Every Saturday morning in the UK we have on ITV2 from 6am until 1pm, 7 hours of Soap omnibuses catch ups. The culprits in question are Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and East Enders is just as bad. All three are basically the same, no real plot or storyline, just lots of screeching females and houses burning down. You wouldn't meet a real actor anywhere. It's no wonder that half the country is as thick as two short planks when they get exposed to this sort of drivel.

Is it the same in other countries?

Every Saturday morning in the UK we have on ITV2 from 6am until 1pm, 7 hours of Soap omnibuses catch ups. The culprits in question are Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and East Enders is just as bad. All three are basically the same, no real plot or storyline, just lots of screeching females and houses burning down. You wouldn't meet a real actor anywhere. It's no wonder that half the country is as thick as two short planks when they get exposed to this sort of drivel.

Is it the same in other countries?

I'm quite sure we still have some soaps on tv, though not that many. And I don't think they are that popular. I think the bigger culprits when it comes to dumbing down people are MTV and all those talent shows.

and all those talent shows.

Ooooh can't stop those, Simon Cowell is making too much money .....

Soapies & reality shows are the pits over here.

It just goes to show that some people really need to get a life.

Cheers.

We have them over on this side also. But they seem to be on the decline. I lump them with reality shows. Garbage.

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Old James

We have them over on this side also. But they seem to be on the decline. I lump them with reality shows. Garbage.

I 100% agree.

Whatever happened to decent TV?

Cheers.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Yuk:(

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ET Phone Home

Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Yuk:(

Thankfully we don't get that on free to air TV here.

It's bad enough just hearing about that screwed up family.

Cheers.

Thanks for that feedback, it's quite interesting to see that it's similar in other countries. The producers say that soaps reflect real life, whereas it's becoming the other way round. People sit watching their screens and think what they see is an acceptable way to behave because other people are there doing it in front of them. They get so immersed in it they forget it is actors reading a script provided by writers.

Whatever happened to decent TV?

A good question, and a number of answers. Puclic viewing tastes have changed, time was when half the Nation would sit glued to their screens on a Sunday night watching the Palladium, Upstairs Downstairs, or the Forsythe saga. Variety shows and Costume dramas have gone out of fashion although Downton Abbey has a following at the moment. in the 21C people are more into Ipads, Iphones, tablets, computer games, the world at their fingertips for news, views, communication. TV viewing is dropping, and Commercial stations rely on advertising revenue, if the viewers drop so does the funding. Then they cant afford to commission new top rate shows. Although the new Birds of a Feather promises to be a good one.

Also the quality of writers doesn't seem as good as in the past. When you look at the most popular shows of the last 25 years, even allowing for changing viewers habits, those today aren't a patch on them. Add into the mix that modern day families don't all sit round the box for an evening as they did. Dad is down the pub, mum is yakking on the phone to aunty, Sis is out with the boyfriend, little jimmy is in his room playing the latest computer game. Grandpa is asleep in the chair, even the cat got bored and went out.

Well there is still some pretty decent tv out there. HBO makes great series. A Game of Thrones, The Borgia's (to bad they canceled it), etc. Brilliant television really. But, you have to pay for it. Still, people are more than willing to watch series like that, because they are good.

Also, things like Netflix are destroying the old model. Why the hell would I watch a series or a movie on regular television that bothers me with 5-10 minute commercial blocks every 20 minutes if I can watch all those things for a measly 8 euros a month commercial free? Even better, I get to decide how many episodes I watch rather than having to wait a week before the next episode, and I also get to decide at what time I watch it.

Well there is still some pretty decent tv out there. HBO makes great series. A Game of Thrones, The Borgia's (to bad they canceled it), etc. Brilliant television really. But, you have to pay for it. Still, people are more than willing to watch series like that, because they are good.

Also, things like Netflix are destroying the old model. Why the hell would I watch a series or a movie on regular television that bothers me with 5-10 minute commercial blocks every 20 minutes if I can watch all those things for a measly 8 euros a month commercial free? Even better, I get to decide how many episodes I watch rather than having to wait a week before the next episode, and I also get to decide at what time I watch it.

