Did the RDM BSG kill ship-based SF on TV?

[aretood2]

Doesn't that have more to do what stations each show was on?

Big time. Not to mention the near fanatical following that the franchise of Star Trek is known for. Add the cultural significance of the franchise to it's notoriety even among people who dislike Sci Fi. It's not really a fair comparison.

[jelgate]

Doesn't that have more to do what stations each show was on?

Syndicated TV back in the day always out did cable TV

[Eternal Density]

If BSG killed it, how did SGU get two seasons?
Maybe it's more that now that we've been well fed on a couple of ship-based SF shows, we need to digest them for a while before we have the appetite for something new.
(If only they could do a show based on David Weber's Honorverse... yeah that's the sort of thing that only works in my head.)

[McAvoy]

Well let's see here:

We had, Star Trek in various forms, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1 (which was always considered the Trek lite of the sci fi shows) and later nuBSG. Those are the successful ones, never mind the garbage B-class ones and the short lived ones that popped up during that time.

Battlestar killed ship based sci fi when it ended as much as Star Trek Enterprise killed ship based sci fi when it ended. Interesting how one show ended and the other came along.

BSG was anti Trek in the way it looks and even the characters. All the characters had some sort of issue and the ship had issues. Trek you never had that. Everyone got along just fine. Even the dark Trek of DS9 was like that for the most part.

Here is the thing, anyone notice how expensive shows are no longer 26 episodes or even 24? I have seen in the past ten to twelve years, shows drop from 26 to 24 to 22 and now to 20. Shows with 20 episodes per season also have an unusual long break too. The shows no longer than that minute or longer intro, but a quick five second intro. Episodes are no longer 45 minutes but now 40 to 41 minutes each.

So what really killed ship shows? Money. They cost money, alot of it.

Shows like the Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, both extremely expensive shows get along just fine because of the huge following they have. Sad thing, these huge popular shows are literally half or more than what TNG brought in.

Not only that but merchandising seems to be on the low side nowadays. Yeah I see Game of Thrones computer mousepads and iPad covers, but never like what Trek had in the day.

[The Lady Blue]

Big time. Not to mention the near fanatical following that the franchise of Star Trek is known for. Add the cultural significance of the franchise to it's notoriety even among people who dislike Sci Fi. It's not really a fair comparison.

I also think it has something to do with what era we're in. Back then, if you wanted to watch a television show, you quite literally had to watch it on the television. Now, people can bypass the television all together and watch online or download from iTunes or even watch on their phones. Add that to more channels with various kinds of programming to choose from, and television viewership in general has gone down across the board, scifi or not. There are still shows that get what television was used to seeing a good while back, like Big Bang Theory, but that's kind of rare now, especially if it's sustained.

[McAvoy]

I also think it has something to do with what era we're in. Back then, if you wanted to watch a television show, you quite literally had to watch it on the television. Now, people can bypass the television all together and watch online or download from iTunes or even watch on their phones. Add that to more channels with various kinds of programming to choose from, and television viewership in general has gone down across the board, scifi or not. There are still shows that get what television was used to seeing a good while back, like Big Bang Theory, but that's kind of rare now, especially if it's sustained.

iTunes is still 'official'. Alot viewership is lost from people illegally downloading, streaming and using torrents after the episode or movie was aired. Why pay for cable if you can download from the internet? Why buy DVDs that take up space when you can have whole series on a hard drive?

Stargate Universe and the later episodes of Atlantis came in during that time and same goes for BSG.

[The Lady Blue]

Well I would guess Netflix and tv phone services are official too, but I'm not sure how well they play into things. And iTunes downloading allows you to bypass advertising altogether, and that's got to take away from dollars from sponsors supporting a show. I'm not sure if the $2-$3 dollars they make off of the download makes up for that or not, especially when iTunes gets a share. I just know that not everyone that watches television actually has to watch television these days. I've read that pirating doesn't take as much from a series as one might think, but who can really know? Shows still need viewers to make money from what I can tell.

[McAvoy]

Well I would guess Netflix and tv phone services are official too, but I'm not sure how well they play into things. And iTunes downloading allows you to bypass advertising altogether, and that's got to take away from dollars from sponsors supporting a show. I'm not sure if the $2-$3 dollars they make off of the download makes up for that or not, especially when iTunes gets a share. I just know that not everyone that watches television actually has to watch television these days. I've read that pirating doesn't take as much from a series as one might think, but who can really know? Shows still need viewers to make money from what I can tell.

iTunes buys the rights from the studio to have people download it. Now offhand, I don't know if that is a one time fee or there is a percentage studios get.

[spinny magee]

I think it's more attributable to a changing focus of tv/film producers. Sci-Fi work generally seems whilst fun very unrewarding for both Actors and producers. Can't think of many producers and actors (except P.Stew) who have had great success after doing totally futuristic Sci-Fi series, then again moderately popular guys like RDA and Scott Bakula only seemed to get in on it for lack of work or winding down their career.

Regardless the focus seems to have changed more to drama and pleb tier comedy where the grass is greener and the people richer for it.