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Yep, you can scan a dozen cable channels in a row and they'll all be commercials. There was a time when broadcast channels were limited to something like 9 minutes per hour of commercials, but today it's gotta be close to 50% commercial time for many of the cable channels. I've run out of patience with most commercial TV and that's without even talking about the quality of the average program. Those worthwhile are few and far between.
I made my decision to stop paying for cable over a year ago and the only reason I have it now is that I moved and it's furnished with my rental.
There seems to be a "formula" to the way they show commercials in any one show. After so many minutes of show, you have so many minutes of commercial. No matter what show it is.
There seems to be a "formula" to the way they show commercials in any one show. After so many minutes of show, you have so many minutes of commercial. No matter what show it is.
Not "seems to be." There is. For every 30 minutes of programming, somewhere between 7 and 9 minutes will be commercial time. And you'll notice that all the networks run their commercials at the same time, so when you go surfing from channel to channel, it's either all programming or all commercials.
I get nostalgic for the good old days, when cable had first come out, and the idea was that since you're paying for the service, there shouldn't be any commercial advertising. Then, of course, the cable broadcasters got slick and realized they could make money on both ends. Technically, I suppose one could initiate some sort of class-action case to the FCC for banning commercials from cable television, although I'd never hold my breath for that to happen.
TV has been crap for years. The only thing I watch are history programs, NATGEO, and South Park (which is actually an intelligent show which is a social commentary on contemporary American society-but it's not for everyone and that's another thread).
TV has taken the way of fake-reality programming (Octomom has her own show? These shows with people who have 18 kids? who cares?), terrible cooking shows (does anyone actually find Paula Deen's 'cooking' appealing?), crime-dramas that are all spin-offs of "Law and Order", and garbage like "Toddlers in Tiaras".
But it's all about giving the viewers what they want-and this is obviously it. Or, are we being 'told' that this is good and what we want?
But it's all about giving the viewers what they want-and this is obviously it. Or, are we being 'told' that this is good and what we want?
I don't doubt for a minute that we're being told what "we want." There aren't more than a few hundred Neilsen ratings boxes throughout the entire country, and even those are concentrated heavily in the Midwest. It's about as highly rigged as a system as you'll find anywhere in the world. The television networks are not interested in what people on either coast want to watch.
And if you're curious as to why Neilsen would concentrate on the Midwest, it's because the generally held belief among advertisers/sponsors is that people in the middle part of the country can be more easily convinced to buy the garbage they sell. Why there isn't a general uprising against the television industry, I cannot imagine.
You think TV was better decades ago?
In 1961, former FCC Chairman, Newton Minnow made a speech. In it he said that "TV is a vast wasteland".
Man, that's like 48 years ago! To this day I admire that man for his statement, which I believe is true especially now.
I haven't had a TV for over 8 years. When I tell this to people they look at me as if I have a dead chicken tied around my neck.
Yep. Sure was. I didn't envy my grandfather or great grandfather when I was young, because like most young folks, I knew everything. But I sure as hell envy his/their slice of time and place now.
I know we tend to romanticize the past, but truthfully, after reading journals of my grandparents/great grandparents, knowing them as a child and studying the general history of their time and place, I’d rather have their worries than mine; I’d rather have their dangers/risks than mine; I’d rather have their joys than mine. Perhaps I’m just a reincarnated Amish guy or something.
Hey, no TV back then either. Watch the sunrise for entertainment.
PS that's hardly to imply it was perfect or didn't have "bad" programming back then....just how revolting it is now. And years from now I suspect it will be even worse. It's been mostly a downward trend for quite some time.
that's hardly to imply it was perfect or didn't have "bad" programming back then....just how revolting it is now. And years from now I suspect it will be even worse. It's been mostly a downward trend for quite some time.
It's strange to try and imagine how much worse TV will become. But I'm certain you're right; we haven't even come close to the bottom of the barrel.
Not "seems to be." There is. For every 30 minutes of programming, somewhere between 7 and 9 minutes will be commercial time. And you'll notice that all the networks run their commercials at the same time, so when you go surfing from channel to channel, it's either all programming or all commercials.
.
When a full-length movie is showing on a commercial channel, there is no commercial break at all during the first 30 minutes or so. Then the commercial breaks gradually get more frequent and longer, until the last half hour has only about 10 minutes of movie, and maybe four 5-minute breaks.
When there are two NFL games on at the same time on Sunday, I'm sure the officiating time-keeper is also watching the other game, and speeds up or slows down the game, to ensure that half time comes at exactly the same time in both games.
Is it me or have T.V. shows just gone over the edge? First off the shows that have people going around the world eating the most disgusting things imagineable. There are a few running now, they almost seem in competition to "out disgust" each other. The "Survival" shows can at least claim you would eat these things to stay alive. But the others?
Then there are the eating competition shows, the Barbeque and Rib Joint shows. The cooking "competition" shows where one goes home every week (there are quite a few of these)...people yelling, screaming, crying, storming out, all over food preparation...? And with obesity reaching near epidemic numbers in the U.S. nonetheless. And what about animal rights, progress here seems to be taking an extreme backslide.
The latest and greatest military weaponry from machine guns that can fire 3000 rounds per minute to items that can cause mayhem and destruction on a far greater scale.
I'm not saying all of us should become pacifist peace loving vegetarians, but is the nature of television just going the other way a littile too much?
Yes...TV has gone mad. The good thing is that not everything on TV is mad. There is a thin selection of programming that will not make your brain bleed.
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Amen. 
