Just read this:
I have to say I agree 100% with the idea that the commercials are necessary to the pacing. Obviously the answer is that eventually shows will be written with non-commercial pacing, but we’re not there yet. Just found the idea interesting.
Which leads me to something else that I think will be lost in the world of entertainment in the near future – spontaneity.
Since we moved, we’re stuck with Time Warner. I fucking hate everything about Time Warner. Their prices are too high, their offerings too few and their equipment sucks major ball sack. I always knew it, but after sampling AT&T for a few months before we moved, it’s painfully obvious. The sick thing is that even though we moved less than a mile as the crow flies, there’s no plans for AT&T to make service available here any time soon. I’m disgusted every time I sit down to watch TV and I cringe every time I pay the Time Warner bill.
With all of that said, it’s made me consider being on the bleeding edge and just dropping a service provider altogether. A combo of an antenna, a PC hooked to the TV and something like a Roku along with my Netflix subscription would probably cover everything I already watch.
I’m only concerned about losing two things – discovery and spontaneity.
I know I’m old school in this aspect and I think I talked about this before on this blog, but when it comes to my entertainment I prefer a little spontaneity and I like the random process of discovering something I enjoy.
With TV that means surfing through the channels and having something catch my attention and getting sucked in and enjoying it. Maybe a movie, maybe a documentary about the mating habits of some rare bird found only on a remote island, maybe a sitcom that becomes regular viewing.
With “on demand” programming it’s different. I have to choose to see the show. With channel surfing, it’s being shown to me.
With the world going “On Demand” and everyone watching exactly what they want when they want, I fear this simple joy of spontaneous discovery is on its way to extinction.
I think the same applies to music. I love my iPod. I love having my entire collection of music available anywhere. I sometimes miss driving in the car and just channel surfing and finding a song I like that I hadn’t discovered previously.
My biggest “old curmudgeon” thing to overcome in the face of changing entertainment delivery is how to keep that spontaneity, how to continue that path of discovery.
Because while the tech and the change fascinates me, it’s one area where I’ll be sad to see the old way go.
I don’t channel surf. Ever. If I don’t see an ad for something I might like, I never see it. When channel lineups exceeded 60 or so channels, I stopped surfing. Too much crap, too little substance. I know I miss all kinds of stuff on Discovery networks, which I love, because I don’t know they’re on. Channel surfing is dead.
I’m not sure channel surfing is dead; it just might be really, really sick. Comcast (and I believe the dish services?) offer a nice guide feature. If I press guide I get a listing of all of my channels and it takes less than a minute to page through them. If I see something interesting, I hit info and find out more or just select it.
But I have to confess, for me the commercials don’t offer a necessary break in order to better appreciate the program. They tend to make me switch to the guide to see if there’s anything else on I might enjoy. Then I do the back and forth flip, likely missing key pieces of the feature as well as the ads! I often do the same thing with the radio.
I guess I should have been a little more clear:
Guide surfing, not channel surfing.
The point is, flipping through until an image, comment, sound, something catches your attention and then holds it.
Well, color me literal. ;-)
I still ride the wave of stations. I am left with the attention span of a small child by the time I finally get around to watching the tube. So I find myself continuously moving through the options.