I am calling down the doom of regular TV.
Oh, yeah. A lot of people have done that already, haven’t they? A lot of it comes from hatred of the cable industry, or dish, or the networks in general. Combine that hatred with the ease of streaming, and it looks pretty darn likely. Cost is high, a fault that falls on a lot of different parties, and there’s no real cost-effective way to do channels a la carte (I’m paying for the Golf Channel?! Why don’t I just pay to watch paint dry?!! )
Advertising is another reason, and who can blame anyone? Every minute of every hour of every day we are bombarded with advertising. And when a way for us to dodge those ads comes along, the ad men lose their minds. DVRS? People can just whiz past our well-thought out commercials? How can we brainwash them if they aren’t seeing a Fucillo scream HUGE 14 times an hour? Who’ll tell them they need Coke and Taco Bell today?? WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?? Where will I get updates on those dysfunctional puppies and babies if Destination Kia isn’t shoving them in my face?
How on earth will I know that I would rather puke up a kidney than go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid, if I’m not being lambasted with that godawful car scene three times an hour?
Those aren’t the final straw, though. For the most part, I DVR everything and yep, whiz past the well-thought out commercials.
But then, last night, watching one of my DVR’d shows, a newer irritation rose its’ ugly head, and I just about lost it.
I know where to find out about weather. I have an app on my phone. I have the Weather Channel. I have a desktop computer and access to 3 million weather sites, some with maps, imagine! Oh, and windows. I have quite a few of those scattered throughout the house.
So when I’m watching my much-anticipated Supernatural season finale, the last thing I want is Steve LaPointe’s face breaking in every ten minutes to update me on a thunderstorm. Missed plenty of the first half of the finale, then into the second half, they start to show what we assume is Rowena’s corpse and BAM, there’s Steve again.
You gotta be kidding. It’s not even a hurricane. It’s a thunderstorm. You know, for years I’ve been able to figure out thunderstorms ON MY OWN. I didn’t need to be warned, rewarned, and overwarned. I know what high winds do. I get hail. Really. Seen it. More than once, even. I have known since I was like six not to stand under trees or sit on a chain link fence during lightning. (I’ve known…doesn’t mean I haven’t done it, but that falls on me.) If WRGB felt it was that urgent, just run the damn ticker throughout the show.
Oh, and another thing, networks. When I watch something on Netflix, Netflix doesn’t flash up continual ads in the corner of the screen. They don’t feel a need to remind me what channel or service I’m watching. They don’t harass me with tiny pictures in the corner of what’s coming up next. They don’t plaster their logo on the screen throughout the show. They don’t distort the credits at the end so they can show a preview of something coming up in 2 minutes (and sometimes, there may be something in the credits I actually want to see, thanks again, networks).
TV, networks, all of you, see where this is going? This is why eventually, streaming is going to win.
azbaelus 