Has The DVR Resulted In More Reality TV Programming?
from the changing-times dept
Economist Austan Goolsbee had a column in the NY Times last week looking at the economic rationale for why reality TV programming has become so popular these days. It goes well beyond the simple answer that it's cheap to produce. As Goolsbee notes, if that were the case, it would have caught on much earlier. Instead, the argument is that with the rise of satellite and cable TV adding many more options for people's viewing time (and you could argue plenty of other entertainment options as well), the pool from which network TV operators can expect to get viewers is shrinking, forcing them to search out cheaper programming.However, a separate NY Times article may offer another potential reason (whether on purpose or not). It looks at a new study of what programs people record on DVRs and finds that people are less likely to record "timely" programs on their DVRs, preferring to watch them live. This includes the obvious things like news and sports -- but also reality TV programming. That's because who gets kicked off American Idol is likely to be talked about the next morning at work, and people want to make sure they've seen the latest so they can talk about it. That creates fewer incentives to record the program and watch it later. So, whether or not TV programming execs recognize it, reality TV programming may actually get more people watching, rather than skipping, commercials.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Gah!
Two evils for the price of one.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think that logic is bad
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not always true
In the case of American Idol, they use so many "product placement" adverts within the show, it doesn't matter that I skip the full-length ads. I still get their message that I should drink Coke, drive a Ford, and use Cingular Wireless (the new AT&T).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
one more reason...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reality TV Will Be Around For A While
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is a rant about "reality" tv
You mean to tell me that in like 14 seasons of the Real World there has never been an overweight person?
And why do all the cast members (of nearly every one of these shows) seem to always be cut from the same cookie cutter stereotypes?
Despite all the negative publicity he got why did it take so long for Sanjaya to get booted?
And why has it gotten so popular to on "reality" shows to create a competition situation in which someone gets kicked out or eliminated? I acutallly liked Road Rules until they started that elimination crap. If this keeps up by Real World 20 the roomates will have to elimination challenges too.
[/rant]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In some GE comercials is whats called "One Second Theatre". Its a slideshow of up to 60 slides, and it all goes by in one second. Using the DVR frame advance you can view it one slide/frame at a time.
It usually contains interesting or funny things about the current comercial. A very interesting gimmick, and it worked on me. I saw it the first time as something that looked odd, going by so fast, I had to slow it down and see what it was.
I wouldn't be suprised to see several seconds go by one day, with hundreds of frames/slides to watch. An advertisment within an advertisment. And people are slowing down to look.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In some GE comercials is whats called "One Second Theatre". Its a slideshow of up to 60 slides, and it all goes by in one second. Using the DVR frame advance you can view it one slide/frame at a time.
It usually contains interesting or funny things about the current comercial. A very interesting gimmick, and it worked on me. I saw it the first time as something that looked odd, going by so fast, I had to slow it down and see what it was.
I wouldn't be suprised to see several seconds go by one day, with hundreds of frames/slides to watch. An advertisment within an advertisment. And people are slowing down to look.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Are you still playing the blues?
lol.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Quite seriously though, I feel like shooting myself in the head when the office starts up the Idol chatter the morning after. I'd say that I can't wait for reality TV to move on out of mainstream, but it'd just be replaced by something even more mind numbing.
My DVR works great for the few shows I'm interested in wawtching. I guess it works for people like me because we couldn't care less about being that social butterfly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unrelated Free-Blogging....
It goes sort of like this... A kid was walking along the beach one day and he noticed a man with a bucket of crabs. The bucket did not have a top on it but there were many crabs in it. The kid asked the man why the crabs were not able to escape. Then the man explained that if there was only one crab in the bucket it would certainly escape. However, when there is more than one crab in the bucket, if one tries to crawl out, the other crabs would grab hold and pull it back down so that it would share the same fate as the rest of them.
Moral of the story: You must ignore the other crabs if you want to be happy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Unrelated Free-Blogging....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reality TV
My friends and I always vacation on an island, easting bugs and trying to sabotage each other.
Just who's "reality" is this supposed to be?
The only reality TV is CNN.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Reality TV
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Reality TV
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Product placement
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just press play 20 minutes in...
