Does anyone watch TV these days?

paulnb57

We tend to watch tv more in the winter than the summer, but we set the digibox to record what we like and watch when we feel like it with the benefit of fast forwarding through ads. Then there is also the fallback of iplayer amd the kodi...we are not the sort of folk who just put it on and sit there all night, many years ago we discovered the "off" button on the remote
However this week were are away self catering and the property has free sat
I am utterly amazed at the amount of utter dross across the channels, much of which is just unwatchable.

prowla

I often watch the telly; mainly to just to switch my brain off and let things wash over me.

I like the restoration & buying (cars, antiques) type shows, as I like to do up guitars as a pastime.

I can't abide soaps, dancing/singing shows.

Some of the quiz format things are a laugh (HIGNFY, Would I Lie To You) and I can watch the occasional cop show.

There was a really good Sci-Fi phase a few years back, but that seems to have dried up now.

randella

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

DiscoStu

 Much like the rest of you,  we just watch the occasional programme on 'normal' tv and even then we've usually recorded it. I've got Netflix but watched most of what I wanted it for (plus I'm bored of superhero stuff) and rarely look at Amazon Prime.

CHRISB50

I do, although not a lot. I tend to watch documentaries and very little else.

I love the current BBC2 documentary about surgery - Surgeons At the Edge of Life. It's very interesting and quite astonishing seeing what is possible.

The recent BBC4 Vietnam documentary series was very good too.

bingefeller

I don’t watch any live stuff either.  I did have a TV in my bedroom, but I got rid as it was rarely used.   

Danny1969

randella said:

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

Spiral is indeed very good

I don't watch any normal telly, just Youtube or torrents. How people can watch drivel like Eastenders and the endless stream of shit reality TV is beyond me. 
I don't think the BBC license fee is worth the money anymore. Even some of the better content like Blue Planet was dumbed down this year, basically guilding the Lilly with CGI ....... any new original content has to check too many boxes to have a chance of getting made whether HBO and others have a lot more latitude which I think leads to better content 

Sassafras

randella said:

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

Spiral, which my son downloaded for me, is absolutely friggin brilliant. Best cop show I've ever seen.
Even though I can speak French it's still taught me a lot of interesting and colourful swearing and crushing put-downs.

EricTheWeary

randella said:

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

I'm half way through. I watched all of Witnesses the previous BBC4 French cop drama with the same red headed woman ( although in a different role) which was very good although got a bit silly. So far Spiral hasn't got silly, quite complex. 

I feel the Netflix, Prime stuff can be a bit homogeneous ( US blockbustery type stuff) and I'm happy I can access broader content. Although there is a spattering of French films on Netflix. 

57Deluxe

LuttiS said:

57Deluxe said:

Late night after I wake on sofa is always a quick Wheeler Dealers or Chasing Classic Cars-type prog on Quest. 

Anyone seen the ridiculous Salvage Hunter spin-out into trading classic cars?

In Conwy on Saturday...

*Erm.. mobile image buggered.. imagine a picture of drew Pritchard in the window of his new shop... Will sort pic later

sorted

haha - he should make mannequins of himself to sel!

exocet

Danny1969 said:

randella said:

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

Spiral is indeed very good

I don't watch any normal telly, just Youtube or torrents. How people can watch drivel like Eastenders and the endless stream of shit reality TV is beyond me. 
I don't think the BBC license fee is worth the money anymore. Even some of the better content like Blue Planet was dumbed down this year, basically guilding the Lilly with CGI ....... any new original content has to check too many boxes to have a chance of getting made whether HBO and others have a lot more latitude which I think leads to better content 

Of all the things that I shell out for on a monthly basis, the BBC license fee is about the only thing that I don't question the value of. Whenever this topic comes up, you invariably see references to the large US providers (Amazon, Netflix etc) - huge budgets / global reach etc but its amazing how in the same threads you still see comments along the line of "watched all of the boxed set type content on xxx, nothing else worth watching so I dropped the subscription). 

