Where the bear sits

[bearfax]

I've a feeling that the days of the TV executives deciding upon what shows to screen is coming to an end. With so many fan based productions made far cheaper but more innovative on the net, I suspect like books, almost anyone will be able to produce their own show with a few skilled friends, and get samples available for just about anyone to watch to determine likely support, after which several of the streaming companies will grab what the public seems to be drawn towards and finance them. We had an excellent little 30 minute steampunk SciFi production done down here in Oz a few years back called Aurora by a couple of skilled young film makers that cost them $2000 and ended up on UTube and received high commendation in Europe. I suspect the days of CBS, ABC etc are limited unless they follow suit. In 10 years television may look very different and be tied fully into the net and be far more audience selected..

[pakar]

Think about Sense8 which was made by Netflix. I don't think hhat any network would do it. But, imo, it's also a matter of producers and writers. Most of them just recycle the same ideas because they don't have anything new to say. Dark Matter is a good example but there are also others. We need people with fresh ideas. A few years back Robert Hewitt Wolfe (ST DS9, Andromeda in its first 2 seasons) had a good idea about a show with a starship which after a interpalnetary war between humans and post humans was starting an interplanetary journey to the human occupied worlds of the galaxy to reconnect with them but Syfy rejected it.

[jelgate]

I dont know where you live Jelgate but here in Oz we have two national TV stations called ABC and SBS. ABC brings in a lot of shows from Britain but it also produces a lot of shows itself, when the more conservative governments arent ripping money out of them. The shows arent based so much on what you would normally watch but are quite innovative, often based on novels written here. Some of these shows become the most popular shows in Australia and are often grabbed by the commercial stations that are not prepared to risk making such shows themselves.

SBS brings in shows from all over the world. Recent examples are Wallander and Real Humans, both based on novels and both top raters. Both have been grabbed by the UK or US to develop an English speaking version. Humans is the Real Humans US/UK equivalent show now on TV. I've already mention Japanese programmes again based on books or graphic comics. That's where the imagination is coming from.

Most shows you see on TV these days come from the same group of producers who have been making these shows for years and thus they become increasingly similar. Few shows made now are based on successful books and a successful book tells you what is popular and what is not. More and more people are drifting away from TV because of its sameness and inability to explore and risk options. Ask the average 20 year old how much standard TV they watch. Often its very little unless they have limited access to other media. Most watch or interact on various net sites and if you look carefully at many of them, they are creating their own innovative fan shows themselves some far more interesting than is on standard TV. I gave up watching live TV years ago. I record what I want or get access to shows by other means. Most of what is available on TV today is mere mental chewing gum.

That's a myth. I have heard people suggest that idea that less people watch TV but the ratings data says different about people watching TV. An argument can be made for DVR or online viewing but its still TV they are watching You are talking about a small minority of fanatics. These fan videos are like people who write or read fan fiction. Its very much a very small niche group

[bearfax]

GRRRR. I'M IN A MOOD TO DEVOUR SOMEONE TASTY.

So net watching and streaming arent relevant Jelgate? Welcome to the 21st century.

If you check Nielson surveys it will show you that though TV watching is still by far the greatest means of watching programming , it has been on a slow decline for years. There has for example been a 100% increase in the number of US homes that are now broadband only and dont watch free to air or subscription TV (2,600,000). Its reported that the 18-24 age group, as I indicated has been declining in hours of TV watched at a rate up to 17% per annum and has declined in the past 4 years by a whopping 32%...those are official figures mate. Here in Australia we dont have the greatest broadband system and yet already 52% of people are using it.

As for fan based films these have always existed in some manner but usually made by amateurs. But there has been an overall increase in more professional products, many considered better than the original films upon which they are based. This has also moved into short episode runs of unsanctioned shows based on other programmes as well as new ideas in programming. The development of cheaper high tech special effects and production methods has opened the door to an increase in these fan based developments. Some actually use top actors in these productions. One that is performing very well is Star Trek: Renegade, which is a net production.

As I said within the next 10 years TV watching will be much different from what it is today and the diminishing dominance of companies like CBS and ABC and even SyFy to sell their products to an increasingly discerning audience with a greater choice will impact greatly on what we watch in future. I would suggest as STTNG suggested in its episode 'The Neutral Zone' that TV as we understand it will have disappeared by the 2030s or maybe 2040s...and Jelgate that is based on survey figures not assumptions.

[bearfax]

Grrrr.

What happened to that SciFi that was coming, set in a future where humanity has done like peanut butter and honey (you guys prefer jelly I know) and spread over the solar system and some detective turkey is out there catching the space miscreants. Was supposed to be an A1 production but it must have disappeared in the vacuum out there...or am I missing something..... again?

Grrr

[Annoyed]

Are you perhaps referring to Killjoys, SyFy's show about bounty hunters?

[bearfax]

You may be right there Annoyed. The synopsis didnt seem to fit what I recalled reading, but then again it was quite a while ago and things get a little cloudy over time these days...Quark was never in Wall Street was he? We havent seen it yet here in Oz. Sounds very SPACEHUNTER/DARK MATTER/FIREFLY to me.