Posted on 08/12/2005 5:45:18 AM PDT by KevinDavis
Tonight's Sci - Fi Listing:
7/6 - Firefly. Basically Sci-fi is showing repeats of Firefly and showing previews of the movie Serenity.
8/7 - Stargate SG1: Vala is on trial for a crime she comitted when she was a host to a goauld. Last weeks episode was a good one. More of a ha ha type of episode.
9/8 - Stargate Atlantis: They crash land on a planet where they offer the wraith prisoners for food (hmmmm). Lasts week ok...
10/9 - Battlestar Galatica: Finally Adama returns also the story is getting better. It looks Tigh is a weak fool.
What evidence do you have of that?
At best you assume that people watching non TIVO don't do other things during commercials. (I know a good many of my friends get up and do things during commercials.) Also many folks tape programs with VCRs and fast forward through the commercials when the watch.
And Nielson is not tracking at all with the new ratings such as Tivo, DVR and On Demand/pay per view.
When Firefly was shown on Fox on Fridays it was one of the highest TIVOed shows on at the time, yet the Nielson ratings had it in the basement. Also when the DVD box set went on sale it rocketed to the number one spot on Amazon sales IT is currently Number 21 on their DVD top Sellers list. It ranks above Star Wars Boxed set and Harry Potter, Prisoner of Askaban, Desperate Housewives first season,The Soprano's 5th season and BSG 1st Season.
Clearly something is wrong when all other ways to track something are counter to the guestimates that Nielson puts up. And this is not only happened with Firefly but many other shows also. Family Guy is another and Futurama as well. Word is there is now supposedly and unofficial investigation into Nielson and a payola type scandal only they are supposed to have manufactured numbers and accepted payments to promote certain shows.
I don't mean to vouch for the quality of Nielsen's results or their ethics. But it is an obvious fact that if you want to have an statistical chance at all of measuring who watches commercials (or hears them when they go to the kitchen), rating only non-TiVoed shows is the best way to do it, because only a very few TiVo viewers are going to watch any commercials.
And saying the Firefly outsells Desparate Housewives means it is more popular isn't necessarily so either. After all, genre fans are much more likely to buy a series on DVD than are the types of folks that watch Desparate Housewives. However, it does say something about Firefly's popularity.
But this really raises a much bigger point for the TV industry. With DVRs allowing people to ignore commerials, how will the networks and cable channels be able to pay the bills? There's some talk about having an alternative way to show a commercial while fast forwarding. That's good. There's always product placement, but what products can you place in most sci fi? Star Trek: Enterprise drew about 3 million viewers. If half of those would by a "subscription" to enterprise for $1 an episode, they'd have plenty of dollars to cover the cost. But I wonder how many would pay. If we do get a subscription model, I suspect that we'd get to see a lot more good sci fi, as it is much more likely people like us would ante up than people who want to see CSI or Law and Order.
Oh well. Firefly's bad ratings were also owed to the fact that FOX made some really stupid decisions!
The whole firefly fox episode proves one thing, sci-fi and network tv don't mix. Firefly should have been in syndication or on the sci-fi channel...
I have Tivo season passes for all four (plus Wonderfalls on Thursdays)...
My wife and I are getting ready to dump cable.. Comcrap wanting us to get a new box, however with Dish, their DVR is just a minor fee one time fee and a few dollars extra.. One more reason to dump Comcrap..
Comcrap keeps trying to get me to come back; I'm more concerned with trying to get my hands on a Canadian (BEV/SC) system to go with my DirecTV.
Right now we are leaning towards Dish. Mrs Kevindavis wants a tvio so she does not get stuck on Friday nights watching the a bove mentioned shows and her soaps. I want a tivo so I can record Buck Rogers (4/3 am) and other stuff...
OK so TiVO is less accurate because it tells you whether or not someone is fast forwarding through commercials (hitting pause when commercial comes on while watching liove and then fast forwarding to program) over a system that uses a FEW set top boxes and a majority of pencil and paper polls to find out whether people are watching a program?
Sorry but I am having trouble with finding the logic in such a premise.
I can't figure whether or do or not. Not enough combat for my tastes and the whole religious theme is a bit over the top. Number 6 and Boomer are hot but Starbuck is a skank.
Starbuck is the "kid sister" / "girl next door" look for the 21st century.
A dirty biatch is what she looks like to me...
What's that? If you don't mind "sharing"...
Bell ExpressVu (BEV) and Star Choice (SC) are the two Canadian dish-based satellite systems. The two have more programming than the US services, and while some channels that have the same name north of the border duplicate American choices directly (CNN, Fox News, etc.), others with identical names have different programming (HGTV, Discovery, Food Network, etc). And yet others have different names and different types of programming (Space, MuchMusic, TSN, etc.). Finally, there are other networks with some programming that is not available in the US at all (BBC World, APTN, NHL Network, etc.).
Add to that additional news choices (BBC World, EuroNews, CBC Newsworld, CTV NewsNet, et.al.), and the US broadcast networks from both the east and west coasts (Seattle or Spokane in the west; Buffalo or Detroit in the east) without jumping through major hoops.
Because of the exchange rate, you make out a fair bit better cost-wise as well.
The services are only available in the US through a "grey market." The companies cannot sell to you directly, but an American (or a Canadian who is living here in the "southern provinces") can use the services of what is called a "broker" in order to maintain a Canadian address and facilitate billing.
BUT . . . would a rose be as beautiful without the thorns?
I've been on Dish Network for over 3 years. The Receiver/DVR combo is awesome. Sure, you pay up front for the DVR, but there isn't an additional charge for the DVR like TiVo. When I do my "dish move" next year I'm going to get their "super-duper-woohoo!" Receiver/DVR. Records two channels at once, watch one while viewing another, Pic in Pic, 100 hours recording time (might be more than that since I checked)
I wish Direct TV would do the same thing so I could get the NFL package...but that would be my only reason to switch from Dish Network.
You'll love being on the Dish.
Then Dish is the way to go then???
I got a BG ques for you. Was Starbucks doctor the same guy that was guarding the president in the brig?
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