TV Ownership Declines For Second Time Since 1970 349
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."
Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps because everything on TV now is absolutely shite.
And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Reasoning (Score:5, Insightful)
- 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
Seems like a meaningless metric (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Not Watching TV... (Score:5, Insightful)
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... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fad (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Or... (Score:4, Insightful)
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:some shows to check out (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And the shit that is broadcast in corporate tv. (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember when the Discovery Channel was actually educational and even thrilling, showing a packs of lionesses hunting gazelles and whatnot.
Now, [discovery.com] 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.
What is a TV? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Reasoning (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
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... (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Obligatory from The Onion (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Or... (Score:2, Insightful)
Have a look at all the adult fans of My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. I watched some of it, and yes, it's aimed at 6 year olds, but within those limits on content and language, it's actually got characterisation and plots that make sense within the logic of the show world.
What does it say about modern television when a cartoon for 6 year olds is less condescending and intellectually insulting than the huge array of shows that are allegedly made for my demographic?
Re:Obligatory from The Onion (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
The shows are not the point (Score:5, Insightful)
"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)
Re:Obligatory from The Onion (Score:5, Insightful)
It ain't a monitor until it does at least 1920x1200
Re:Obligatory from The Onion (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Obligatory from The Onion (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Slashdotted already? (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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...