The proliferation of TV channels: A theory by Dale Wisely

[Dale]

Ok, I know that people who are younger than me get tired of people my age saying this, but during all of my youth, we had four TV stations. Affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. Maybe we got a couple of crappy UHF stations by the time I was in college, I don't really remember.

Now I get, I don't know, 500 channels. Perhaps it is false nostalgia, but my memory is that there was usually at least one good thing to watch on TV at any given moment when there were just 4-5 channels. Now, it seems that I often get bored with all 500 channels and turn it off.

So, let's go with this idea: There exists at any moment in the history of television a finite quantity of quality TV. The more channels one has, the more that finite quantity of quality gets spread out over said channels.

Let TVQ=this finite quantity of quality programming.
Let N= the number of channels
Let ChV= the value of a given single channel.

TVQ/N=ChV

That is all.

[mutepointe]

and if you wanted to change channels, you had to get up, walk across the room, and physically twist a dial. we had a tv growing up (black & white of course) that had a channel changing knob that came off (from us playing with it too much.) there was a separate knob to turn the tv on and adjust the volume. i had 4 brothers and when we were fussing over what to watch, one person would change the channel then keep the knob, one person would then turn the tv off. i learned all about detente and the cold war from my brothers.

i also heard of a study (i forget the actual figures) for families that didn't have remote controls, they changed the channels maybe 10 times a day. once they got a remote they changed channels 1000's of times a day. it's not the tv that's the problem, it's the remote.

my wife and i each have our own personal remotes for the same tv, that works for us. we also have seperate peanut butter, pop, ice cream, and toothpaste. this saves our marriage.

[missy]

When I was 6 years old, my dad took two weeks of vacation (this was the only time in all the time he worked at this company that he took vacation). He basically "locked" himself in the basement and build a huge, Heathkit color television. It had UHF so everyone came to our house to watch.

We also had a huge outside antenna with a rotor (my dad was a HAM, this was one of many towers in our yard), so we could get in both Cincinnati AND Dayton stations.

All I cared about was what channel "Dark Shadows" was on, and watching the B horror movies on Saturday night with the "Cool Ghoul".

[BillChin]

Good might not be the proper adjective, comfortable or familiar is probably closer. Shows were tolerable because almost everyone knew something about the show, or had a friend that liked that show.

In the past, a terrible show might have been cancelled after 12 episodes, though most bad shows were given a full year of 24 episodes to prove themselves. Now, a show might get pulled after one, two or three bad ratings, and most only get 22 episodes a year, some as few as 12. Some of the cancelled shows might have had the potential to be really good, if it were given the rope that the old shows were given, but networks don't do that kind of math anymore.

There was a lot of bad TV back in the day. The A-Team was once the highest rated show on TV, as was The Beverly Hillbillies.

Today, there is a lot more reality TV, and niche shows. Some shows only target a particular demographic and don't even aim for the general population. Salaries are one big reason.

Almost all hit shows are showing up on DVD, or run endlessly on some cable channels. I know some folks that watch mostly old Lucy episodes, or old Seinfeld episodes. The new stuff is too confusing or too far out of their comfort zone. Back in the day, any old classics were not available so the masses had no choice but to find new favorites.

[Denny]

Aw Dale, I don't think that Jack Benny and Red Skelton are coming back...

...say it wasn't Mitch Miller or Lawrence Welk, please!

[djm]

There is no question that the internet is carving out huge hunks of time formerly spent watching tv or listening to radio (if you're old enough to remember those days). And the tv and radio people know about this.

There's a couple of web sites now available where you can stream your favourite tv shows from. These are actually being set up by the tv channel owners. They are making the same mistakes the music industry made - not allowing you to save or copy your shows. It will take some time to settle down, I think.

People still want programming for free without commercials, and the ability to select what and when. The program owners are determined to screw you for every penny you're worth. The platform may be changing, but the players have not.

djm

[TonyHiggins]

There was a lot of bad TV back in the day. The A-Team was once the highest rated show on TV, as was The Beverly Hillbillies.

What was wrong with The Beverly Hillbillies???
Tony

[Daniel_Bingamon]

and watching the B horror movies on Saturday night with the "Cool Ghoul".

The "Cool Ghoul", aka Larry B the radio DJ.

Regarding "Reality TV" - I could never understand that, I only watch TV to get away from reality, it defeats the purpose.

and if you wanted to change channels, you had to get up, walk across the room, and physically twist a dial. we had a tv growing up (black & white of course) that had a channel changing knob that came off (from us playing with it too much.) there was a separate knob to turn the tv on and adjust the volume.

One our TV's knob broke and we had to turn channels with a pair of pliers until it was finally fixed.

