of the entire poplation have been watching on occasion - simply extraordinary. Whatever one may think of the host, or certain content, or how certain elements are dealt with, as production it's as good as the medium of television can get in my book.

Whereas there are massive shifts taking place in technology and convergence etc, I see television continuing to have a very strong role in most people's lives. One thing that has to be factored into account here is that the average age of contributors to this site is probably 15-24, and most probably male, which skews things massively. As people grow older and have working lives, they like the idea of television offering part of a night's entertainment and education - letting someone else make the decisions about what they want to watch. Television is very flexible and can change a lot within the confines of the medium of necessary. As far as I'm concerned it's the crap infested waters of early evening that need need radical overhaul, and is the reason so many people are beoming disenchanted with television. If this 7-9pm muck can be tidied up, and less reality television to boot, that's most of the work done.