Quite! I don't get that sentiment at all.

Hannibal is extraordinary and beautifully shot, and features some of the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen on TV or in movies.

And where would the good shows that are, or have been, on Choice go? They've aired quite a few BBC Documentary series that wouldn't otherwise have aired free-to-air here, why do you want these gone?

What is missing is a local…

I didn’t realise that the Listener had a monopoly on tv listings untl the 80s- that seems bizarre, but that,…

Your…

Advertisers want your money but they know their ads are…

NZ public service broadcasting as it exists is filling a massive vacuum with limited resources. If there were more resources then PSB could cover a lot more…

For me, this is where Netflix has a considerable advantage over Lovefilm. The user browsing interface is far superior, and the 'you watched this, you may also like....' on Netflix…

sorry, I mean widow

This is a fairly common theory of television, but ever since I started thinking about this stuff I've always been pretty suspicious of it. As a theory it often has some weirdly classist undertones (not necessarily in this thread, though).…

Lou's ex

high shelves are high

though peer-curation is now an option, rather than everyone relying on the same 'programmer' to decide what they'll like next.

Media engagement was way less fragmented then than now. Any sort of widespread outrage is hard to induce. Though our glorious govt achieved it by threatening to mine in national parks.

However I like picking my own content regardless of what that is. I have often ended up as the DJ at the party. Its the same with TV…

"TV is becoming a social activity that takes little effort or thought. Vegetate in front of the tube with your mobile device on your lap while you tweet/txt/email/post wherever. Now you are part of the conversation without disturbing the blanket keeping your feet…

No reflection on the watchers but where I was going with that is some (most?) viewers will watch anything that is…

It's the veg out thing. For a lot of people TV is something to unwind. They want to be entertained…

By passive, I suspect it means "narrow attention span".

For me it means that the TV is on and I'm vaguely aware of the program but I'm also doing something else at the same time. Preping dinner or loading the dishwasher or tweeting or reading PAS or reading Metro or ...

It…

What does "passive" mean in this context? People don't think about it? People don't discuss it? People don't deliberately seek it out? People who watch mainstream TV aren't very bright?

My son basically never watches TV on the TV. But he probably uses about a gigabyte a day of internet and loves Big Bang Theory, Mythbusters etc.

It may have something to do with him being a teenager and being in his…

The NZ Initiative: Kill the property porn shows to fix housing

or the applebagel:
cored, ringed and
bacon layered,
lettuce maybe?
just cos...

– bun appetit

*Not Safe For Vegetarians

+1

My taste is mine. It is demonstrably different from anyone else. There is great art I actively dislike…

Yeah a bunch of folks made money from that show, pity that didn't extend to the actual contestants. There were some pretty cynical business decisions made. Some of that is understandable given the risk associated with producing such a show but by halfway through they would…

Hey! I resemble that comment.

Guilty as charged, but you know what? Shortland Street isn't really my thing, and that's more than OK. Yes, Russell is quite right: Let's not be naive about commercial imperatives being important. Always have…

The Herald is now saying this:

The final of The Block, which screened from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, was the most watched programme in that timeslot…

Sure, but there's a number of complicating factors. Hannibal (which Three is showing sometime in the new year) is pulling the kind of ratings for NBC that would usually get an…

‘The Wire’ is…

The Block gets 637,950 out of 4,430,000 for it's…

I showed my daughter this comment and she went "That's me"

I recall that, yes. Generation gaps come in all shapes and sizes.

I guess the question is how representative are the ones we know. But I…

And while I can sniff at soap operas with the best pointy-headed elitists, it's also hard to miss that they've also been a great training ground for an awful lot of "highbrow" actors, writers and directors. Art is all…

I thought that died the moment Rowan Atkinson decided on Mr Bean.

We also forget that Shortland Street put brown people on screen and made them stars, presented gay characters and had them loved. It’s as disruptive as anything else our television…

The ones I know watch a tiny bit of event TV, often ironically, but mostly don't watch at all. They are incredibly creative and communal, too. I believe they are what is known as "the future".

I am put in mind of our young fogey commisioner's incredulity at the news that our Media3 TV commentator, Joe Nunweek, did not own a TV.

Thing was, of course, Joe was the only critic of Seven Sharp to watch the whole…

True. Broadcast aint the dominant arrangement but we're not adjusting our mindset uniformly fast. Consult most teenagers about how they see it.

or a cave wall, if you're really keen.
#culturalfulcrum

Your resilience is admirable. Didn't see one glimpse of the builder I randomly knew was in the background somewhere despite watching at least 50% of the eps.

Got to know the characters and the tone quite well. Crass product plugs seem rather…

Snappy observation. #onya

+1 on that. The Beeb has been mostly phoning it in for years on drama. And let's not start on the comedy ...

Also, don't be…

Oh, Jesus… I’m trying to find one level on which that sentence doesn’t bug the fuck out of me. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention over the last decade or…

Ok, so just to calibrate. Would you say Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was also a documentary?

Part of that has to be that it's noticeably more terrible this season. The talent is very thin. Which has lead the…

I'd watch that for a dollar!

Blood-obs

We have the same issue with food. You do a survey about what people want from new fruit cultivars and they say they want healthy…

I would strongly disagree that Survivor et al are documentaries in any form. They're unscripted drama.

The big difference between Shearing Gang and Motorway Patrol is who controls the content. Programmes that observe the…

There are lots of terms in use in the industry to separate different types of reality TV.

Those show would all probably be classified as "obs-doc" – observational documentary – it really is not much different…

There are plenty of good cues from the CBC, the BBC,…

Where do shows like those cross the dividing line between reality TV and documentary?

If that's true then the "high-brow" stuff should rate just as well as the reality TV shows, shouldn't…

But I don’t think that commercial TV as it stands currently owes us anything other than popular entertainment. For better or worse that’s the TV environment we live in, and expecting it to…

They are trying, but it's a complicated business. They are pretty good at measuring the number of people viewing a given show (on air or on demand,…

What makes you say that? On-line viewing, and time-delayed viewing are no commonly included in ratings measures.

Is The Shearing Gang fundamentally…

The peoplemeter has become a relic of the analogue TV age, and AC Nielsen et al haven't bothered to update their methodologies & technologies.

Also, TVNZ…

Those useless Market Research questions "Would you consider xyz.."

Of course I'd consider it, would I actually hand over my hard earned $$$ for it, maybe not.

Media 3 was…

The gist is that while many people say they want to watch good* TV, but in reality they are…

Ditto. A phone call earlier in the week wanted to talk to a male in the household between 18 and 44 – can't oblige there – we're now outside the…

It's a double-edged sword. TV is somewhat expensive to make, and, for better or worse, a lot of the "high-brow" stuff doesn't attract viewers. Then the cry from taxpayers/government/whoever is "why are…

They already do, and a lot of good telly comes out of it. Back Benches, the Exponents doco, the Shearing Gang (which is the sort…

yes exactly – that's why we need public TV if…

The closest thing to a local example? Jane Campion's Top of the Lake screened here on pay channel BBC UKTV as the channel helped fund the production.

When the business model requires…

Oh I don't know, I just didn't record it, so I didn't watch it

(by which I mean I seldom watch live TV other than the news any more – if you want to sell me ads you're going to have to make something compelling enough…