I agree with the comments on demographics, young kids don't watch live TV anymore and this has been the case for 5 years now. In my house, my daughter who is 18 only watches BBC content on iPlayer, my son who is 15 will only watch "UK Broadcast Content" if we tell him about it else he'd never know because he lives in a world of online gaming and Twitch Streams.

Part of me does have concerns about the demise of UK Media production, whether we like it or not, the BBC (via the license fee) has been a key part of the UK Media eco system for a long long time and compared to many countries of a similar size has actually done a very good job. To me, ITV is an absolute shower - given that they pretty much had the "commercial monopoly" for U.K TV for so long, I find it astonishing that they have ended up withering to their current state of being almost irrelevant. Sky were the "new kids on the block" but their business model has been so reliant on Premiership Football rights that I can't see them flourishing in the long term as the attractiveness of those rights diminishes (now spread over many different providers). 

Right now, the future does appear to be U.S originated content via U.S owned content platforms....as a 50 year old, It doesn't appeal that much.

Dopesick

Haven't watched TV in years and I don't miss it one bit. YouTube, Netflix and Prime are all I need.

Used to watch football but my love for that has depleted rapidly and I'm lucky if I even watch a game throughout an entire season now. If they decided to show cricket on BBC again in the future I'd be all over that. Fat chance.

Snap

Sassafras said:

randella said:

If you want a less formulaic cop show and don’t mind subtitles, give Spiral a bash. Set in Paris; murder, intrigue, bent lawyers, and some very stylish swearing.

On iPlayer now. 

Spiral, which my son downloaded for me, is absolutely friggin brilliant. Best cop show I've ever seen.
Even though I can speak French it's still taught me a lot of interesting and colourful swearing and crushing put-downs.

I'll give this a go too. The best thing I've watched on TV since Deadwood has been Braquo. Every series was great. Loved it.

randella

The other thing I wonder if people forget when saying the licence fee isn't worth it is the radio.

I have a Google Play subscription, similar to Spotify et al and a tenner a month; not too far off the licence fee (last I checked was £150 a year).  I probably listen to Play less than I do 6Music, which I have on hours and hours a week.

Huey Morgan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite DJs, alongside Craig Charles (natch, I've always been a funk fan and he must be singlehandedly keeping the scene alive in the UK).  Gilles Peterson, who I also like a lot, needs to watch his back as the lad who sat in for him on Saturday wasn't messing around.  Plus you've got Stuart Maconie, Tom Robinson's always worth a listen, and a whole bunch more.

This is just one station - with all the other content from the Beeb I get through I reckon it's worth every penny. 

I used to have Sky, and will watch it when at my parents.  Aside from the sport and the odd blockbuster on Sky 1, you can keep it.  It's the same old recycled bollocks it always was and, added to which, the licence fee wouldn't even cover three months' subscription.

Neill

I wondered if lots of folk had migrated towards other platforms, occasionally I'll see an interesting trailer, or even a feature in Radio Times for goodness sake, only to find it's not on freeview.  The problem is, for my generation TV is so ingrained in our psyche.  It's a bit like witnessing the demise of the traditional pub. I yearn for the days when eg we had test cricket on throughout the summer and the schedules weren't crammed with reality TV and cookery programmes. 


 

exocet

randella said:

The other thing I wonder if people forget when saying the licence fee isn't worth it is the radio.

I have a Google Play subscription, similar to Spotify et al and a tenner a month; not too far off the licence fee (last I checked was £150 a year).  I probably listen to Play less than I do 6Music, which I have on hours and hours a week.

Huey Morgan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite DJs, alongside Craig Charles (natch, I've always been a funk fan and he must be singlehandedly keeping the scene alive in the UK).  Gilles Peterson, who I also like a lot, needs to watch his back as the lad who sat in for him on Saturday wasn't messing around.  Plus you've got Stuart Maconie, Tom Robinson's always worth a listen, and a whole bunch more.

