What is the average TV viewer like?

[CaptJohnSheridan]

America needs to get excited for the future again! A future with aliens, spaceships, and badass space military people like Sheridan or Commander Shepard! I hope for a future where people think spaceship captains are just as cool as football players and detectives!

In your experience what is the average TV viewer like? Are they conservative and old? The people who watch NCIS and reality shows.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/09/05/tv-is-increasingly-for-old-people/?utm_term=.e53ac219f4d1

 

[Satinavian]

Don't know. Don't watch TV. Maybe it is indeed for older people nowadays.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I don't know either. I can't remember when I last turned on my TV to actually watch TV. Many of my friends don't watch regular cable TV anymore either, save those who are into sport (and thus watch those, but that is all). I wouldn't be surprised if the TV demographics really are shifting towards older people.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

People still watch TV?!

 

[Borty The Bort]

I haven't really watched TV all that much. I usually use Youtube instead, because it's like TV, but with hosts that I actually like.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I?d say the majority of active, regular TV viewership is older, say middle-aged baby boomers and up. Let?s face it, traditional television is a dying medium. Not saying it?ll have gone the way of the dinosaurs in the next 5 years or anything that dramatic, but it starts to look long in the tooth when compared to options like Netflix and Amazon which appeal to younger generations who?ve either watched streaming services grow in sophistication over the past few years and can appreciate the difference and convenience over TV, or have themselves grown up with them. The pace at which we consume is far too rapid anymore to harbor the archaic classic television model indefinitely; I?m 36, and haven?t had traditional cable for almost 10 years now; I can?t in my right mind justify a ~$100/mo cable package with a handful of channels 90% of which I?ll never watch and the other 10% only showing something I might be interested in a third of the time over my $17/mo Netflix account which allows me to watch what I want, when I want and commercial free. Add to that, TV is just getting dumber; few shows barely look interesting and most of those actually aren?t. It?s borderline insulting that TV execs and cable providers think [this] is what we as consumers want and are willing to pay for.

 

[Sonmi]

In my experience, the constant between all of them is that they all own some sort of contraption that allows them to follow broadcasted programmes of their liking.

 

[Baffle]

I watch TV.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

TV is in a golden age now and I'm not talking about network TV at all. In fact, network TV might be the worst its ever been (besides for when TV was very young). The fact that you can make a genre or niche show and make enough money is a game changer. Shows like Firefly, Arrested Development, Scrubs, Futurama would've thrived on a premium cable channel or a streaming service. Tons of younger people watch TV, they just don't watch network TV. Just about everyone I know watches stuff like Westworld, Stranger Things, the Marvel Netflix shows. A lot of the talent from the movie industry has moved to TV from actors to writers because less movies are being made plus you can now tell your story over the course of the time frame you want to and the episode length you want to. Not many stories fit conveniently into the 1.5-3hr runtime a movie allows for. And, on network TV, you're forced to fill at least 20+ episodes per season, which usually ends up with filler episodes stretching the main arc rather thin.

 

[CaptJohnSheridan]

How would you get older people into space opera?

 

[Elijin]

Name the last good space show that was on regular TV.

After you're done scratching your head, or realising how many years ago that was, you might realise why TV trends don't swing in that direction. You can only watch reruns so many times.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

There's a distinction between those who watch programs that originally are shown on tv and those that watch those on an actual tv during the time of broadcast and not on a PC through streaming services and sites.


Usually, if you need a tv to watch something and aren't seeing it on a pc which is by far more efficient and wastes less time, it's an indication of some degree of lack of comfort with technology which usually indicates old age or low technical knowledge. I remember seeing this statistic that the average CNN viewer is older than 50 for example.

 

[TrulyBritish]

No offence, but do you not get tired asking the same question on these forums?
Man, I wish I had your dedication to a topic.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Have you ever actually written a story or outlined one? There usually isn't that much that needs to be said. Most good stories don't need to be told over the course of ten hours or multiple seasons. TV writers have to always think of ways to drag out their stories and add pointless tension and filler. They find ways to undo what the characters have accomplished. Sometimes you go through a whole season and nothing has really changed. One of the reasons I still haven't watched Game of Thrones season 6 is because season 5 wasted my time. You say TV writers can tell their stories in the time they want, but that very rarely happens. Netflix shows don't need to fill time slots and have no weekly responsibilities, yet nearly every episode is still fifty minutes to an hour long. Movies usually use their time more effectively.

I think TV is dying because younger people are used to getting their content instantly and the economy is so tough that they don't wanna pay for cable on top of their internet and phone bill.

What are you talking about whenever a book is adapted for a movie, content needs to be condensed/cut for it to fit the runtime for a movie. Many stories require a good amount of time just spent with the characters for them to grow/develop, characters are usually far more important than the overall story. Just the time we spent with Kingpin/Purple Man in season 1 of DareDevil/Jessica Jones wouldn't be possible in the runtime of a movie. WestWorld wouldn't be able told in a movie's runtime either (yes, I know the show was based off a movie). Just because Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and more have seasons where not much happens doesn't mean 5/6 seasons of a TV show shouldn't happen. A show like Firefly works due to each episode being it's own job vs a overarching plot of a movie. Netflix and pretty much all cable shows may use "normal" episode lengths, they are only about half a season of network TV so there's very little, if any, filler. Plus, each episode could be different in length even if it's just by 5-10mins, something you can't do on network TV. The OA (not that great of a show) does have episodes ranging from 30mins to over an hour.

I could see normal cable TV dying as cable rates are ridiculous and people only want a handful of channels most of the time. I think cable TV will have to change, simply letting people pick the only the channels they want could work. I think premium channels are still alright and streaming services seems to be making money with their setup.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

My theory is that the common tv viewer has access to a tv. Also a source of electricity that it is plugged into. Coincidence? I don't think so...

Stupid jokes aside, the average tv viewer is a growingly diverse collective where even the poorest regions of the planet can find sufficient consumption of media for an ever greater hunger of multimedia.

So much so as access to digital on demand services increase, people will continually opt out of templated broadcast schedules that do little more than deliver an organized equation of cost/consumption broadcasting that justifies the price of advertisement in key timeslots of access. As much as people trumpet the idea of dumbed down content that sppeals to everyone, I find very few people now that don't also enjoy niche broadcasting that otherwise would not be successful in conventional primetime broadcasting slots.

Despite this I don't think tv is going to disappear. I think just by growing consumption of electricity and digital online content increases, so too will bassl numbers tutn on a tv to access "general appeal" broadcasting.

Which offers overall satisfactory distractiond without forcing people to organise their own entertainment feed.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You speak as if all movies are adapted from books. A movie is still more appropriate for most books than a television show. Of course huge books and stories spanning multiple volumes are harder to adapt. Very little, if any, filler? Netflix shows have tons of filler, pointless drama and stories designed not to move forward. I can't even believe you're saying that.

I was merely pointing out the books have issues with being adapted into movies while you said any story can fit a movie runtime. I find I like less and less movies nowadays because the time we have with the characters just isn't long enough most of the time. How are you gonna fit Legion into a movie runtime when the pilot was over an hour? Even something like the Avengers worked so well because we got movies with those characters beforehand. In your opinion, the Netflix shows have tons of filler.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

A future with aliens, spaceships, and badass space military people like Sheridan or Commander Shepard!

Badass space military people do NOT dye their hair (season 5).

 

[Marik2]

It's mostly for middle class white people complaining about first world problems