Right now we’re working on an episode called I Want What I Want When I Want It: The On-Demand Show. We (the Spark team and friends) were talking about our TV habits earlier this week and we discovered that:
Nora, Tom, Nicola and I do not have cable and Dan watches TV online.
Why am I getting the impression that we are a warped sample…
Do you watch tv? Have you switched to watching more TV shows online? What are you watching on your computer and where are you downloading it from? Leave you comments and we’ll add them to the show.
I don’t think television is necessarily dead, but the business model that runs it is most certainly kaput.
Broadcasters in Canada need to wake up to the fact that more and more people are turning away from conventional television viewing…and finding cheaper/faster ways to get their favourite shows.
I work for a broadcaster, but I almost exclusively download my non-work television shows. I use a program called Miro or download entire seasons/series from torrent sites.
Just don’t tell my boss!
Very rarely do I watch TV. In fact I only follow one show on the Dejaview Network, Good Times. Outside of that I have no use for TV. I do watch docs and other interesting video on Youtube, example I found Battlefield. An old PBS show about famous battles I watched Normandy and Battle of Britain on Youtube. It is more interesting to me to be able to pick when I watch a show. I also like that I don't have to watch inane commercials and I do not have to adhere to a TV schedule. The net makes it easy for me to pick what tI want to see when I want to see it.
The only thing I use live TV for now is sporting events (Go Riders!). Everything else I watch online – either streamed or downloaded from BitTorrent.
Your topic is timely for me.
I’ve always had TV in my house.
I just bought a house and I’m thinking of chucking the 15 year old Sony for a new flat panel TV.
The ironic thing is – I asked my two boys (ages 8 & 5) if they wanted a TV in the new house.
One says yes and the other says no.
The one that wants TV has video games in mind – not actually watching TV.
Telling.
The more cable channels I see created, and the more programming repetition I see within those channels, the less I want cable. I have a modest package now but I’m ready to drop it in favour of the three main Canadian networks and little else. Just give me the basics and I’ll find anything else I think I’m missing online.
I don’t have cable, and I only follow a few shows on TV. If I am not doing anything when the show is airing I will watch it on TV, but I use the RSS downloader on utorrent to automatically download the shows I want when the shows become available. Then I can watch them whenever I want with no commercials.
If we ever watch TV, it is either a sports event, news (hello, CBC) or Turner Classics (& surprisingly, we are in our 30s – maybe I should be posting to the ‘Are you a Geek’ topic?) The only other TV we watch is one weekly series through downloaded Torrent because we would never manage our schedules to be at home in front of the telly at a certain time slot.
I’ve been finding that most television programs are too littered with advertisements or just generally poor quality. Perhaps video killed radio, but at least radio still has some self respect… What does TV have? “Reality TV”.
We also have so many channels that have lost their focus. Why is “TLC” now the home renovation/design channel? Why is “Discovery” showing us how to build motorcycles, shouldn’t that be on “Speed”? Shouldn’t “Race to Mars” be on “Space”? Why is “World Poker Tour” on the sports channel? Am I the only person who has noticed this?
How many sitcom reruns and reality shows will people continue to subject themselves to on all the big networks before they can’t stand it anymore? Who has time to plan for when their show is going to on so they can see it.
Here is what I’ve noticed… Check out your local movie rental place and look to see how big their TV rental section is. People are renting their shows more than ever before. They do this because they are tired of sorting through mess that TV has become, they want to watch their shows when they have the time, and they don’t like advertisements interrupting their show.
My wife and I have not watched TV the way average people do for over three years. I discovered bittorrent in 2004 and we haven’t looked back.
We are now on our third multimedia player and I have created a small network dedicated to our TV watching habits. We have a 1 TB network storage device (NAS) for saving all of the television episodes that we want to watch. I have a dedicated multimedia unit with network access connected to a high definition television which plays the shows that are accessed from the NAS. I also have a dedicated computer which automatically monitors the Internet and downloads new television shows as they are released on the Internet.
We have found that there has been a radical change in our lives since we have switched how we watch television. Some of these changes are quite unexpected. For example, we find that we spend less each month than we used to. I attribute it to not watching commercials anymore. Since I am not aware of the the newest and latest product that I must have, I don’t rush out to buy it.
I have also discovered that, even though we watch more television shows than we used to, we spend less time watching television because there are no commercials. What used to take me an hour to watch is now only taking between 39 and 42 minutes. Essentially, it is a “watch two hours, get one hour free” scenario!
I also find that I am more productive because I no longer tie myself to the television schedule or monitor the VCR to ensure that my show is taping. I can concentrate on the task at hand and watch television at the end of the day when I am done my work.
I have also changed how I watch television shows. I have my regular shows that I watch each week but I have also started to archive shows and watch them in marathons during the off-season. You get a much different sense and feeling when you watch a show this way. In fact, I have watched entire series in this fashion and it is amazing how much the characters become a part of your life. They are like friends or co-workers that you visit daily and there is definitely a sense of mourning or sadness when you finish the series finale.
I really do not think that I could go back to watching television the way that I used to. It is just too limiting, too controlling, and too demanding of me. I would probably give up television all together.
We moved house a few months ago and I have yet to hook up any kind of television content. I don’t miss television at all (Sturgeon’s Law definitely applies), though it would be nice to catch the BBC World News. Mrs. Ball is starting to wilt though, so I have to choose between
I didn’t know that you can watch tv online. Is it some programming or all channels? I have an antenna on my roof. My family views only local channels.
FMLyons: depending on where you live, you may be able to get better picture quality and perhaps even additional content by adding a digital tuner to your equipment. If I were buying a new television I would only consider one that has a digital tuner in it. I don’t need a new television right now but I could certainly use a DVD recorder, so I’ll get one of those with a digital tuner in it.
I have become tired of watching reality tv. I find it flashy, extreemly obnoxious and after a while, really boring. I haven’t switched to watching shows on-line, because i don’t really have the time. I would much rather go for a walk.