Do we need TV?

[Andy]

I have virtually eliminated TV from my life now. I watch some stuff on Japanese TV while I am eating a meal and watch 1 hour of downloaded video with my son.

I could download episodes of my favorite soap but I can't be bothered anymore. There are just too many other fun things to do.

Alot of people seem to be moving away from the time-wasting tv e.g.:

http://www.columbia.edu/~ip71/w116/2006/03/why-you-too-should-cancel-cable.html

[12noon]

Well done, but i think i would find it very hard to cut TV out of my life myself.

[Menard]

Though I tend to agree with 12noon that I can't imagine cutting TV completely out of my life, it has progressively become less important and interesting to me. Perhaps that could be that I have found other things to occupy my time, like the internet for instance, or perhaps TV has become less interesting altogether.

Years ago, I can recall what I would refer to as 'must have TV'. There would be programs I would not want to miss and would be a little upset if I could not get to see them, or I would set the VCR to record them. I don't have any shows that are must haves anymore. If I miss a show, it is nothing big, and there is really nothing that I look forward to seeing that much.

TV, anymore, to me, has become a background filler, like radio used to be. I do, every now and then, like to just sit back and watch some TV to relax, but if I don't it's no big deal.

[donecweb]

I also have to agree with 12noon but as time goes by I keep ignoring TV more and more due to the only thing on is commercials just like many websites.

[SensoVision]

Same here, I've found myself to watch less and less TV, right now I mostly record News to watch them during time I work on PC or some programs from National Geographic or Discovery but mostly I ignore all films and TV shows.
Andy is right, living in such interesting place as Japan and exploring it's culture and life, but if you live all life in same boring environment than TV could be a way to waste some time...

[Andy]

If I was back in Britain I would be watching Top Gear and some of the great documentary style programs they put on. Also there is sport such as F1 and Moto GP which I try and watch by visiting a friends house.

I used to try and plan viewing rather than watching everything. But soaps are like a drug I think, you can get hooked on them and largely they are a huge waste of time I think. Of course we all need some entertainment in our lives. I was shocked how many soaps my mom is into.

[SensoVision]

I was shocked how many soaps my mom is into.

say this to my Mom We actually start watch some soaps some time ago when her TV set was broken and she watched TV in our room, but finally soaps are over and we regain some more time for work and life

[Menard]

I used to be a fairly regular soap watcher. I originally liked The Bold and The Beautiful (which I can't stand anymore) and As The World Turns. Even though I had never cared for Guiding Light in the past, it has become my favorite as of late, when I get an opportunity to see it. The problem with soaps is that if you don't keep up with them regularly, you can get so lost. I don't keep up with Guiding Light but I'll catch it ever now and then and try to figure out what has been going on.

In the U.S., soaps are largely considered programming for women (we still have a lot of growing up to do), but there are a number of men who watch them, they just won't admit to it.

[Menard]

Since the subject of soaps has been brought up, I have a question.

Soaps in the U.S. are, generally, regularly running daily programs; some having been on the air, from radio to TV, for as much as 60 years. I have understood that in some countries, soaps have a definite time period during which they will run, then come to a predetermined end, rather than continuing as an overly long and drawn out series. Are the soaps in your country regularly running series, or do they run for a set number of episodes and end?

[SensoVision]

Are the soaps in your country regularly running series, or do they run for a set number of episodes and end?

here we got series from beginning to an end, as because of our mentality people would probably not start to watch something discontinued for period of time. I also know that some soaps are still filming when they are already shown, here it's not the case usually as in time when they appear on our TV it's already filmed to the end

[Andy]

In Britain, the soaps are everlasting as long as the viewer numbers remain high. That way, the advertising revenues are maintained.

[donecweb]

Here in the US soaps are filmed continuously, are produced as long as people watch them and the advertisers are paying for time on them.

[12noon]

A bit off-topic here, but Sky (Satellite TV) and Virgin (Telewest & NTL re-branded as one Cable company) are about to go head to head in the TV war for viewers.

Sky owns some of it's own channels such as Sky One, Sky News and others and Virgin Cable owns some of it's own channels. Anyway both Sky and Virgin show each others channels on each others systems. Until next week !

To cut a long story short, Sky are removing Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News from Cable.

Sky One is one of the best channels on TV at the moment and has shows such as Stargate, Lost, 24 and the Simpsons. The thing is that not showing Sky One on Cable will almost half the Sky One viewing figures and the advertisers wont be happy. Plus i can't see Cable being happy with the loss of this channel and will either have to play the waiting game or go out and make it's own alternative Sky One.

Lets see what happens next week anyway.

[Andy]

I guess these programs were screened to get people hooked so they will subscribe to the new "paid Sky One" or whatever they call it 

Kind of related... do they still limit your monthly download in the UK? If they do, maybe this is because of fears of people downloading video rather than subscribing to sky or cable?

[12noon]

Don't know about Sky, but Cable broadband doesn't have any limits as far as i know.
 
I can download video as fast as someone can send me it. BTW that's sort of the answer to getting the shows without Sky One.