No ads and 20 mins extra for real life...
Its a no brainer really...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not sure about causation...
Whats disturbing, is that they all know its not reality.
Whats interesting, is that they all refuse to PVR the content and watch it later. They have to watch it LIVE. (they know its not really live)
So the trend you get, is that the more reality TV shows we have, the more they are watching the commercials.
Like I said, its not really causation, unless you can tell the industry execs thought about the effects of this addiction on the minimizing of PVRs. I dont give them credit for it at all. I think they just make reality shows because people want to watch them. And thats the end of causation. The rest is just riding on the coattails of a working formula.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bah! Real Shmeal!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't have time for these continuous plot shows like 24 or whatever. It takes a huge commitment to keep up.
I also enjoyed Top Design and Top Chef. I like to talk about them with people. There is more to talk about when you watch (arguably) real personalities competing on these shows. There really isn't much to discuss when you are watching a well-crafted movie or series.
Does this make us less intelligent? Would you like to know what my IQ is?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Regardless of your intelligence quotient, this post is proof that you are too stupid to make a relevant post.
(Is this the point that I'm supposed to tell you my IQ is 162? Or perhaps that I was admitted in Mensa when I was nine years old? No? I didn't think so.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reality TV is the New
I believe reporting RTV as an Event will be the norm and we should all expect every news network to add an RTV segment to the news.
RTV - the new sports franchise in America.
But it's better: The boys at the top don't just own a franchise team, they own the whole League!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
RTV programming is social programming
It is an agenda designed to modify your behavior, even if that means getting you to sit in front of the boob tube, dvr'ing their drivel, or texting in you "votes."
Revenue generation; out of your pockets, and in to theirs....
saps
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reply to #24
There is more to talk about when you watch (arguably) real personalities competing on these shows. There really isn't much to discuss when you are watching a well-crafted movie or series.
Regardless of you IQ you are free to you opinion but I have to disagree with you on the above part I just quoted from you. I persoanally get aggrevated by the fact that these show producers/execs spend millions in ads trying to convince you that the show is "real".
Other than on MTV I've never heard of anyone getting six "random" (remember you have to audition for the show) roomates, given jobs, and then have producers guiding you actions to make for compelling tv.
In the office I work in we actually talk about planned shows like the Unit, South Park, and so on. But to each her/his own.
PS- You mention the show 24 and you have the 24th comment. LOL
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
has anyone forgot...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's all about the money
I think the issue reached a turning point a few years ago when NBS was paying $1 million per episode for each of the 7 "Friends" cast members. This alone comes to $7 million per episode *without* the other product costs.
Yet CBS could make an entire season (or two or three) of "Survivor" for the same $7 million... and unlike past reality shows ("Real World", etc), "Survivor" actually did well in the ratings.
So, if a reality show is cheap to make, brings in a higher profit margin, and gets good ratings, then why would the network pay for stars and writers? All they have to do is think up a storyline, write a rough outline, grab some people out of their casting department, and they have the latest "Joe Millionaire" or "The Batchelor" or "Who Wants to Watch My Dad Get Married To Another Guy".
Though, in all fairness, could the networks be shooting themselves in the foot by only producing reality shows? Series like "Friends" and "CSI" and "Law & Order" live on forever in syndication on basic cable. (If you lived in a big city, I bet you could probably watch "CSI" episodes for 24 hours straight just by flipping between cable stations.)
When was the last time you saw episodes of "Survivor" on TBS or WGN or TNT?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 - The number string that is causing censorship in blogs (HD-DVD key for Linux use)
Fight the DRM with information, I just thought that this would be most relevant to this story being you can download hd content to your pc, but only legally buy buying it, not if you already own it and want to transfer it to another medium
This is the website contact address that sent the cease and desist take down notices to Google..... Have fun with it (DOS-it? :P)
webmaster@proskauer.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WRT the site that C&D'd Google, just post thier mailto: link everywhere adn get them spammed. Use it to sign up the diritest pr0n sites you can think of, and so on.
I hate reality TV, and am already over it. The closest thing I like to it is probably Whose Line is it Anyway?, and I know that that is possibly planned at least in part in advance.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]