Future of Commercial TV

Quote: Pacomartin

No, Williams needs the money. )

So why did the top rated show get cancelled.

Quote: Evenbob

So why did the top rated show get cancelled.

Quote: Pacomartin

The Crazy Ones (Robin Williams) with 9.8407 million viewers was the show with the highest ratings to be cancelled,

I think you misunderstood what I said. The Crazy Ones was the show with the highest ratings to be cancelled. I didn't mean it had the highest ratings overall. CBS kept Mom with 8.3401 million total viewers. FOX kept The Mindy Project with only 3.403 million viewers.

The Crazy Ones had higher ratings than almost every show on ABC, NBC, and FOX. It had higher ratings on a number of shows on CBS that were not cancelled. But CBS bought the show for Thursday nights. Because ratings went down after the first half of the year, it was their strategy to cancel the show rather than move it to another night. The executives would rather gamble on a new show starring the son of John Ritter.

The McCarthys revolves around a close-knit working class Boston clan whose sports legacy runs deep in the family. But when outspoken father Arthur, a dedicated high school basketball coach, decides to take his athletically challenged—and openly gay—son Ronny under his wing as his new assistant, the other siblings (who are more sports passionate) start crying foul over their dad's choice. Tyler Ritter (John Ritter's son) and Laurie Metcalf (from Roseanne) is a doting mother who like Ronny because he was watch The Good Wife with her. Tyler Ritter has very few screen credits, and his famous father died when he was age 18.

I presume that "The McCarthys" with relatively unknown actors costs a lot less to produce than "The Crazy Ones" with Robin Williams and Sarah Geller. It may not get more viewers, but it may work out better on a cost benefit analysis.

The top rated scripted shows by total viewers are
CBS: The Big Bang Theory
CBS: NCIS
CBS: NCIS- Los Angeles
NBC: The Blacklist

The top rated scripted shows by age 18-49 l viewers are
CBS: The Big Bang Theory
ABC: Modern Family
ABC: Grey's Anatomy
NBC: The Blacklist

I've seen a couple episodes of BBT and MF in
syndication and neither did much for me.
They both rely heavily on stereotypical humor,
which is the easiest to write. The characters
are cardboard cutouts. I thought the first ep
I saw of each was clever, by the 3rd I was bored.
They were all the same.

Quote: Pacomartin

The conversion to digital broadcast is a good example of a government mandated effort to extend the life of an industry. If, in fact, we should have been moving towards digital media distribution, then it would have been better to put over the air on a planned timeline to death, and re-use the frequencies on healthier industries.

I believe the move to digital saved quite a bit of room on the spectrum. I think that they do not want to totally kill over the air TV as to do so eliminates a big source of communication when cable goes down.

Quote: AZDuffman

I believe the move to digital saved quite a bit of room on the spectrum. I think that they do not want to totally kill over the air TV as to do so eliminates a big source of communication when cable goes down.

Channels 14 to 83 (except 37), from 470 to 890 MHz, were originally added by the FCC in 1952 .
In 1983, channels 70 to 83 (806 to 890 MHz) were removed for AMPS mobile phone services.
On June 12, 2009, channels 52 to 69 (698 to 806 MHz) were removed and will be reallocated for other uses.

So Digital TV cleared up channels 52 to 69. In all other cases the TV stations simply added new networks of really old TV to make use of the space freed by digital transmission. Retro-TV, Me-TV, Ve-Me, Tuff-TV, etc are all these new networks created to fill the newly freed space.

UHF channels 14-51 are what is valuable. You could probably keep VHF 2-13 for emergencies

I don't know how useful broadcast is for " communication when cable goes down". Less than 15% of households have an antenna. I suppose many people in cities could probably purchase a cheap antenna in a long term time of emergency, but it is difficult to predict a time when the cell networks and cable and satellite collapses, but broadcast still works.

According to the FCC, as of March 31, 2011, there are
360 VHF commercial television stations,
107 VHF educational television stations, plus
1022 UHF commercial television stations,
285 UHF educational television stations and

76 Class A VHF television stations,
1411 VHF television translators,
439 Class A UHF television stations,
3043 UHF television translators,

1656 UHF low-power television stations and
516 VHF low-power television stations.
Please note that these lists only covers broadcast stations.

Quote: Pacomartin

I don't know how useful broadcast is for " communication when cable goes down". Less than 15% of households have an antenna. I suppose many people in cities could probably purchase a cheap antenna in a long term time of emergency, but it is difficult to predict a time when the cell networks and cable and satellite collapses, but broadcast still works.

True and point taken. Given that there were people dumpster diving after Hurricane Sandy because they had no food in the house for TWO DAYS the hope that people will get antennas is kind of a joke. But remember it does not have to be for the general population. When everything else is down, Ham Radio still saves the day. So say you get your responders and need to know people getting antennas and it seems more realistic. Broadcast will stay up when cable goes down for sure, satellite is vulnerable in the future as the Chinese can attack a satellite easier than a broadcast tower.

Quote: AZDuffman

Broadcast will stay up when cable goes down for sure, satellite is vulnerable in the future as the Chinese can attack a satellite easier than a broadcast tower.

I bought this 19" HD (5-6 lbs) television for $80. It normally goes on sale for $80-$110. With an antenna for $5 or $10 I have video.


In comparison a transistor radio when they went on sale in 1954 was $50.

As cable for less than $80 month (after introductory prices) is becoming difficult to find, it will be difficult to imagine access by the vary poor.

I can't get over how light these things have
gotten. I just replaced a 22" monitor with
a 23" and the new one weighs one third
less and is bigger. It can't be over 6 pounds.

10 years ago my 19" CRT monitor took a
man and two boys just to get it into the
house. I suspect in 10 more years a
monitor will be a thin piece of plastic
that weighs 2 pounds or less.

Like this:

Israeli TV has invented a format for voice competitions that takes advantage of the relatively low cost of video screens. It's fun to see. ABC has purchased the rights to the show and will begin airing an American version this summer.


Also from Israel is a technology to make see through television walls that will be economical to leave on 24 hours per day. When you are not watching a show, there may be mood pictures, weather information, stock prices, or anything else you wish to monitor.

When TV channels "got narrower" the FCC wanted take the bandwith back from the stations but the stations lobbied heavily to keep the frequencies that 'technological creep' had opened to them. TV stations either created services or sold the bandwidth.

Consider such things as helicopter news footage of a police car chasing the bad guys. The left audio channel will usually contain the signals that show the GPS location of the helicopter, the camera angle and the GPS locations of camera focus. You can actually decode this information yourself if you've the inclination to do so and some stray oscilloscope lying around somewhere.

Language translation SAP must be there too and radio station playlists are beamed to car radios probably by TV stations or some band width somewhere.