How Do You TV?

TV used to be a thing.  A single thing that everyone did.  Now it is a leisure activity.  An activity to which everyone brings their own requirements.  In my post below, I described 11 different ways to TV.  And in the comments a few more arose.  Charles says he likes his TV, "in the background as a 'radio'" when surfing the Interwebs.  Which resonates with Angus.  Ed says, "MS Media Center (thought it was dead?) rips all our viewing as it records into formats for other computers and on my aging Nokia mobile. All formats of a show are deleted when we zap the master recording. Almost everything is time-shifted (even big games), and we skip (almost) all ads, except for the Superbowl where we skip everything else. Recently watching presidential debates it has been fun to keep an eye on the back-channel (e.g. on Twitter), and that wider social aspect would be about our only reason not to time-shift."  Neil says, "In my house TV has become steadily less significant over time. We probably watch about an hour a day average but often that's time shifted or it might well be a film on Sky which doesn't have ad breaks. I think it's a little ridiculous to suggest that people have any kind of decent take out from an ad seen at 30 times the speed. When we do watch, we're often on the internet at the same time or reading or talking."  Which rings true to me.  But David Brennan from ThinkBox kindly drops into offer a cautionary word of warning following a mega-research study:  "I am convinced that the entertainment value of TV advertising can create engagement unlike anything else - not many media can boast people laughing, singing along, dancing & clapping, talking about the products being advertised, playing 'guess the ad' games, mimicking the voice overs word perfectly....and the list goes on!"  Which is not a picture I recognise but does also makes TV sound more like an activity.  So come on folks - how do you TV?

Comments

[Mat Morrison]

I got rid of my TV three years ago or so. There are lots of reasons for this. One was that I found myself watching Celebrity Love Island at 0200hrs when I had a pitch at 1000hrs. I didn't even know it was Celebrity until I saw the break ident. Clearly I was too irresponsible to own a TV. Also, it was taking up a lot of room.

But it was already an easy decision to make. I'd been keeping up with Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lost, Entourage etc. on torrents. More recently, the iTunes Store has made it easy for me to buy series (Grey's Anatomy mostly. I am a big girl's blouse.)

I subscribe to a few video podasts (Diggnation, and the Channel Flip stuff mostly)

Most of the stuff I watch on my iPod, some on my desktop. I suppose I catch quite a lot of programmes on YouTube.

Occasionally I catch stuff on the iPlayer (although I'd like an OS X version of the Download Manager, please)

Very, very rarely, I show people the Slingbox feed that I can pirate off my friend James's Sky Plus (but this is too much really.)

I don't think I need a TV.

[Becks]

I watch TV but not at the prescribed times...with the exception of the news and a couple of kids shows for my daughter, I programme my Sky+ box once a week to record everything of interest then my husband and I (we work away a lot) sit down and watch stuff like Prison Break, Heroes, Shameless etc together at the weekend or in the evening when we are both free. Other stuff is downloaded from torrents and films are saved for weekends/hungover afternoons!

I hate TV on as background noise and spent the majority of evenings playing games or on the PC so TV is a minimal past time that is focused on good dramas and documentaries and in my own time.

[James Cherkoff]

Thanks guys.

Mat - I don't think you need a *TV* either!

Becks, I know what you mean. Currently the Sopranos is in my hangover/weekend telly-bank ;-)

[Mat Morrison]

Actually - y'know - if Thinkbox podcasted the ads, that would be a huge service for me. I'm trying to work out if I can do this with "The Reel" (get a feed of ads released -- perhaps with some idea of buying weights)

I *never* know what ads are showing. I think this is the only downside of my way of consuming media.

[James Cherkoff]

Sorry Mat, why do you want the ads again?

[Eamon]

I come from a technical background and i like the idea of just escaping to the TV and watching it as people used to watch in the old days. Disciplining yourself to watch your favourite programme at 9 or whatever. Using the TV as a clock / map to find out where you are in the day, and tuning in to someone you are familiar with and like. I can understand that a lot of younger people don't think / act like this. But I am sure a lot of older people do. People mustn't go too crazy over technolgy I think. Content will always be king whether it is on TV or the Internet (and advertising on TV or the internet). Technology has its attractions. But it can only take an audience so far. They / we want more!

[James Cherkoff]

Thanks Eamon. Very nicely said. So you use TV as a time machine back to the 'old days'! ;-)