People, especially young people, are watching less and less broadcast television despite the ever increasing number of channels available on Freeview, Freesat and subscription charging satellite broadcasters such as Sky.
At first glance it’s easy to see why. Despite the vast number of channels the variety and content of what’s available to watch is uninspiring. If you don’t like reality TV in the form of Big Brother, Love Island, Made In Chelsea, Geordy Shore or The Only Way is Essex your viewing choices are actually rather limited. Your options for avoidance become narrower when the ‘personalities’ these shows throw up become loose in the wold, appearing on other shows. You’ll see them appearing on panel shows, news quizzes, even offering their considered opinions on daytime chat and current affairs programming, and, in an arch example of media eating itself, celebrity iterations of other reality television shows.
If you are in the position that you want to watch something on broadcast TV you reach the second obstacle to enjoying a television show: the adverts. There has to be a saturation point where advertising is so frequent that viewers simply won’t watch any more and on most of the commercial stations that point seems to have been reached. Read more