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Is the DVR killing off science fiction?

techs

techs

Lifer
Tvbythenumbers just moved Fringe from on the bubble to likely to be cancelled.
They also just reported that Fringe gains the most viewers from Live+Same Day watchers, meaning dvr recording is watched within 24 hours of air.

Fringe gains an astonishing 64 percent gain in viewers 18-49 from Live+Same Day. Even the ill fated Stargate:Universe showed big gains when measured this way.

Technically savvy people tend to fall into this age range, and they are the group most likely to watch science fiction via the dvr. Since most or all people skip the commercials when watching a dvr recording, its as if they don't exist to adverstisers. Hence, science fiction shows are, imo, leaving television.

The case also can be made that reality type contest shows (Idol, DWTS) also tend to be watched live while anything scripted up against is is dvr'ed. After all no one really records a football game to watch later, since they would likely hear the score.

So, is there no future for science fiction on television? Is this why Torchwood went to a premium channel?

And is this why the scifi channel is no longer scifi?
 
I'd blame it on the advertising model being the problem. I think a lot of us would pay for blurays or dvds of our favorite shows... but don't want to waste time sitting through marketing jibber jabber.

That said, I'm more upset about the general sparseness of "hard" scifi then about how syfy sucks...
 
Science Fiction is dying because rather than shows about the world giving a big fuck you to the Galaxy, humans getting some alien poon, and just well done shows about space and other general fiction, its been replaced with reality shows and crappy TV.
 
It is cheap to make a reality TV show. Making a sci-fi show takes a lot more money. Companies life Sci-Fi channel don't make these types of shows because they are that into the sci-fi genre.

Costlier shows plus people skipping commercials equals a not very attractive product.

Tis a shame. I can't hardly watch TV any more. Anytime I turn on the TV in prime time... it is either dancing with the stars or minute to win it.
 
Agree with everything said so far in this thread.

Cheaply produced reality shows that get mouthbreathers to watch in nearly the same or better numbers than an expensive sci-fi show is a no-brainer to a TV exec.

The "cheap" trend will continue and the dumbing down of America will continue.

The advertising paradigm will need to change in order to give more expensive, creative scripted shows a chance to survive.
 
what's killing Sci Fi is that it is dominated by nerds. And few people want to be nerds.


This has always been the case.
 
rudder said:
It is cheap to make a reality TV show. Making a sci-fi show takes a lot more money. Companies life Sci-Fi channel don't make these types of shows because they are that into the sci-fi genre.
Click to expand...

this too, very much so.

also, the SciFi channel realized that they have created a bit of a cult with their horribly cheap original programming. It is known to be absolutely horrible, b/c they simply can't afford to make anything good.

Buuut, enough people seem to dig the cheap, terrible content that they make that it has become it's own genre in a way.
 
BurnItDwn said:
I'd blame it on the advertising model being the problem. I think a lot of us would pay for blurays or dvds of our favorite shows... but don't want to waste time sitting through marketing jibber jabber.

That said, I'm more upset about the general sparseness of "hard" scifi then about how syfy sucks...
Click to expand...

I blame ratings and time slots.

Just put the shit "on demand"/stream and add your commercials, I don't care, I will still watch it if I can't fast forward. I just can't watch two damn shows at the exact same times, why the hell are you making me choose?

For example, the geniuses at Fox decided to shift Bones an hour later to 9pm from the 8pm slot its held for years. I've been watching CSI at 9pm, despite the quality shift, for 10 years, I'm not stopping now. Yet, I still watch Bones on demand when I have the time.
 
HBO just invested a 100 million in Game of Thrones (fantasy, not sci-fi, but the nerd factor is high nonetheless). I wouldn't sound the death knell just yet.

Fringe, while still high quality tv, lost a lot of its edge when the focus of the show changed from the mysteries to the lives of the stars. The whole show is now about how Peter and Olivia are the center of the universes. When the stars become the story it all goes downhill imo. Similar to the "farmboy is actually scion of an empire" cliche in fantasy.
 
jonks said:
Fringe, while still high quality tv, lost a lot of its edge when the focus of the show changed from the mysteries to the lives of the stars. The whole show is now about how Peter and Olivia are the center of the universes. When the stars become the story it all goes downhill imo. Similar to the "farmboy is actually scion of an empire" cliche in fantasy.
Click to expand...

