Canadian TV
Yesterday, after a month without TV, we succumbed and subscribed to cable. After watching 'I Want to be a Hilton' I began to wish that we hadn't.
The main problem though is not with the programming itself - poor though it may be - but with the never-ending and disproportionately large stream of of advertising that you are bombarded with, it's a wonder that Canadian and American channels even get time to show actual TV programmes. The worst of it is that the adverts here are not even entertaining, they are cheap and cheesy, and it is clear that very little effort has gone into them.
I'm no fan of the BBC but I am positive that the advert-free BBC that we have in the UK makes the commercial stations and the advertisers up their game when it comes to advertising. On British commercial stations there are fewer adverts and the adverts that we do get are of better quality in order to hold your attention and stop you channel hopping. Indeed, some ads are even better than the programmes themselves.
I cite this example from VW, this from Muller, this from John Smith's, and this from Citroen (filmed in Vancouver but not seen here) as examples that will hopefully convince Canadians of the need for public sector advert free broadcasting. Sadly this one from Lynx was scrapped by the advertisers as it was considered too risque for TV
Make CBC advert free for the sake of your sanity.
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Pining for home yet?
from Toque on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 13:36Today I was emailed by a friend from home who asked:
How are you getting on with the Canadians, pining for home at all yet?
I replied:
I don't mind it here too much, I miss the countryside and heritage of England, it's totally barren here on both those
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Damn, I really wish we did
Damn, I really wish we did have more advertising like that. As it is, I shun most TV other than Discovery Channel and would love to get rid of our cable all together if I could do so and somehow still maintain marital integrity.
Family Guy the Discovery
Family Guy the Discovery Channel, comedy and history channels are all I'm really interested in - that's as long as the discovery or history is not yet another excuse for a interminable rehash of WWII, Hitler/Stalin/Churchill-stories which have been done to death a thousand times over and then some.
Other than those it just seems to be rolling news, hip-hop & R&B music channels, celebrity news or some other banal triviality. And the adverts of course.
The most efficient
The most efficient commercial TV station would have no programming, just adverts on 24x7, as they not only cost nothing, but bring in cash to the station. Of course, nobody would watch a TV channel composed entirely of adverts, so they have to scatter programming in there to hold your interest.
This is the reverse to the way most people think of TV - they watch programmes, and think of adverts as the intrusion. TV channels have to see it the other way around - adverts are what they are there to show, and the programmes intrude in order to deliver audience share.
This is of couse not the case of the BBC. It however does still feel the need to obtain market share and therefore work towards the lowest common denominator. It's only VERY recently that they - along with commercial channels - have begun to realise that serious programming can deliver decent market share. Expect a renaissance, especially as we move to the point where true Video on Demand over broadband becomes technically feasible and commercially viable for networks.