That is an excellant point. It used to be that cable tv over here was pretty good when it started. But as more networks started they started fighting for viewers. Also they start show a lot more commercials. A lot more.
Spike tv I think is the worst offender. I swear they show 5 minutes of a movie and 15 for commercials. A 90 minute movie takes four hours to show. That might be an exageration about 4 hours but its not far off.

Adds are one of the reasons Id rather record a show than watch it live. At least I can fast forward through the adds.

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Old James

At one time there were going to be smart video recorders that would either automatically fast forward the ads when played back, or stop recording during them. Then there was an idea for a smart TV that would delay transmission of a programme then play it for you minus the ads. If I recall the ideas were dropped because of opposition from the media industry, advertisers wouldn't use TV any more, and income would drop.

In the UK the average is 12 minutes of ads per hour or 20%, but of course it seems much more! But nearly every film including TV series is available on DVD now. It also has to be remembered that it is the ads that are paying for what you are watching for free, if you discount the Annual licence fee.

AD lengths

If the adds are sensible in lenght Its not to bad. But some networks pile them on like banshees. And there are some great adds out there that are really good, Those I dont mind watching. But for the most part I have to ask what the hell the admen are thinking. Some adds are stupid, some I have no clue what the point is, And or what they actually want to sell. And Id like to see all male enhancement adds made illegal along with the diet pills and other fake pills.
Oops, sorry for the offtopic rant.

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Old James

Not too mention that the acting in many of the ads is far better than that in most of the soaps.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

not forgetting that some of them became soap operas in their own right. Gold Blend was one of the best.

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Well in the Netherlands, a show like say The Simpsons or Family Guy takes about 25 minutes, so its not to bad. But once you take series that takes about 40 minutes, you are quickly looking about about a length of 55-60 minutes, if not longer. So that is about 15 minutes of adds. Once you start looking at movies, 90 minute movies now take about 2.5 hours and 120 minute movies take about 3.5-4 hours. Watching the Lord of the Rings on tv is simply a pain to watch with all the commercial breaks.

So yeah, for me tv is only good for some short series, everything else I either ignore, buy on dvd/bu-ray or watch on Netflix or some other streaming service.

What really pees me off is an ad with an irritating jingle that is aired EVERY ad break all day for days on end. In the end I get so fed up I wouldn't use their product if they paid me to. But media advertising is a very scientific business, and each ad is carefully tailored to appeal to the desired socio economic audience it is aimed at. You can get University degrees in Media Studies.

It's just like the skill in laying out supermarkets in particular ways and regularly changing them around, to make sure that customers have to search the whole store to find what they want, and impulse buy as they work their way round. The simple days of just fitting pink tubes above the meat counter, and sweets at the checkouts and leaving it at that, are long gone. You would be surprised why you actually buy what you buy!

But Sirius is right, some ad series were exceptional. The Broooke Bond tea chimps, Katie in the OXO ads, Nicole & Papa in the Renault Clio series, the secret admirer in the Milk Tray ads, and the Cadburys nutcase ones. I think they were better in the past than today, where we have too much computer generated stuff.

Not too mention that the acting in many of the ads is far better than that in most of the soaps.

Ye gods, you got that right Rob!! All three of the main UK ones have degenerated into screeching females having histrionics every 5 minutes, interspersed with burning pubs and houses down. That is not acting or producing in my book. But of course we have the annual Soap Awards where the top show attracts millions in advertising revenue. Thats what it is all about - MONEY - entertainment went out the window years ago.

Spot on! Many a day all my siblings and I were entertained by the ads. They were so good, we ended up not bothering about the program we originally intended watching.

To make matters worse, the UK TV channels have started delaying American series until January every year. I looked forward to seeing my 2 favourites early October, only for the last 2 years now find that they start broadcasting them 3 months later.

Fortunately, have a good friend in the States so I watch them 24 hours after being broadcast over there.

The problem though is one that UK broadcasters have started doing. While watching the program, up pops an annoying ad informing us of what time and channel another program is due to start. As for the ad breaks, they were taken out, so that's a saving grace.

To be quite honest, I feel sorry for the Yanks, thankful that ours hasn't got that bad - YET.

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