Agreed! Fringe was at its best when the alternate universe story arc got going
(i.e. the scene at the end of season 1 where Olivia first meets William Bell, and we learn that it's in the WTC).
The first episode of season 2 was intense too.

I find myself not really caring whether Peter decides he likes Olivia, or alt-Olivia.
 
Sci fi will make a comeback when the rest of the country decides to catch up with technology. When I had cable/dvr my justification was as such: I pay for the cable, I pay for the DVR, thus I will NOT watch commercials, which are usually really, really, REALLY shitty anyway.

I got fed up with it and axed my cable altogether. Now I use Netflix or torrent the show from the previous night.
 
Sci Fi content has worse problems than the DVR... the really smart SciFi fans will just download all of their favorite episodes off of Bit-torrent and not bother with the DVR at all. They get zero Neilsen ratings from those people, and no retail DVD/BluRay sales.
 
Ask yourself why the hell we need to pay $50, $75, $100 /month for COMMERCIAL television. I'm canceling my cable TV as soon as I get off my ass a grab a decent HD antenna. The cable companies can go fuck themselves, and the networks can double fuck themselves for not offering their shows on demand.

For $100/month, I should be able to watch the few shows I do watch, whenever the fuck I want. For < $10/month I can get netflix, with more crap than I care to watch. Why can't Fox, CBS, NBC, etc., figure this shit out. They should tell the cable companies to suck it and start offering their shows via streaming from a service such as Netflix. I don't care if they keep commercials in it and don't allow me to fast forward through them. $10/month is much less than $100/month, and I still have to sit through commercials at $100/month. The joke is I have to keep paying more to get more commercial channels. What a crock of shit.

Can somebody tell me why the government didn't add hundreds of OTA channels now that we have all of this extra space in the airwaves since going digital? Why the hell should any of us be paying cable companies anymore if all the channels can be broadcast over the airwaves?
 
This could be a reason why. I remember that Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles had the same issue because people where time shifting the programs with DVR's. The advertisers don't count DVR numbers, as they should.

The SCI-FI shows are usually watched by a younger demographic that do like to time shift shows and more comfortable with technology in general. They are less likely to watch a TV show at the appointed time in front of a TV.
 
I hadn't even heard of fringe until it was already half two or three seasons in, so I wasn't about to just jump in and watch it without having a clue what the fuck was going on.
 
Brovane said:
The advertisers don't count DVR numbers, as they should.
Click to expand...

So they can know how many people fast forward through their ads? I don't think that's particularly pertinent to them.

What should be included is the +3 or +7 day number who watch the shows for free on-demand with unskippable commercials.
 
Why single out Sci Fi when DVR can record anything?

It would be better off blaming a crappy show that Fringe is if the ratings are poor.
 
Imp said:
I blame ratings and time slots.

Just put the shit "on demand"/stream and add your commercials, I don't care, I will still watch it if I can't fast forward. I just can't watch two damn shows at the exact same times, why the hell are you making me choose?

For example, the geniuses at Fox decided to shift Bones an hour later to 9pm from the 8pm slot its held for years. I've been watching CSI at 9pm, despite the quality shift, for 10 years, I'm not stopping now. Yet, I still watch Bones on demand when I have the time.
Click to expand...

Get a dvr with two tuners ... 😉
 
It is hard to know who to blame anymore. Whoever decides how to advertise things needs to drop traditional TV commercials and start putting their ads in the bottom third (where the sports shows put their info anyway). That way there is nothing to skip - the "commercials" are always there, even when you fast forward.

At first, viewers will not like it, but, honestly, every website we look at has tons of ads, but people learn to ignore them.

BTW, I have two old ReplayTVs - 30-second skip FTW 😉

MotionMan
 
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