Wire writer says adverts kill TV

BBC ^ | BBC | Staff

[AreaMan]

Wire writer says adverts kill TV

The creator of highly-acclaimed hard-hitting TV drama The Wire has said television can only be worthwhile when freed from the constraints of advertising.

David Simon was appearing at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.

He said: "Television as a medium, in terms of being literate and telling stories, has short-changed itself since its inception.

"That is because of advertising."

Simon, whose work originates on US subscription cable channel HBO, said: "Only when television managed to liberate itself from the economic construct of advertising was there a real emancipation of story.

"American television up until the point of premium cable was about the interruptions every 13 minutes to sell you cars and jeans and whatever else."

Sell products

He said the adverts became more important than the show.

"You had to bring the most number of eyeballs to that show and that meant dumbing down and making plots simple, gratifying people within the hour."

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I guess he doesn't realize that the alternative to advertising is a broadcast bureaucracy that gets money from the government and makes people like him jump through hoops to get their shows funded.

Maybe he should get a real job.

[usurper]

For what I am paying Comcast every month there should be no commercials.

[BallyBill]

I can think of a few "adverts" I'd like to never see again, but the alternative to commercial TV (GOV TV) is frightening.

Long Live Capitalism!

[ari-freedom]

but we have both advertising *and* liberal news on the networks...

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I guess he doesn't realize that the alternative to advertising is a broadcast bureaucracy that gets money from the government and makes people like him jump through hoops to get their shows funded.

Well, there's another alternative and that's viewer subscription. Simon's own "The Wire" aired for 5 seasons on HBO, and was the best TV show I've ever seen for most of those seasons. "The Wire" could not have aired on broadcast TV and I assume Simon is contrasting his experience with that show to his experience with the NBC series Homicide.

[AreaMan]

I think he should get the kind of education George McGovern got after he left politics and started his own business.

Go ahead and try to start a cable channel and see if you don't need the "adverts."

[TomGuy]

subscription cable channel HBO, said: "Only when television managed to liberate itself from the economic construct of advertising was there a real emancipation of story.

That's a joke.

HBO and similar subscription channels are still running some of the same movies they were running 20 years ago.

==

The early advent of cable (vs broadcast) was that cable would be commercial free.

Have you checked FX or TNT or USA or The History Channel or even AMC? Or checked the cable line up for, say 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. when Infomercials dominate?

==

Thirty years ago, a typical program had about 52 minutes of content per broadcast hour. That number has dwindled to 42 minutes. Just recently, the content dropped to about 39 minutes.

[AreaMan]

Television & Radio be they cable,satellite or broadcast are essentially selling advertising, the programming is just there to attract viewers/listeners so that they can charge more for their "adverts".

I suspect the advent of the web and the easy digitization of video and music have made the business model less profitable which has resulted in trying to squeeze more dollars per unit of time.

[parsifal]

Gov’t ought to limit the adverts. Limit pop up ads that help cause ADD. Ban repetitive adverts in the same hour or so. Ban much of the sex, nudity, grossness, cussing, etc. in the network broadcasts. make stations properly equalize the sound level between adverts and the show.

TV is going the same way as magazines. All advertisements and no real story. Cosmo and Playboy have been putting out the same issues over and over for the last 40 years. This months “17 Sizzling Sex Secrets” is next month’s “5 Things He Wants You to do in Bed, But is Afraid to Ask” and the following month’s “10 Ways to Spice up Your Sex Life.”

Playboy, is the about the same every month, only the air-brushed bimbos change, and the stereo equipment, Scotch, liquor, and cars are just the latest models. They might as well call it “Booze, Bass, and Cars” and just stick in the pinup of the month.

parsy, the jaded

[AreaMan]

Gov’t ought to limit the adverts. Limit pop up ads that help cause ADD. Ban repetitive adverts in the same hour or so. Ban much of the sex, nudity, grossness, cussing, etc. in the network broadcasts. make stations properly equalize the sound level between adverts and the show. TV is going the same way as magazines

The solution is found in the last line. The marketplace, all of us, is delivering the verdict.

People will find a way to watch what they want and skip the annoying advertising by using DVR's, TIVO, the web, etc.

The newspapers and magazines have been decimated by the web and other "on demand" services. TV and cable will suffer the same fate.

[parsifal]

True, and with satellite TV, now the “cable” guys have some competition.

parsy, who still thinks gov’t needs to step in on the broadcast guys.

[AreaMan]

What I would REALLY like to see is A La Carte cable and satellite programming. Only pay for the channels you want instead of having to take the cable/satellite "packaged" channels.

The cable/satellite industry would go insane if the FCC forced them offer only the channels that people actually want.

How quickly would crap like HSN, LOGO or The Underwater Basketweaving Channel go away?

[parsifal]

That would screw up their whole marketing scheme. The point is to get a certain amount of money out of customers each month. Years ago I had the digital package and I loved the music channels and video channels. But I just ain’t going to pay the price for it.

So yeah, in the meantime, there’s HSN, the Golf Channel, the 5 year old football game channel, etc.

parsy, who says whoopee

[Titus-Maximus]

People have been watching TV for 50 years with commercials before cable, and the stories were fine. This is a stupid exaggeration and I am surprised he is even making it a thesis. This is a slow news week.

[denydenydeny]

David Simon is pretty much a Communist, and a particularly insane one: "[Capitalism] has to be attended to. "

[IrishBrigade]

“You had to bring the most number of eyeballs to that show and that meant dumbing down and making plots simple, gratifying people within the hour.”...

...very similar to the Novus Ordo mass, really...

[Liberty Valance]

Thank goodness for DVR’s.