NBC Because they're demonstrably popular only in our elitist echo chamber?
Posted on 06/30/2014 10:28:18 AM PDT by ShadowAce
We live in a golden age of television. Never before have we had so much quality programming, or so many different ways to view it while sitting on the toilet. However, the things we like so much about the current state of television are actually strangling our favorite shows to death like Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
The business model that drives the creation of the shows we like is fairly straightforward: A network pays to make a show, and then we pay them back by watching the commercials attached to the show. It's basic, but it's an arrangement that's worked since your grandparents bought their first TV with the meager wages they earned after working impossible hours at the steel mill. So why do demonstrably popular shows like 30 Rock and Community struggle so hard?
NBC
Because they're demonstrably popular only in our elitist echo chamber?
It turns out that, although we may love a certain show and watch every episode, we aren't watching it quick enough. Whereas your grandparents had no choice but to watch a show right when it aired or else never see it ever again (keep in mind that reruns used to not be a thing), our DVR-spoiled asses are watching programs days or weeks after their original run. Ad revenues are only calculated from the first three days of views, so once that three-day period has passed, you might as well not even watch the show, as far as the networks are concerned.
Shows geared toward (comparatively) younger viewers like 30 Rock and Community eat up valuable prime-time real estate, and although they have a devoted core audience, that audience is most likely going to watch the episodes later on DVR or on the Internet through services like Hulu, where ad revenue is slashed. It's gotten so bad that NBC is now backing off of making quirky, narrow-interest comedies altogether and hedging their bets on bland, formulaic sitcoms with prerecorded laughter.
NBC
And these new, broader comedies have all been smashing successes.
CBS doesn't have that problem -- their average viewers are so old, they fart mummy dust as they happily watch their favorite shows (complete with commercials) the night they air. So we need to either learn to watch our favorite shows while they're actually on television or resign ourselves to an inevitable future of a Big Bang Theory/CSI mashup.
Five years ago, the Sci-Fi Channel took a gamble on the idea that Twitter and Facebook were going to convince young people to watch their terrible programming. They rebranded as Syfy and started feeding us films like Sharknado, which were specifically designed to be shared with ironic incredulity on social media. It seemed to work for a while, and since it was our best chance at eventually seeing Thrillosaurus Rex: Time-Traveling Dinosaur Detective, we embraced it.
Elenarts/iStock/Getty Images
"The best part is when he goes back 100 million years ... to the age of the other dinosaurs!"
However, making those joyously terrible movies is actually causing Syfy to implode. You see, even though movies like Sharknado and Ghost Shark draw a decent number of viewers and become trending topics across the Internet when they air, nobody is watching the channel in between those movies. Ever since Syfy rebranded itself and eschewed its traditional sci-fi programming, it began to hemorrhage all of the sci-fi fans who watched the network in the first place. Without those fans to keep the network afloat between releases of Crabquake and Testicular Rhino Dragon, Syfy is struggling to sustain itself.
AMC has spent a lot of time and money making HBO-quality adult-oriented programming. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead proved to be hits on a network that had previously been known for John Wayne movies and airing the Jaws sequels out of order. The problem is, those shows all have premium cable budgets, and while HBO and Netflix can afford to sink millions of dollars into Game of Thrones and House of Cards because of their subscription-based revenue model, AMC is still dependent on the "watch this episode the night it airs or else we're screwed" model that has torpedoed countless other equally popular but less expensive shows. Chasing the next Breaking Bad may end up being the meth-sculpted albatross that sinks them.
AMC
Leaving them enough cash for just one new show: Talking Talking Dead.
You see, making expensive shows is a huge gamble, with the potential to win big and lose just as massively. A few failed shows are all it takes to make the stock take a serious dump and throw the network into financial ruin. So when we stop watching The Walking Dead as much as we used to, or we don't bother tuning in to Halt and Catch Fire or The Turn at all (if you asked "What the hell are those shows?" you have proven this point exactly), AMC panics, because they can't afford to lose what they spent to make them. If none of their new season of shows takes off, AMC might be back to late-night airings of Revenge of the Nerds and Hackers by this time next year.
One of the main reasons DVR took off was because it allowed us to watch our shows whenever we wanted and skip over all those annoying commercial breaks. That attitude continued when networks began putting their shows on the Internet, because if the current generation believes in one principle above anything else, it's that no one should ever have to pay for anything and all forms of entertainment should be funded by good will and charity. And that attitude is destroying the entertainment industry, your favorite TV shows included.
Michael Buckner-Rommel Demano/Getty Entertainment-/Getty
Stop trying to Kickstart a My So Called Life revival.
You see, young people disproportionately watch their television online, which represents a substantial cut in ad revenue compared to what a traditional broadcast generates. Between 80 and 85 percent of online ads are skipped when the viewer is given the option, so the advertisers who are willing to support Internet broadcasts will only pay a fraction of what they would to put an ad on television. That said, even if we hit "Skip This Ad" after the first five seconds, we are still watching part of the ad, which is worth something to the advertisers. What's really killing content is when we refuse to watch the ads at all.
