I watch too much TV.
Well, to be more accurate, I watch too many TV shows. I didn't realize just how complicated my viewing habits had become until the writer's strike. Because I'm trying to show solidarity with the WGA striking writers, I've stopped watching any and all TV shows online. For me, this means that until the strike is over, no more: Ugly Betty; Samantha Who?; The Big Bang Theory; CSI Miami; and Life. (And I thought for a while there that the boycott list would also include the Lost mini-webisodes, but luckily ABC has decided to compensate the writers for their work on those, so yay for the writers and yay for me! Although I hear they're not that fantastic, so maybe I shouldn't get too excited.)
Now, I know that this is not a huge list of shows to be missing out on, but it made me wonder about all the other millions of people out there who watch shows online, and whether or not the networks are noticing a recent dip in the number of streaming videos from their websites. And if so, maybe this will also help them to realize just how important it is to factor online viewing in as a measure of a show's overall success. It was only after Jericho was canceled last spring that CBS admitted that 5.3 million episodes of the show had been viewed online. That's a lot of viewers, and a lot of ad revenue for the network. And to bring this back around to my original theme, it's only fair that the writers get a little of the money that's generated by their work when it's shown online. I'd like to see the network suits have to come up with a decent TV script; I think we'd pretty quickly see an end to this strike if the executives had to do all the work themselves--and not get paid a fair percentage for it. ;)
Now, I know that this is not a huge list of shows to be missing out on, but it made me wonder about all the other millions of people out there who watch shows online, and whether or not the networks are noticing a recent dip in the number of streaming videos from their websites. And if so, maybe this will also help them to realize just how important it is to factor online viewing in as a measure of a show's overall success. It was only after Jericho was canceled last spring that CBS admitted that 5.3 million episodes of the show had been viewed online. That's a lot of viewers, and a lot of ad revenue for the network. And to bring this back around to my original theme, it's only fair that the writers get a little of the money that's generated by their work when it's shown online. I'd like to see the network suits have to come up with a decent TV script; I think we'd pretty quickly see an end to this strike if the executives had to do all the work themselves--and not get paid a fair percentage for it. ;)