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Why TV Networks Are In A Mess: Part Two - Broadcast Ratings Have Been Declining For Years

Monday, 11 January 2010 20:03 | Written by Alice Jester

This is the second part of a multipart analysis on the state of broadcast networks today. Part one can be found here:

http://www.jesterz.net/tv-for-the-rest-of-us/list-of-articles/3057-why-tv-networks-are-in-a-mess-part-one-history-of-tv-production.html

I imagine many of you are like me. I missed out on a lot on TV in the late 1990’s and 2000’s. My kids were young. First all our TV had on was Teletubbies. Then Elmo. Then Powerpuff Girls. Then Spongebob. Now its iCarly. Mom and Dad get two hours of programming a night, and we’ve spent the last few years catching up nightly with shows on the DVR. I never saw Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Angel. Smallville. Battlestar Galatica. How I Met Your Mother. Firefly. Roswell. Flight Of The Conchords. Dexter. Mad Men, etc. I could barely keep up with my must see shows like The West Wing, The X-Files, and name that Star Trek franchise. The CSI procedural (Las Vegas) that I once enjoyed was tossed three years ago because there wasn’t time.

There’s been a solution for my dilemma for a few years now. TV on DVD. Now I can finally catch up on all those old shows I missed that people I know online rave about and it’ll take me less time since there are no commercials. I can breeze through a third of a season in an afternoon. It’s a win for me because I get my second chance and it’s a win for TV studios that produced the show since I’m either purchasing their DVD or renting from Netflix, who did purchase their DVD. Except there’s one problem. If I watch those in that two hour window I have every night or the occasional free weekend day, plus my current must see shows like Supernatural or Chuck, do I have time for any new network shows? Is FlashForward worth a space on my already packed DVR which only gets relieved during times of repeats? V? Fringe? Modern Family? Sadly, the answer is no. Live TV viewing isn’t possible anymore.

My dilemma is one of the reasons broadcast television networks are pleading poverty. There seems to be a common point of blame: the business model. That’s certainly true, but it’s not because they solely rely on advertising for revenue and advertising revenue is down. It’s the result of years of corporate consolidation. Looking back at revenue for the last 25 years, what’s happening is just the latest trend in chasing the next best thing.

Why TV Networks Are In A Mess: Part One - History of TV Production

Tuesday, 08 December 2009 12:34 | Written by Alice Jester

Sure, it’s getting to be old news. Network TV ratings are down. The reasons are plenty. Advertising is down. Numbers aren’t being counted accurately because more people are watching shows online, with DVRs, and DVD sets. The antiquated ratings system needs an overhaul. The current business model doesn’t work.

Yeah, that’s all probably true, but the state of the system today all happened because of the corporate media mergers and their never ending chase for that new source of revenue. Their actions increased income in one area but ended up cannibalizing others. What’s happening is the result of the age of corporate media. This is part one of several articles that will examine why Network television is in the mess it’s in today. There’s a long history that explains what’s happening and the various reasons why what used to work no longer does. Before going forward though, a brief look at the history of networks is required. We need to see in their business dealings how they got here. Part one is a history lesson.

For fun, let’s go back 30 years to 1979 when TV wasn’t doing so well either. Back then NBC was a last place network and 60 minutes, a non-scripted show, was the number one program, drawing about 21.6 million seasonal average. The top twenty had some wonderful critical darlings like Taxi and WKRP in Cincinnati, some aging favorites like M*A*S*H, and super lite fare in Three's Company, That's Incredible!, Dallas, The Dukes of Hazzard, Real People and CHiPs. We won't even mention the other awesome stuff that didn't make the top twenty, like BJ and The Bear, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. We had just said goodbye to stunning cancellations of Starsky and Hutch, Good Times, What's Happening!, Welcome Back Kotter, and my favorite, Wonder Woman. In other words, back then they had a lot of crap too.

