History and MTV are probably the two most obvious who have changed their formats to adjust to the larger multi-channel environment.
That's questionable and debatable. I suspect that the metamorphasis of the History Channel and Discovery into popular entertainment and reality TV has more to do with American audiences rather than British audiences because Britain was a secondary market for these channels.
Worst ones of the lot:
Disney Channel (modern)
Nickelodeon (modern)
MTV
I agree with you about Disney and Nick. My sister forcing me to watch then has shown me that most of their shows revolve around fame and stuff that would never happen to an average teen. And MTV is just plain rubbish (Geordie Shore, anyone?)
Worst ones of the lot:
Disney Channel (modern)
Nickelodeon (modern)
MTV
I agree with you about Disney and Nick. My sister forcing me to watch then has shown me that most of their shows revolve around fame and stuff that would never happen to an average teen. And MTV is just plain rubbish (Geordie Shore, anyone?)
Those teen sitcoms...ugh. Bad acting, dreadful jokes and a lack of meaningful realism are traits of these awful shows. At least Cartoon Network is getting better with Adventure Time, Steven Universe and the Regular Show.
MTV in itself is wholly crap. ITV2, E4 and other channels aiming for the younger demographic are far superior in my own personal opinion.
Yes, I'm not entirely sure what has happened in the past twenty years but clearly television on the whole has been dumbed-down considerably in that time.
There was plenty of dross 20 / 30 / 40 years ago on the main terrestrial channels. I think the best way of looking at the subject are which genres of programmes have largely vanished from TV screens and which are no longer of the quality or possess the substance that they did in the past.
History Channel is a case in point. Whilst some programmes it shows may be very popular as entertainment, programmes about real history are now very scarce.
There used to be a channel on freeview called abc1, which I loved - only problem is that it did get a little repetitive towards the end.
Decent channel, but it's ultimate failure was the inability to gain a primetime slot on Freeview. The cannibalisation of viewing ratings due to this definitely killed off ABC1. It's closure was much earlier than its planned date, accompanied with a total lack of ceremony.
Personally I enjoyed BBC Three for Good News and Family Guy
And Doctor Who, obviously.
Loved seasons 2 - 4 back then whenever they showed on Three. Season 5 onwards killed Dr Who for me.
Almost forgot about Worlds Craziest Fools, American Dad!, and Cuckoo, those were bloody great.
If you are a child or have one, I believe there are some decent and brilliant kids channels out there on Sky or other platforms, but if you don't have that, you'll have to deal with most of the POP channels and BBC and ITV. Anyway, the first one I'd recommend is Cartoon Network. Its library has been good over the last few years with awesome programming like Adventure Time, Regular Show, etc. But don't get me wrong, all channels have their falls and downs, which CN has had to deal with.
Disney Channel and Nickelodeon is the worst for sitcoms, they have the same jokes, the same dull laugh track, and if all end kills the coffin, a lot of the dullest actors I have ever seen. I do NOT recommend showing Disney Channel or Nickelodeon to your child. But Nick's and Disney's cartoons are hit or miss. You'll have good ones like Mickey Mouse, Harvey Beaks and The Loud House, but, bad toons like Sanjay and Craig and Breadwinners are the ones that only a baby would laugh at. Euugh, what happened, Nick and Disney?