5700 Channels and Nothing On.

I have always been a HUGE fan of television as a means of information, entertainment, and education. It is truly my medium of choice for those items. However, it appears that today television is becoming strangely marginalized. We have more channels than ever, with more freedom (thanks to DVRs) as to when we watch. We can also control whether or not we want to subject ourselves to commercials.

With broadband becoming more ubiquitous, and access to video-based information being delivered to our phones, iPods, computers, etc., there seems to be content flying at us from everywhere. You go to ShopRite and there is information broadcast on a flatscreen there as you are waiting for the old woman in front of you to balance her check book after writing a check for $10 worth of groceries. Billboards (like we needed help being distracted when we are driving) are now animated and/or are not only showing movie posters, but movie trailers! Cars are now equipped with video players and Wi-Fi connectivity. I am certain that someone has developed, or will after reading this, a way to have video on demand delivered directly to cars via satellite transmission (like we do with SiriusXM for our radios).

You would think with all of these new opportunities, we would be receiving better programming. I think you would all agree not necessarily. Oh, it's out there, but there has not been an effective way of allowing us to cull through the abyss of content that is being produced, remade, or re-released. Someone should come up with a way for us to find what we want on whatever our viewing device of choice is. For instance, my wife and I LOVED the documentary Life on the Discovery Channel. It is 11 hours worth of television. That is a lot of TV, especially considering the other responsibilities we have in our lives, and the other programs we enjoy. . . .can't miss an episode of "Idol" =) It would be awesome if we could watch it on our iPhones, or on our computers, but not have to pay the premium of doing so. We already have a HUGE cable bill. Shouldn't those services come along with what we already pay? I am sure somewhere in the near future, a service will be made available that will allow us to watch what we want, when we want, where we want. My children wanted to see the movie Karate Kid 3 (We had already seen 1 and 2). It was not available on-Demand, and I do not have an AppleTV (where I can rent right to my TV from my iMac (I know. . . very surprising) In the future, I am certain that someone will create the ability to allow us to have had the instant gratification of viewing that film when we thought of it. It will require some insane negotiations for residuals, profit sharing, IP rights, but someone will come up with this.

Anyway. . .today's vBlog is about the quality of the programming we have available to us. What we fail to realize is that we are in total control of what is broadcasted. The television industry is not a charitable organization. It is a business, all about making money. If nobody is watching, they will lose advertising revenues. . . . . I hope you enjoy it.

Life was so much simpler before cable. 7 Channels. . . . still not much on. . . .but we expected less. . . .