In 1979, ratings were kind of low. Lower than previous years anyway. Cable wasn't an issue. It existed, but was an outlet for off-net syndication. Most homes didn't have VCRs yet, especially since they were expensive and the big war was brewing between VHS and Betamax. If someone missed their show, they had no choice but to wait until it came on again months later in reruns, or years later in syndication. At the time, the networks weren’t owned by any large conglomerates nor were they producing their own shows. They weren’t allowed to. The number of households watching TV was increasing, but overall ratings wasn’t. Bottom line, what was being aired was pretty bland.

Lucky for network television, a game changing creative resurgence was just around the corner. That and Dallas getting delightfully trashy. But I’m not ready to get into that yet. We need to go back farther.

Mythbusters Go Wild With Duct Tape

Thursday, 15 October 2009 23:35 | Written by Alice Jester

You know, I've been telling my husband for years the answer to all our household needs comes from just a roll of duct tape. He's always mocked my faith in it. Thanks to the insanely creative genius of The Mythbusters in Wednesday's episode, I got a chance to do my "in your face" dance. Ah, the sweet gyrations of victory.

You know why I love watching this show so much? It's like watching kids at Christmas. Sure, these guys are brilliant in the level of detail and planning that goes into each experiment, but it's criminal to see people like this love their jobs that much. It's pure unadulterated jubilation over destroying things. Who doesn't love watching grown adults regress to their inner child while blowing stuff up in all sorts of ways? It's the best entertainment on television today.

I've often joked that some of life's strongest foundations have been held together by duct tape and chicken wire. So, when Adam and Jamie took those elements to construct a seaworthy duct tape boat, complete with duct tape sail, and managed to navigate the choppy waters of the San Francisco Bay without sinking, I was giddy to see such a lifelong theory proven correct. Almost as giddy and those guys were enjoying their sailing adventures. One had to wonder what sort of reactions they were getting from nearby boats as the wind pushed their dark grey product of an insane imagination along the water. I was laughing and I wasn’t even there.

Comic Con Wrap Up: All The Stuff I Missed

Sunday, 09 August 2009 23:02 | Written by Alice Jester

My final Comic Con piece for blogcritics. Just like I did with the New York Comic Con, anyone plugging their stuff with me got a mention.

http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/comic-con-wrap-up-all-the2/

TV For The Rest of Us - Welcome To The Site

Monday, 20 July 2009 21:48 | Written by Alice Jester

I know, the template is a little crude. Just like with The Winchester Family Business, hubby and I will be constantly tweaking the format, adding features, making it more usable for the common man. In the meantime, this was the best thing we could throw together before this week's Comic Con. The Red Headed Monster had to go. The template was buggy, and too many people when they heard the name thought of Elmo. No, it wasn't a children's oriented site.

This site doesn't even have a URL yet, because I'm testing out the name. TV For The Rest Of Us was inspired by none other than Frank Costanza, the absolutely insane father of George Costanza on Seinfeld. He created his own holiday, Festivus, because he was tired of the commericalism of Christmas. The tagline was "Festivus for the rest of us."

Basically, I'm sick of most TV blogs out there. They're loaded with gossip hounds and plenty of people rehasing the same news by linking to other sites when one gets a nugget. Not that there aren't good sites out there, but the bad outweigh the good. I get there are slow times, and filler must be done. Heck, I just devoted an entire in depth article on The Winchester Family Business to a main character's hair. Even in the busy times though, most of what I read isn't entertaining.

Very few out there try to take TV and undercover what's good about it.  Now, thanks to Twitter, it's been more diluted than ever. My goal is to do with TV blogging to what Jon Stewart did for cable TV news. Turn it into an appreciable medium, but have loads of fun with it. Thus, TV for the rest of us.

To access the site, go to www.jesterz.net or www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com and click on the link. I hope this will be the place you think to come to as the TV season revs up in the next few months. In the meantime, my Comic Con reports will be here. No, you won't be getting high profile reports about all the mega publicized events in Hall H. You'll be getting reports from the smaller rooms and events, the ones that the high profile media outlets wouldn't dare cover!  I'm finding my niche. Either that, or I'll give up because of the impossible crowds and you can read about my sightseeing adventures with the family. Tune in to see what happens!

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