Posted on 05/19/2006 12:58:25 PM PDT by Mikey_1962
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The major TV networks trotted out their biggest stars and presented their fall schedules to advertisers this week during lavish presentations in New York City known as the upfronts.
Media buyers were entertained, wined and dined at famous locales like Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center and Tavern on the Green. And they endured buzzwords like "content," "platforms" and "upscale audience" more times than they can possibly count.
But now that the partying and spin-doctoring from network executives is over, it's time to get down to business: negotiating ad rates and commitments for the upcoming 2006-2007 television season.
After all, that's what the upfronts are really about...getting big corporations to open up their purse strings. Chris Rock, the comedian and co-creator of "Everybody Hates Chris," summed it up best at the CW presentation Thursday.
"You better spend some motherf****** money!" he shouted to the audience.
DVRs: The elephant in the TV room Heading into this week's upfronts, many industry insiders were predicting that the top networks would fall short of the $9.1 billion in commercial time that they sold during the 2005 upfront.
And now that the networks have all shown their hands, there is still a sense that they may all have an uphill battle on their hands. That's because technology is wreaking havoc on the very existence of network television.
But the one piece of technology that has altered the TV landscape more than any other was not mentioned by any executive at any of the upfronts: the digital video recorder or DVR. More and more couch potatoes are using TiVo (Research) or cable boxes with DVRs built in to watch shows when they want and fast forward through the commercials.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I should try NetFlix. Thanks.
When the commercials used to be 2 minutes every 15 minutes, it was tolerable. Now they will put them in every 7 or 8 minutes in the middles of scenes sometimes, totally affecting the flow of a movie. Sometimes the commercials last for over 5 minutes.
I gave up watching any TV other than VHS or DVD 5 years ago.
Ouch....no I don't. I am inclined to follow the available advice and put my current ATI card in another box (we have four running on our household wireless net, and one of them could really use the transplant) and then get the good one.
ATI cards have never let me down.
Just a few weeks ago,, Senator Stevens included a provision (written by lobbyists from the broadcast industry) within a bill to allow the BROADCAST FLAG to go forward. This means that the cable companies will be able to PREVENT the recording of most television programs.. on TIVO, or DVR. The concept of Time Shifting will be dead.
The Broadcast Flag will only have three modes.. "Copy ONCE".. "Copy ALLOWED" and "Copy NEVER".
They will also be able to plug "The ANALOG hole"; that is; after 2009, when the various cable and satellite systems are set to broadcast ONLY in "Digital" format, NO cable company or satellite company will be allowed to broadcast in Analog format, and we can't recieve anything except in the Digital format (for those of us with Digital tv sets; and for those who have yet to buy a new Digital Tv set.. we can't recieve anything without a Digital/Analog conversion box).
The Broadcast Flag will affect EVERYONE'S viewing habits.
Soo.. THAT's probably the reason WHY the networks are not worried that much about TIVOs and DVR's skipping commercials.. with the Broadcast Flag in effect.. we won't be ABLE to USE our Tivos and DVR's as we have in the past for time shifting.. the Broadcast Flag won't allow us to USE the Tivo's and DVRS in the way that we are accustomed to.
Soo.. get ready for some major changes in how we are able to watch tv. People are NOT gonna like what is being planned for us.
There is plenty of blame to go around, they are seemingly doing everything they can to drive us away
Desperate Housewives is an hour long show on Sunday nights. Only half in jest I tell my wife that it's the best 22 minutes of TV on the air.
Not content with just many more commercials, they are making full use of technology that allows them to put teasers and commercials along the bottom of our screens while the show we are watching is still showing.
Then of course the old standby, the commercials are about 20 decibels louder to the human ear than the show we are watching.
I think that is key. They probably want to drive people away from free TV so they can put it all on cable/satellite and charge for shows and not have to fuss with advertising. People are abandoning free radio for pay satellite. Free radio and TV of any interest are probably a thing of the past. There will either be free radio/TV for poor people, or, the Dems will make free satellite/cable a constitutional right for them. Available in Spanish, too.
ATI cards are good... the tv tuner card isn't that expensive and is compatible with WinXP home/pro/MCE
the tv tuner in post 41, is compatibe with XP Home, Pro and MCE
Tivo is one of the greatest tech inventions of the past fifty years, and that's not an exaggeration IMHO. After having it for five or six years, I've spent the last eight months without it because I'm in a temp apartment in which it just won't work. I STILL reach for the remote to pause, or to FF, or back up and catch something I didn't quite understand.
Most of all, I hate the fact that to watch a show, I'm a slave to someone else's timetable. Can't work too late on Monday or I'll miss 24, which is totally unacceptable. If I wanna watch a little ST-TNG, I have to stay up til 1 AM. Thankfully I'm moving into my new house in ten days, where I'm installing a pair of HD DirecTiVo boxes!
MM
Netflix
bittorent
:)
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