Posted on 06/28/2009 4:28:08 AM PDT by abb
If you watch old shows from the 50s and 60s, you’ll see they were about 51 or 52 minutes long. I sometimes watch the old “Maverick” reruns on the western channel. Now, programs are about 42 minutes. And there was a big fight the other day over the new season of “Mad Men.” They wanted to shorten it to 39 minutes to cram more ads in. The compromise was to let it run over the hour mark instead of ending it on the hour. That is to say rather than 18 minutes of commercials, it will have about 21 minutes.
The concept of “appointment viewing” was enforceable because not a whole lot else was on. Now with the internet, that habit is forever broken.
It’s interesting that the article neglected to mention the single largest reason for the dip in viewership - the DTV switch. By and large cable TV viewers were unaffected by the switch, but OTA (Over The Air) viewers of locally broadcast signals were hit - some hit hard.
Analog isn’t digital and the two technologies have different presentations in their communities. Analog is a bandwidth hog, but you can still view a tolerable 15% signal-strength analog reception (if you don’t mind a little snow) whereas anything less than ~60% digital signal and your picture freezes or disappears altogether.
Although both types of signal are “line of sight”, analog is (was) much more tolerant of topological events (like hills and trees). That means the old analog signal could travel up to four times the distance before degrading to the point of unsuitability.
The bottom line is that for huge numbers of OTA viewers, their TV’s went dark, and for the poor among us, will stay dark.
Burn Notice
Saving Grace
Formula 1 qualifying
Red Sox baseball
I’d watch womens tennis but they grunt and shriek so annoyingly that I can’t stand it.
The Big Four’s numbers have been declining for the past several years. And you are correct, there are a significant number of viewers that quit altogether when OTA broadcast went digital.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/278505-FCC_Finds_More_Analog_Signal_Loss_Than_Initially_Predicted.php
FCC Finds More Analog Signal Loss Than Initially Predicted
355 stations now losing more than 2% of their former analog audience
Mad Men is my only ‘must see’ program. And even then I DVR it and watch it later.
It took a little for me to accept Fi.
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1116595.html
A nonprofit newspaper in San Juan could be part of new trend
That tells me the Big Three networks have a reason to help get rid of illegals in the US.
It isn’t just the poor. I have a couple of friends who didn’t upgrade or get new TV’s and they are solidly middle class. One of them doubts she will get the TV fixed. She and her husband are having such a good time without the TV, she doesn’t want it back. They’ve been married about 25 years and she feels like it’s a second honeymoon.
This means ratings don't count, unless enough people cancel cable or satellite broadcasts. TVLand got into primetime cable running Andy Griffith, the Munsters, Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons, the Donna Reed Show, and countless other classic shows. Now, they run She's Got the Look, Roseanne and Fresh Prince. Their ratings have dropped dramatically, and they respond with an Annie Hall, "well la-de-da." Why? Cause they don't care as long as the subscription money pours in, and it will pour in as long as the gay/lesbian connection that runs most of the entertainment industry keeps funneling money to their lovers, knowing it doesn't matter what people watch as long as they pay the subscription fees.
You’re right of course. I made a lame attempt at a joke (”Disaster: Women, children, and the poor hardest hit!”).
Over the years I put up with mediocre TV because I never took it too seriously and, as often as not, would only have the TV on for background noise.
I’m finding that I can live without it at all quite nicely thank you! (Not sure that I could say the same of the Internet however!)
Get thee a DVR! It's more fun to guess how many times you have to press the "Skip" button for the commercial breaks. You'll have no problem watching an hour show in 40 minutes. I'll have to admit stopping the process occasionally for a new Apple ad. ;O)
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2009/06/tighter_copyright_law_could_sa.html
Tighter copyright law could save newspapers: Connie Schultz
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/06/28/first-kill-the-lawyers-before-they-kill-the-news/#comments
First, kill the lawyers – before they kill the news
Yep, the only way to watch TV sanely is via pre-recording with a TIVO/DVD/PVR.
I’ve about worn out the 30-second skip forward button on mine :)
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