Scottish pres discussion Thread

Just noticed the point about the BBC charging for the iPlayer. I agree that it should be monitored, perhaps by having to input your Licence number when you view a programme, but not to charge anything else. The Licence fee is high enough as it is!

Worth noting that the BBC have already said no to this, as the iPlayer is covered by the license.

The big push for turning it into a revenue model is coming from the commercial broadcasters and programme makers.

Who'd have thunk it?

yet Ch4 has put ALL Its context on there for free

Just a note to add re students and TV. It's just that 15 years ago, I could predict more or less what and when undergraduates I taught were watching - and I was probably watching it too - so if we needed to discuss TV, it was part of a common cultural experience. Gradually it's become harder to guess when and what is being watched, last year was the first year a whole group (only about 30 students) just didn't watch any TV dramas as broadcast. The TV they could best discuss in common was more from their childhoods, because their viewing was very diverse, some only watched 'import' channels.

Some students clearly do still watch live TV and a couple of years ago people talked about enjoying getting together to watch soaps, X-factor and similar programmes with friends at home - although not as many watched the TV dramas I thought they might (e.g. Shameless, The Wire) although my colleagues did. I'm getting old.

These are just snapshots and straw polls of course and you'd have to do a proper study to find out how this all translates to the student population (a pretty heterogenous TV audience anyway) or population as a whole. I've just noticed how this group of younger people's relationship with TV seems to have changed over those years.

Our campus doesn't use - and the main buildings can't receive - any broadcast TV, but free Wi-Fi (and various site licences) is available throughout though so access to TV programming should be available via the web. I would guess more students own individual PCs / laptops than TV sets (but I'd have to do a survey to find out). People can watch broadcast (satellite?) TV in halls or other homes.

I personally am part of the 60s-born generation weaned on the BBC and wedded to the schedule for most of my life but my linear viewing first changed along with the advent of the VCR and has now become surprisingly non-linear since I bought into cable about 5 years ago. Again, I don't claim to be representative. I'm just interested in what questions might be asked.

DM

Most of the programmes young people are watching are not on ITV/STV. most people I know watch.

Comedy central
Dave
ch4/ E4
even Virgin for Chuck and the Unit.

Apart from Maybe Simon cowal show there nothing else really most of friends watch. it also does not help that ITV has lost a good whack of its virbrint schedules and now seems stuck on the same dated tried formats.

This does open up a can of worms, but Maybe we could start a new thread?

Its nice to see Alan ticthmarsh show getting DUMPED again, yet

Do people not click that STV have been dumping drama since 2007! back Christmas 2007/2008 A Number of dramas at christmas were never broadcast.

I think students just have more money and more things to do these days. I read a Charlie Brooker article yesterday which touched on the fact that even TV advertising encourages more socialising, purely so that people can show off their new mobile, laptop and other products and gently persuade their friends to buy those products as well. The more socialising you do and the more people you know the better, as far as advertisers are concerned. It's become a self-perpetuating thing now.



So what??

Young people (let's make that more specific and say middle-class teenagers and 21st century yuppies / students in their early twenties) have become a niche demographic where TV is concerned, as they just don't sit down and watch scheduled programming anymore. If ITV showed some of the comedy you're talking about, you'd soon be moaning that the programmes should be axed because they wouldn't be getting enough viewers

I'll try and make this as simple as possible for you now. Unfortunately to do this effectively I'm going to have to make sweeping value judgements about viewers. If you can't handle that, then look away now.

ITV1 is for:

The working class,
Northerners,
Close family units,
People who don't work,
Single mothers,
Housewives,
Middle-aged people who enjoy entertainment.

The point is some people are suggesting that ITV should be BBCified and go up market. But where would that leave the people listed above? What would they watch?? ITV knows its audience and it serves them well. If you want the BBC, then watch the BBC. If you want niche, alternative comedy then go and look on the hip and trendy DTT channels. But please leave ITV alone.

Splitting hairs of course, but there is the argument that whilst ITV1 might be for that, STV might have a different demographic in mind for better profits.

But if you look at other threads on this forum the consensus seems to be that people want independent regional ITV stations doing their own thing and sticking 2 fingers up at ITV PLC.

But then when STV actually go and do it, no-one likes it

Welcome to the topsy turvy world of TV Forum.

Its enough to make contrary Mary frustrated.

Something went wrong there. The ITV Evening News finished, then we went straight into an Emmerdale advert instead of the weather, but the ITV1 version complete with logo at the end.

After this, an X Factor trail started playing out with an ITV1 DOG at the bottom left, at which point STV got fed up, cut the feed five seconds in, played a breakbumper and went into their own programmes.

Interesting to see if it messes up the timing into the next programme. Anyone have any idea what happened here?

I think the National Weather should have played, but maybe there was a last-minute fault, and ITV1 decided to air promos in its place - forgetting to let STV know about it.