Nonlinear Viewing

Before you think I have gone the way of your crackpot Uncle Harry who complains about the broken crackers in the bottom of the box, please: hear me out.

I read recently this article in the NYT  about the decline in TV viewers. After the usual about how the big name programs such as American Idol were no longer bringing viewers into the "live ecosystem"* the article went on to say (bold mine):

Though there seems to be no one reason for the decline, many executives say they are concerned that long-term changes in watching habits are taking a significant toll on viewership.

THEN  there at the end was this gem:

Two years ago at this time, Jeff Gaspin, then the head of entertainment at NBC, was trying to find television shows that would attract viewers and advertisers, and perhaps finally turn around the decade-long slump that afflicted the network.

Now Mr. Gaspin looks at the recent news of lower and lower ratings across the board and has one conclusion: “We are seeing the cumulative effect of nonlinear viewing.”

That is attributable, he said, to what he called the “built-up libraries” viewers can now watch. “I think we are at a tipping point in how people are going to watch shows,” he said.

Mr. Gaspin said that this year he and his 13-year-old son decided to try out the AMC series “The Walking Dead.” Hooked by the first two episodes, they set aside an hour at 9 each night to watch the first two years, hour by hour, which Mr. Gaspin had collected through every means available — some episodes from Netflix, some from iTunes, some recorded on the family DVR.

“We learned a new behavior,” Mr. Gaspin said. Finally they caught up to this season’s finale.

“We watched that live,” he said. “It was not nearly as good. The commercials broke the tension. We had watched the other episodes with blankets over our heads. I hate to say this to the AMC executives and everybody else in the business, but I will never watch ‘Walking Dead’ live again.”

Under what rock has been this Mr. Gaspin** been dwelling?  New behavior?  Really?  Has he, the head of a [sic] major television network, never until now bought a series on Netflix or iTunes and watched it from start to finish?  

Last summer Pricilla Wald and Ralph Hunt got us started on The Wire. We have never looked back.  We finished all 5 seasons by summers end, then went onto Deadwood, a Shakespearean western written by Buffalonian and Nichols graduate David Milch which explores the idea that humans must learn to function interdependently in order to survive. We are now on Breaking Bad, a character study of a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who turns to meth production to provide for his family. 

TV viewing habits are changing all right.   We are watching only specific shows, only when we want to.  We have no American TV, no DVD player, no Netflix,  and only freeview British cable.

But we do have...

Apple TV.

Through Apple TV and iTunes, we buy season passes to Modern Family and Big Bang Theory. (DID YOU KNOW: you can get $100 of iTunes gift cards for $85 at Sams?  A junkie's dream.) Alice watches Gossip Girl and House. I have already extolled the virtues of family viewing of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Carl and Fred spent a major part of J term watching Archer. Jonathan and Rebecca have had more than one Sopranos marathon.  And all of this content is available when we want it

w i t h o u t   c o m m e r c i a l s.

I agree Mr Gaspin. Totally changes the viewing experience. Its not TV, its a story. Will I pay for content under these conditions?  Hell yeah. (And it should be noted that much of this content is available out there for free, just not legally.)

Then yesterday the NYT reported that the networks are wary of the apps that allow their content to be accessed outside the cable network.  My favorite line is: Apple has this video player called Apple TV... Right. And in your body are these things called cells. Its reminiscent of a line in that The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman where he describes in wonder how all the people got ahead of him in the Southwest Airlines boarding queue:
All the A's were getting on with what looked to me like crumpled pieces of white printer paper, as if they had downloaded their boarding passes at home and printed them out on their home computers. 


This from "all the news that's fit to print" and an "international best-selling author."  So not only is technology making today obsolete but is also making those who conventionally report on today obsolete.

You are onto something Mr Gaspin.  Stick with it.

Onwards. With no commercials.

*do you also cringe when "ecosystem" and "American Idol" are used in the same sentence?
**yes same Gaspin that was part of the $200,000 toilet at NBC