This is just one station - with all the other content from the Beeb I get through I reckon it's worth every penny. 

I used to have Sky, and will watch it when at my parents.  Aside from the sport and the odd blockbuster on Sky 1, you can keep it.  It's the same old recycled bollocks it always was and, added to which, the licence fee wouldn't even cover three months' subscription.

I feel the same way about the Radio, I listen to it more than I watch TV / iPlayer. The thing is with radio....especially national radio, artists who get played, get paid - real money not a few thousandths of a penny. I've lost touch with what the rates are but it used to be around £37 per minute on Radio 1 and £6 per minute on Radio 6. Obviously that's not unique to the BBC.

Neill

randella said:

The other thing I wonder if people forget when saying the licence fee isn't worth it is the radio.

I have a Google Play subscription, similar to Spotify et al and a tenner a month; not too far off the licence fee (last I checked was £150 a year).  I probably listen to Play less than I do 6Music, which I have on hours and hours a week.

Huey Morgan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite DJs, alongside Craig Charles (natch, I've always been a funk fan and he must be singlehandedly keeping the scene alive in the UK).  Gilles Peterson, who I also like a lot, needs to watch his back as the lad who sat in for him on Saturday wasn't messing around.  Plus you've got Stuart Maconie, Tom Robinson's always worth a listen, and a whole bunch more.

This is just one station - with all the other content from the Beeb I get through I reckon it's worth every penny. 

I used to have Sky, and will watch it when at my parents.  Aside from the sport and the odd blockbuster on Sky 1, you can keep it.  It's the same old recycled bollocks it always was and, added to which, the licence fee wouldn't even cover three months' subscription.

Yes I was about to make the same point, in my case it's Radio 4 and I am astonished on a daily basis at the quality of output from this station especially when you think the fees involved must be paltry, certainly when compared to TV.  Without Radio 4 there would not have been, for example:

Little Britain
Red Dwarf
The mighty Boosh
Goodness Gracious me
The League of Gentlemen

Though in the interest of balance, radio is also responsible for Count Arthur Strong and Miranda..

And where would characters such as Ed Reardon and John Shuttleworth be without radio? Not to mention the careers of many of our best comedy performers/writers - eg Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel, Graeme Garden, John Finnemore, not to mention a certain Mr Nicholas Parsons.

crunchman

Normally watch Pointless when I get home from work, sometimes Eggheads as well.

Also watch Only Connect, but often on iPlayer.

I'll watch the Six Nations when starts next month, and various other sport.

TheMarlin

If Wheeler Dealer is on, I might watch it.  Usually, I turn it on, look to see what’s on, then turn it off. 

More likeky to watch a movie on my laptop, or perhaps something on Netflix.  I think the future of commercial TV must be peril. 

randella

TheMarlin said:

If Wheeler Dealer is on, I might watch it.  Usually, I turn it on, look to see what’s on, then turn it off. 

More likeky to watch a movie on my laptop, or perhaps something on Netflix.  I think the future of commercial TV must be peril. 

Purely in television terms, I think the BBC really have to look at the licence fee or more specifically how it's charged.  I don't object to the amount they charge and, after living in Australia for a while, I can see what happens when you rely solely on free-to-air TV.  You'll come back having seen the light - that £150 a year is the bargain it really is.

On the flipside, if I only had a TV to watch streaming services I'd be a bit hacked off at having to pay the licence simply because my TV was *capable* of watching the BBC.  It's not like it was 20 years ago when you had the occasional chancer shouting about how they only watched ITV (yeah, right) - times have changed and they've changed rapidly.  Folk with TV sets have the option of never touching the BBC channels and I can believe some of them don't.

It's now also possible to watch the BBC without a telly simply by clicking a box on your device of choice that says "yes I have a licence".  They're unfairly charging some of the audience, and losing out to another portion.