Mentalechoes

Following on with yesterdays rant about Jericho being taken off the air because a few CBS execs high up in a high-rise office decided it was a failure. I came across a very interesting article from a Jericho fan who wasn’t prepared to sit back and watch the show die a natural death. This individuals name is Jason Moore, and he produced a television advertisement with funding from the Jericho community to help stir the TV masses into action. In a blog post article, Jason talked about how television shows are considered successes or failures.

Right, and from what I understand, there are like 5,000 Nielsen boxes that determine what every person in this country gets to watch and that just seems grossly unfair. It’s not a true representation of how we view television now.

Even more than that, the thing about when Jericho returned, every week that Jericho was on, for that week, Jericho would have the number one spot on iTunes. It would usually be in the top five on Amazon.com, and we were watching the Tivo numbers - it was always in the top 15 shows on television……….yet Nielsen was indicating we were a failure.

Why do we have to go by numbers from a system that was devised before the internet was even a thought in someone’s mind? I think that’s why we’re fighting. Some are fighting just to get Jericho back. But I think some of us – and I fall into this group – are fighting to change how decisions are made in the television industry.

When I read this I was amazed, I couldn’t comprehend that a modern entertainment company would actually dismiss internet distribution to determine show ratings. But it’s true, the Neilsen system was devised in 1940, and although updated - they say - since it’s inception, one of the largest distribution chains is ignored. To say this system is flawed, is akin to calling World War II a minor inconvenience!

He finishes the interview with this statement.

For all of us, it has been a time consuming thing, but at the same time we feel like we’re really making a difference, not just for one television show but hopefully in the long run for the television industry in general. For that it’s worth it.

And that my friends, is precisely why I - and you should - download content from the internet, and watch almost nothing on broadcast TV! The only way the power of the people who decide for you, what you will watch, when you will watch it, will be broken is by removing yourself from their equation, and putting yourself into another one. If enough people stop watching traditional broadcast shows, and start using interactive internet television, we will all arrive to the new world very quickly.

Andy.

Tags: Jericho, IPTV