In case you missed the news, the major networks will be using a new mechanism for tracking their ratings this season. Instead of the overnight ratings they will be using “Live plus 3″ which is the ratings for the people who watched when the show came on or who watched it on the DVR in the next 3 days. This is a great step forward towards acknowledging that a number of us watch TV on our schedule now and not on theirs. As I thought about this advance a few thoughts occur to me.
If everyone had DVRs think about how good that would be for the networks. Right now prime-time is 3 hours long and outside that the network assumes no one is watching, but my DVR is watching and would gladly record shows of interest to me. So that makes that time more valuable to the network. Of course I usually fast forward through commercials and that makes the time I watch shows less valuable to the network. But then when there is a good commercial that catches my eye I rewind, watch it again and show it to my family which makes it more valuable. OK, so it would be fair to say that this whole DVR thing complicates the life of the network.
I also noticed that in my family our DVR has shows that are a month old that we plan to get around to watching. So “Live plus 3″ will still not see our activity, even though it is a step in the right direction.
The whole DVR, TV on the internet, TV over ip will make television an interesting industry to watch over the next few years, but I would suspect the networks would appreciate it being a lot more boring.
Tony Allen who turned his apartment in Leicester, England into a Star Trek spaceship is selling it on the internet after 10 years. It has no bedroom because he made that into a transporter.
On Lost, will the last one on the island please shut off the lights. According to Michael Ausiello on TVGuide.com there is going to be a lot of characters who will not make it to the end of the season:
Ausiello: (Major spoiler alert) Get ready to clutch your pearls: I’m told there will be at least five — count ‘em, five — deaths on Lost during the month of May. Meanwhile, exec producer Carlton Cuse offers this exclusive tease about the show’s two-hour, sure-to-be-blockbuster season finale on May 22: “Let’s just say the end of the season features a showdown between Jack and Locke — a showdown long anticipated and a showdown with an extremely significant outcome for the future of the castaways.” Just 35 days to go!
Fans (called browncoats) of the cancelled TV series Firefly have been some of the most rabid fans. They raised enough interest in a show that did not even go one season that the creator of the series was able to create the movie Serenity. Now they are taking this show on the high seas with the scheduling of a 5 day cruise to Mexico. The Browncoat cruise sails on December 1, 2007, leaving from San Diego, California. (And yes, I am blogging about this because I am a browncoat).
The official cruise site says:
Cruise destinations include Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada, Mexico.
Cruise will span 5 fun-filled days and 5 exciting nights.
Aren’t cruises expensive? We chose these dates in order to keep the prices low, as you can see compared to a typical land based con. Prices start at just $570 per person for a Full Event Pass - Inside Cabin, or $370 for a Limited Event Pass - Inside Cabin.
One of the interesting benefits of internet TV is that instead of a very finite schedule a network has to fit all its shows in there is no constraint on how many different shows that it can offer. So ABC, for instances, decided to cancel the show DayBreak before it aired all of the episodes. In the past, people like me who enjoyed the show would be stuck with wondering how the show turned out. And Daybreak which was a complicated show (a very complicated show) would have left a lot of lose ends. But ABC put all of the episodes that it did not show on ABC.com for my viewing pleasure and yours.
