TV schedules here to stay

Despite reports of its demise,it appears that traditional TV viewing is alive and well.

A report by Deloitte via Guardian media says that

In 2010 most consumers of content are likely to remain happily beholden to the schedule, rather than resentful of what some pundits have labelled the 'tyranny of the schedule'Linear is likely to remain dominant not just in 2010 but for many years to come."

Furthermore says the report

online and on-demand catch-up TV services have been hyped by the superficial use of big numbers. Many surveys of popularity rely on self-reporting, it says, which tends to underestimate traditional media consumption and place too much emphasis on use of snazzy new-media gadgetry.

TV advertising no longer sustainble

The head of one of Europe's biggest TV stations believes that advertising will no longer sustain television's revenues.

Gerhard Zeiler, chief executive of RTL will tell delegates at Edinburgh’s International Television Festival that

Free broadcasters need to look into paid alternatives and consolidate. reports the FT this morning and adds that

Free television remains important for advertisers; millions of viewers still tune in to watch hit shows. But there is a need to explore alternatives. Paid channels focused on sport or film, and micropayments for video on demand, are two possibilities.

Recruit the citizen journalism TV critic

A great post from Andrew Collins who writes about the amateur television critic

Ht-Louise Bolotin

It stems from the Sunday Times' culture section introduction of the citizen TV critic comments into their schedule ands cites this as one of the reasons why the Sunday Times should recruit these citizens on a permanent basis

Re Lindsay Duncan's appalling turn in Margaret (BBC2). She was repetitive, robotic and android-like - a sub-Harold Pinter leftie. Had she mixed herself up with her script for a coming Doctor Who? She was truly embarrassing. Best raspberry, surely?
David Smith, Grimsby

Tv advertising may be in better health than we think

Television has been seen as a dying medium when it comes to advertising and in particular with regard to young people.

This report from advertising age though appears to buck the trend.

A seven-figure ethnographic study due to be released next month by the Nielsen Co.-funded Council for Research Excellence from research firm Sequent and the Center for Media Design at Ball State University appears set to punctuate that point, finding that TV remains the dominant medium even for reaching youth, despite the inroads of digital and social media, according to a person familiar with the research.

Ht-Morgan Warstler

Liddle-why television news is intrinsically bias

It is worth reading Ron Liddle's piece over at the Spectator on why television news is intrinsically biased.

if you watched the inauguration of Barack, did you detect just the tiniest,
weeniest difference in tone from the broadcasters, compared to how they marked
the re-election of President Bush four years ago? Just an infinitesimally minute
difference in nuance? I might be wrong but I don’t remember them cutting to a
bunch of well-fed, middle-aged, middle-class white people in the Peter Bruinvels
Centre in Beaconsfield every so often to hear them singing ‘Go George — nuke the
Arabs!’, amidst bunting and drained bottles of champagne. ‘Awe-inspiring’ and
‘breath-taking’ and ‘momentous’ and ‘I have a dream’ were the words used by the
correspondents this time.

According to Ron,televison news does not merely report news it transforms it.

He makes the point with relation to the financial crisis

1.that the financial crisis has been deepest in those countries in which there is a strong and rapacious media — the UK, USA and Iceland, among others — and undoubtedly worsened as a direct result of relentlessly baleful headlines.

2.that the media was correct in reporting the green shoot comments of government ministers last week in order to provide some balance

There was a poll carried out back in the summer of 2008, in which almost one quarter of British people thought that the ‘credit crunch’ was entirely a media confection, a crisis whipped up to fill the blank pages. A little later the notion of the media being ‘responsible’ for the credit crunch became an urban myth. It is not quite so simple as that, nor quite so stark — but you would not bet against the media having been critically influential, given the ectoplasmic nature of city confidence.

How TV may benefit from recession

Interesting article in the Guardian this morning which reports that Deloittes say that the recession could be good news for the TV industry as more people will stay at home amd watch rather than go out and spend.

The report adds that viewing hours tend to increase in tough times as consumers stay at home and digital switchover, taking place region by region between now and 2012, could boost viewing even more.

You can read a synopsis of the report HERE and it says that

One of the boosts that television is likely to receive is in viewing hours, which tend to be counter-cyclical. Indeed, in the latter half of 2008, average viewing hours were already rising in some major markets as consumers increasingly entertained themselves at home21. Viewing hours may be boosted by digital switchover, one impact of which is to increase the number of channels available to consumers. Overall, in 2009, viewing is likely to rise by 30 minutes per week per viewer.