Most Internet viewers use some kind of ad-blocking software, which completely circumvents advertising -- Adblock Plus alone has 60 million users. Since the current generation is also watching much more of their TV online, this means that a huge number of people who regularly watch a specific show are essentially refusing to support it. This is sort of like watching a trombone-playing circus bear juggle unicycles for an hour and then refusing to take 30 seconds to toss him a fish.
NBC
Which would have been a scene in Community Season 6, but now it won't, and it's YOUR fault.
One-third of those 60 million Adblock Plus users are people age 20 to 29, which you may notice are the exact same people that start Internet petitions and social media campaigns when their favorite shows are in danger of cancellation and write protracted blog posts lamenting the lack of quality content on television. Do you really want to see a sixth season of Community? Quit writing petitions and start watching some Lexus ads.
Impressed no end by Danger Man’s 1/2 hour format!
One hour adventure series are mainly half fluff. Just so they can have twice as many commercials.
Gotta be a boatload of people that watch that crap-filled, award-winning formula to warrant its being shown every minute of the day on some channel or another.
Commercial breaks are practically synchronized, so I can’t flip to another station and catch a portion of something else...ba$tard$...
Many of the commercials and programs are so politically correct that I have gotten to the point that I could care less anymore if a station goes under...they deserve it for their support of that idiocy.
shows like these the whole family could sit down and watch. today's shows? no.
I have a roku and a logitech Revue, (older Android device) .. The Revue has no adblock whatsoever ever so and has Chrome which figures more ads is better viewing. I watch all most exclusively Asian entertainment via channels on the roku or the Revue.
Some stuff I have to watch on my computer and hell yes I use AdBlock and NoScript. If I tried to access those websites without it you are bombarded with crap load of ads and popups.
There isn’t enough money to pay me to watch one of the shows mentioned in the article.
They are the crap that makes it hard to find something to watch.
This really EXCELLENT news. With a bit of luck, the major and FLAMING LIBERAL networks will go tits up.
This might serve to push those couch potatoes out into the real world where they might actually find out how much trouble we’re in and become involved in the struggle going on around them.
If your business model doesn’t fit conditions change your model.
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Worth Repeating....
If your business model doesn’t fit conditions change your model.
Be careful what you wish for.
Yeah, I started in IT where this show is placed and is bringing back memories when we could get a PC with 48k mem screaming at 1.7 Mhz.
Dittoes. I need to just cancel my Hulu subscription. Netflix and Amazon Prime is all I need.
And Crackle? Grrr. Don’t get started on that. The same Jack in the Box commerical repeated 5 times an hour is just too much!
Yeah. I almost added a “Then again...” after that post and probably should have as the vast bulk (numerical and physiological) will most likely be libtards
1. I do not watch (rarely if ever) commercials since VCR days.
2. Sci-Fi and the other goober channels take a 1.5 hour run show/movie and stretch it out for 3.5 to 4 hours. Even with a DVR all the fast forwards get annoying.
3. Shows on AMC suck, period. It is a freaking movie channel. I have stopped watching it almost for strictly TCM.
4. Commercials are not only annoying, but inappropriate. Nothing better than watching what is suppose to be a family type movie or a sporting event and viagra/cialis commercials aire every break. Better yet is thinking you are watching something on ABC Family (which is far from family) and half the commercials are for some stupid arsed show on MTV about teen moms, tattooed freak shows, some dare type show, or ultra violent/sexed-up trailer from a movie.
I don’t have any favorite TV shows.
scratch that.
My favorite ones are from Korea. “Running Man”, “Roommate” and “You are all surrounded” are the ones I am watching these days.
9 out of 10 commercials portray white, middle aged men/fathers as hapless morons or henpecked so I won’t ever buy their crap.
There is very little original creative thought in Hollywood, it's all remakes of old ideas with more whiz, zoom, flash. Big whoop! Try writing something challenging to your audience. Wait...
Most of the crap on TV and movies is geared to adolescents. Vampires? Zombies? What is this, halloween 24/7/365? If I want my intelligence insulted on a daily basis, I'll watch ABCNNBCBS!©
How about network programming mission creep? There's no Hitler on the History channel, where's the Gunny, Dogfights! or Tales of the Gun? It's hard to soak up useful knowledge from a virtual cesspool!
Even the Military channel's creeping toward alien crap, too. WTF?!
Nobody cooks on Food Network like they used to! Cupcakes? Competitions? Grocery games? What's to learn there? Not much of nothing on that network either. What a waste, something else that USED to be good.
What, they actually think we're stupider than they are? Oy vey!
... and they are nekkid...
cracked.com cracks me up.
ROKU and other devices (ChromeCast?) bring all the free (some not free) programming online to one place, like a TV menu on cable.
You can probably do a lot of it on your browser “favorites” list and stuff I guess.
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