A quote from Kim Andrew Elliot’s post (sourced stats from Famagusta Gazette Online Edition):
Expats in Cyprus prefer their news without analysis. Online survey indicates EuroNews is most popular among expats in Cyprus.
Agreed.
One other advantage of EuroNews that wasn’t mentioned is the total absence of the “talking head”. It’s funny sometimes to see how each of the news channels tries to solve the problem of the news reader, who doesn’t have much to do while reading the news. The poor news readers are bounced around the studio, separated into corners or grouped around one table, sitting or standing or sitting again, with empty hands or a piece of paper and a pencil or a laptop computer which is probably switched off because nobody ever looks at it, etc…
EuroNews solved the puzzle years ago. They don’t show the news reader at all. Brilliant! It’s TV for crowing out loud. It’s about moving pictures. Show me the footage from the location. Show me a graphs and scans. Show me a marquee line or a visual effect if you can’t think of anything else.  But don’t show me the talking head!
Hey, it’s even simpler – DON’T WATCH TV at all! Get rid of it.
All the Euro- and other worldwide news can be easily (and timely!) obtained from the net.
The same applies to movies, arts, music… the list is endless.
For news, there is radio as well.
TV is a dinosaur and will be no use very soon.
Lana,
I don’t watch TV all that much, but I strongly disagree with you on TV being a dinosaur which won’t have much use very soon…
First of all, there is a technical question – affordable Internet connection’s worldwide aren’t fast enough to delivery high quality video to every house. And they won’t be for some time to come. Especially with HDTV and other “heavy” goodies coming out all the time. Watching YouTube-sized window with highly compressed video might be informative, but it’s not entertaining.
Secondly, TVs are much easier to use for non-technical part of population, than even the simplest computer. That won’t change for some time either. Instead, TV will get more advanced (and we already see it happening even here in Cyprus, with PrimeTel’s VBOX channel, games, etc).
Thirdly, the majority of population … how should I put it … is not oriented towards self-development, objective information, and quality entertainment. You can see signs of this in pop-music, reality TV shows, and all that crap coming out of Hollywood in the recent years. People are the slowest to change, so this will be as it is for a long time…
Television industry (as music, movies, food, and many others) is aimed at masses. And masses massively consist of simple minded, easily entertained people, who want to lay on th sofa after a hard day at work (the one from 9 to 5) and watch a moderately-boobed young girl jump around in the underwear, singing a … whatever. And I don’t see this changing any time soon.
But. (there is always a but)
The good news are that television is getting digital (in a broader meaning of the term). Additionally to improved quality (of picture and sound, not content) it brings a bonus of personalization. With traditional television it was practically impossible to track who is watching what and when. With digital television this becomes trivial.
And personalization means that those people who want to see pretty young girls singing silly songs can get as much of those as possible, while other people who want to pretend smart while watching animal sex on Discover Channel can have plenty of that…
Features like Amazon’s “people who bought this book also bought..” and YouTube’s related videos will eventually make into a TV. Also, TV will get more social, since now it is possible to get some feedback from the subscriber as well (ratings, comments, chats, opinions, tags, and things like that).
Also, television will blend more with other entertainment and information channels. Things like IMDB information on the movie you are currently watching or a link to the web sites of the news agency will get common…
I can go and on an on… But the point is that I don’t think television will be of no use any time soon. Television is a huge source of money (advertising, content subscriptions, etc). People making these money will try their best to stay “of use”.
We’ve had other examples in the past. When television appeared, many were seeing it as the end of radio. That didn’t happen. Radio is as live today as ever. Internet won’t kill radio and television either. It will help them change and transform. But it won’t make them of “no use”.
Wow. That was probably the longest comment I’ve ever written anywhere. :)
Maybe Hazard will also have something to say, as he’s one of the people driving the development of digital television in Cyprus.
Lenia, I’m keen to get further into this conversation and give you an adequate answer – not in terms of length :) but at least in terms of the scope.
But I’m cooking pancakes right now and it is way more important for my family than any developments in the digital TV at the moment :)
But I will come back soon.
BTW we decided to resign from PrimeTel. Nothing personal of course.
Lana,
oh, well.. bon appetit then :)
P.S. : I’m not advocating for PrimeTel. They are a good provider, but they are not the only one. :)
(Continued)
My kitchen chores being completed, it’s time to (pretend to) be clever and continue with my prediction of the future of TV.
The evil of TV was very well depicted as long ago as in the year 1951 (1953) in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451.
Lenia, you are so damn right about “the majority of population (being)… not oriented towards self-development†and also about the majority of TV programs being “crapâ€. But my point was that an old-fashioned broadcasting TV is kinda dinosaur whereas a digital TV – an outspring of the cable TV in a broader meaning of the term – is a door to the new reality: what you get is what you’d subscribed for.
And I’m not talking of the million years-long evolution, I’m talking of the very near future.
Even the non-technical part of population (set aside darkest corners of our civilization) nowadays gets energy and water, for which they’ve subscribed for – either deliberately or, more often, as a matter of a mundane life arrangements. Advanced TV, as you call it, has no difference for me in this respect from the watering or sewage systems (especially the latter). So, whoever wants to have it will have it in future, but others may opt for the alternate sources of energy, water, information, entertainment etc. and the range of those sources gets wider almost every day.
TV’s going to become a matter of choice rather than the most convenient and easily accessible (affordable) entertainment and information channel, as it is now.
You will have a choice to not have TV at all (in any form) and still entertain yourself as much as you wish and get access to the latest updates of the universal information stream. Money will continue to flow even more rigorously having in mind a wide range of the possible subscription facilities and options (for those who stay with TV, of course).
Speaking of a man lying on his sofa watching a moderately (or not so moderately)-boobed young girl jumping around HIM in the underwear, singing a … whatever :), he’ll soon get her 3D image 24/7 using something like a Gameboy (what a convenient name!) cheap at price and priceless at use :) no competition from TV on this side!
We’ll see soon…
I can’t argue with this:
:)
I am another who does not watch TV all that often – but Euronews is the one that I ALWAYS listen in to – and tonight it is in Greek? I have tried – gamely – to learn Greek for the past ten years; I can read but cannot tune in fast enough to be able to listen in. PLEASE How do we get our news in English?
Gillian