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Are there too many channels?

And if so, which ones would you close? (December 2015)

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FB
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Maaixuew posted:
There are currently around 700 radio and television channels available on the Sky platform, and on Freeview you can get over 72 channels, substantially more than the 'good old days' of four channel terrestrial television.

Some may argue that there are currently too many channels broadcasting at the moment, with the quality of programming being 'too thinly spread' for this reason. Therefore, I would be interested to know other member's opinions on what channels they would close.

In my view, and this is my own personal opinion and I realise it may seem controversial, but I would close any channels that are an extension of the broadcaster's principal platform. For example, BBC One, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five are okay, however BBC Two, ITV 2, E4 and 5* would not be. I cannot see any reason why a broadcaster should have more than one channel, and I would argue that it is excessive and redundant. It seems to me that most of the main broadcasters have raced to get as many channels as they can on air, with the programming being an afterthought. There has literally been a 'flooding' of channels, leaving the market over saturated and awash with simply too much choice.

Case in point being the small satellite platform, Information TV, which has three television channels: Information TV, Showcase TV and Irish TV, all broadcasting much of the same content except at different times. I would argue that this is simply excessive and does not add any value to the content being offered on satellite at the moment.


Welcome to the world of "Big Brother" Wink
BA
bilky asko
Riaz posted:
Does anybody on TV Forum watch any religious, ethnic, or foreign TV channels?


Yes.
FB
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Me too.
MA
Maaixuew
Fluffy Bunny Feet posted:
Me too.


Do you have fluffy feet like a bunny? Hahaha
:-(
A former member
Michael posted:
Riaz posted:
Does anybody on TV Forum watch any religious, ethnic, or foreign TV channels?


We're mostly nerdy white boys. What do you think?


I think that post is bit offensive, there are woman on here and there is people from else where aswell.

With those other channels, some of them are "god awful" and thats the comments from some people I know who are highly religious; staying there highly vulgar, in every since. back on the old Astra system I used to watch some of the Foreign TV channel like ProSieben, always had Tom and Jerry on it.
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
623058 posted:

I think that post is bit offensive, there are woman on here and there is people from else where aswell.


Shocked There are women on here ?
ETP1 Forever, Nicky and Brekkie gave kudos
MI
Michael
623058 posted:
Michael posted:
Riaz posted:
Does anybody on TV Forum watch any religious, ethnic, or foreign TV channels?


We're mostly nerdy white boys. What do you think?


I think that post is bit offensive, there are woman on here and there is people from else where aswell.



I said "mostly".
RI
Riaz
If somebody wanted to start discussing Islamic TV channels on TV Forum then how would this go down with its users?

What if one dared to suggest that 25% of the output of Channel 5 is devoted to repeats of programmes from Islamic satellite channels? I expect that plenty of people will be spitting nails over such a suggestion.
JA
james-2001
Riaz posted:
If somebody wanted to start discussing Islamic TV channels on TV Forum then how would this go down with its users?


Better than on Digitalspy, that's for sure.
RD
RDJ
I remember my thoughts as a kid of Digital TV in the days when I only had 5 analogue channels and how it would be amazing to get loads more channels.

We got Freeview when it launched and the new choice of channels was great. In those days it was only 30 channels but it was 25 more than we had before and it was great. We watched the majority of the Digital channels though I still tended to watch the mainstream channels most frequently.

Then we got Sky and I our viewing habits changed completely. We got it as we grew bored of the Freeview channels and though it would be good to get some extra channels in the mix.
Overall it's become evident that since we had Sky, we find there is too much choice now. With hundreds of channels, the majority just show tat that we've no interest in. We find that we watch the mainstream channels even more so now and rarely go into the Digital channels, we're just paying more for them now!

So I think yes there are too many channels, and quite a lot of a very low quality. And now we're in the era of On Demand television, I would say the essence of scheduled television is becoming a dying breed. It's still my preferred method of viewing but I know that the younger generation are growing up solely on iPlayer and Netflix, therefore I think many channels days are numbered as viewing figures are surely going to slip further over the next 10-20 years.
LL
Larry the Loafer
I remember realising the majority of my viewing - besides maybe three or four subscription channels - were Freeview channels. I was only saying to my Dad the other day that I long for the days when we had analogue cable in the late 90s. Less practical, less choice, but the content was far superior.
RI
Riaz
RDJ posted:
And now we're in the era of On Demand television, I would say the essence of scheduled television is becoming a dying breed. It's still my preferred method of viewing but I know that the younger generation are growing up solely on iPlayer and Netflix, therefore I think many channels days are numbered as viewing figures are surely going to slip further over the next 10-20 years.


That is certainly a noteworthy point about the essence of scheduled television becoming a dying breed. There's now the quote by the kid who watches YouTube on his Android: “Freeview? It's what my granddad watches whilst relaxing in his rocking chair”.

Another point is that when money is tight for families then around 4 out of 5 of them will give up paid for satellite or cable TV rather than broadband internet. An increasing number will now ditch the TV licence before broadband, especially those with school age children.

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