I remember being in the hospital at 12 years old and they had remote controls on the the old dial type TV, the control would literally make the dial rotate - very noisey and sometimes unreliable.

[cowtime]

When I was 6 years old, my dad took two weeks of vacation (this was the only time in all the time he worked at this company that he took vacation). He basically "locked" himself in the basement and build a huge, Heathkit color television. It had UHF so everyone came to our house to watch.

We also had a huge outside antenna with a rotor (my dad was a HAM, this was one of many towers in our yard), so we could get in both Cincinnati AND Dayton stations.

All I cared about was what channel "Dark Shadows" was on, and watching the B horror movies on Saturday night with the "Cool Ghoul".

This sounds like my dad. We lived out in the country and got one channel. Then dad rigged up some wired telephones that would reach up the mountain, built a tower on top of the mountain, attached an antenna and I had to tell him, via the phones, when he had the antenna positioned for the best reception. Later he build a device that from the house would rotate the antenna so that we could watch THREE different channels- yeah, we had UHF too. Neighbors would come to our house to watch tv because we had these other channels.

[Charlene]

That's why I'm in no hurry to buy a big screen HDTV. I really don't care for exceptionally clear pictures of QVC, HSN, the political channels - might be better for the nature shows and the weather, but as long as the old TV works we're not buying HDTV.

I want a show like Kraft Music Hall. A few singers, a couple of CLEAN comedians, a guy spinning plates on poles . . . .

[Nanohedron]

Man. I remember the black-and-white TV days. At one point I think we had only three channels in Jamestown, ND, but one of 'em was what now gets called PBS, and it was the coolest thing. I think it was actually called the Educational Channel at the time, but it was "Channel Two" to me. Still is, come to think of it. What's up with that? Everywhere I go, PBS IS Channel 2.

But I digress. As I said, Channel Two was once truly cool. To a dork in need of a life, like me, anyway. I mean, where else could you see installations of a film-noir type production of The Tale of Genji - in Japanese with subtitles, set in a sort of kabuki-inspired staging layout shot from inspired camera angles, in period costume and with court music, no less - and all sorts of other informative stuff. Good music, other arts, other cultures, history, you name it. It was a window to the greater world, an oasis I desperately sought in the grey cultural desert that was the North Dakota of my childhood-in-exile. But the best of all were the surgery programs. Freakin' honest-to-goodness surgeries. Scalpels flashing, cosmetic ear reconstructions; Caesarean sections, baby popping out and everything...all up-close and personal. Now tell me that's not cool.

You can't get anything quite like that any more that I know of.

[BillChin]

That's why I'm in no hurry to buy a big screen HDTV. I really don't care for exceptionally clear pictures of QVC, HSN, the political channels - might be better for the nature shows and the weather, but as long as the old TV works we're not buying HDTV.

I want a show like Kraft Music Hall. A few singers, a couple of CLEAN comedians, a guy spinning plates on poles . . . .

For folks on a budget, there are gizmos to attach to the computer to turn it into an HDTV. Mine was about $100 including an antenna for those that lack cable or satellite. It isn't as good as a new HDTV, especially for families, but it is a whole lot cheaper, and better for the environment.

[buddhu]

Most TV is a heap of carp (anag.).

If I could persuade my wife, I'd ditch it. She'd miss the genealogy, comedy and cookery shows though.

Stuff like 'Big Brother', 'Celebrity Love Island' etc nearly move me to violence.

There was a wobbly couple of weeks when I did nearly get drawn into 'Pirate Master'...

[avanutria]

I dunno. When I was a preteen we got four channels (we didn't have cable). On any given post-school afternoon I had the choice of:

1) The news
2) Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
3) Saved By The Bell
4) that religious channel that always seems to come in, even when everything else is static on a portable TV

I don't think any of those could qualify as "one good thing" ...

[chrisoff]

There was a lot of bad TV back in the day. The A-Team was once the highest rated show on TV, as was The Beverly Hillbillies.

What was wrong with the A-Team?

Crazy fool.


And in response to Avanutria's post I can still recite the whole of the rap at the start of fresh prince:

Now this is the story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down. I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.

In west Philadelphia, born and raised. In the playground is where I spent most of my days, chilling out, maxing, relaxing or shooting some b-ball outside of the school. When a couple of guys, up to no good, starting making trouble in the neighbourhood. I got into one little fight and my mom got scared, said "you're moving with your aunt and your uncle in Bel Air".

So I whistled for a cab and when it came near, the licence plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare, but I thought nah forget it, yo home to Bel Air.

I pulled up to a house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cab, yo home smell you later. I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel Air.