TV owndership declines

[JamesSavik]

Nielsen report: TV ownership declines http://insidetv.ew.c...rship-declines/

For the first time ever, TV ownership in the United States has declined. Experts are at a loss to explain why this has happened.

I blame the Cardassians and the Jersey Shore. There hasn't been anything worth watching since Battlestar Galactica went off the air and the SciFi network began airing everything but SciFi and those horrible formula made for 50 cents TV movies with giant rabid beavers and Sharktopus.

Come to think of it, the biggest surprise is the decline is only 1%.

Stay tuned- with the crap Hollyweird is producing, the trend can only continue.

[blue]

There are three factors that probably are driving this:

One is, as James said, the lack of much programming to hold people's interest.

Another is the internet and downloadable or streamable media. If I can watch it online or download it (rent or own) to watch later, then do I really need that TV? Nope. Nearly all my "TV" watching is via iTunes or online. There's Amazon, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and the networks' and studios' own websites. -- Now, in my case, I am not always where I can get a wifi web connection. (Not rich enough to pay for mobile wifi, sorry.) So if I'm away from home and want to watch, it has to be already downloaded or on DVD or Blu-Ray.

The third is, people have the internet, ebooks via Kindle and Nook and iPad and others, DVD/Blu-Ray discs, MP3 players like the iPod, etc., etc. Game boxes. There are more competing choices for entertainment now that were not as available and convenient as any time before. -- Well, and there are also actual physical activities like ballgames, etc. (Who'd have thought?) -- These all compete for the TV time. If the TV channels (cable and networks) are not putting out what the viewers want to watch, such as lots of repeats or lots of reality TV (...hurl...) then people will find something else for their time.

Hmm, you know, there's a fourth factor, also obvious. (OK, so I can't count.)

Cost. A big TV costs a lot. A cable or DSL subscription costs a lot. (I wouldn't have it, except I want broadband web access.) I don't get the "premium" channels. (I haven't seen Game of Thrones, for instance.) I'd rather have web access. I'd rather have a computer and cell phone. A TV? My computer, even my laptop, has a decent screen and speakers. Ditto that neat iPad.

Uh, maybe the "experts" haven't asked people? But the answers seem apparent, if they'd survey the audience / market.

[DesDownunder]

I can verify the quality of movies coming out of Hollywood has certainly declined. Who wants to watch under-rehearsed actors stare at each other because no wanted to pay a writer to write actual dialogue? Then there are those appalling 'reality' shows which probably are responsible for more personal tragedies than Shakespeare ever even contemplated.

Out of the last 15 movies I have screened, at my cinema where I have returned to work (so I can eat) I can say that two were entertaining in a way that allowed me to become immersed in the drama. The rest, I tried to forget that I had seen them.

As for what is on TV here, in Australia, it's like living in a time warp. Brady Bunch, MacGyver, Get Smart, Cheers, Sabrina, Family Ties, and so on ad-sickeningly-finitum. The other day I found lover boy watching a religious sit-com-melodrama. He's lucky we're not married or I would have filed for divorce.

On top of all that there are all those terrible Aussie shows in which, someone has convinced demented youths into thinking they can actually act.

If it was just me I wouldn't watch any TV, but the said lover boy needs something to do whilst his body replenishes his hormone reservoir.

I'm perfectly happy with the computer and the Net, but I do miss some decent Sci-fi.

[DKStories]

eh, we still own four televisions (60", 42", 32", and 25"), plus five 24" televisions and a 17" laptop and a 14" laptop. Then there are the three iPhones we own.

the only live television we watch is MSNBC and CNN. Everything else is recorded on the DVR or streaming.

[Gee Whillickers]

Almost every actual TV show and movie I watch is now via the internet. Though with the big screen hooked up to the computer I suppose that still counts at watching TV. As for actual live TV, these days it's rare. Sports mostly, and the odd news show, special of whatever ilk, and whatnot. That's about it.