HBO comedies you have enjoyed on terrestrial will now have to pay through the nose to BSkyB, a channel that has never made a single decent sit-com in the their whole sorry arsed history.
This nauseating article from the London Standard gushes about what a successful colossus of British broadcasting it is (by fleecing football fans and now HBO viewers).
Does anyone really watch TV anymore though? I mean maybe for sports if that's your cuppa but it's DVDs and internet streaming/downloads for comedy now, surely?
Quote: David Bussell @ July 30 2010, 1:37 PM BSTDoes anyone really watch TV anymore though?
I do.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 30 2010, 1:37 PM BSTI do.
Really? I'd have thought you wouldn't have time, what with all the opium parties and dog fights you youngsters enjoy so much.
I do. Also I have Sky anyway, so it makes me difference to me.
Quote: David Bussell @ July 30 2010, 1:39 PM BSTReally?
I was watching it just this morning in fact, whilst eating some cereal, and mopping up the dried dog blood up off the floor. Last time I bow to pressure and agree to use my front room as the venue.
Bloody Sky. With their money and that.
I guess it's either sign up or miss out.
Or the alternatives.
The shame is that this is only going to result in a lot of HBO shows getting smaller audiences than they already have.
I think ITV2 have given up on Entourage, on a related matter.
Quote: Griff @ July 30 2010, 1:47 PM BSTI think people still watch TV for now - it's more fun watching comedy in your front room with a big telly and family or friends, than hunched over a PC in your office room or whatever - but as soon as it gets so easy to stream content wirelessly from your computer to your flat-screen telly that any thicko can do it, broadcast TV is surely dead. And that can't be more than a couple of years away?
We have our PC hooked up to our lovely HD TV. It's magical.
Burn 
Sky's business model is to take away things that people were already getting for free and make them pay through the nose. Astonishingly people seem delighted to do that.
Quote: Timbo @ July 30 2010, 2:09 PM BSTSky's business model is to take away things that people were already getting for free and make them pay through the nose. Astonishingly people seem delighted to do that.
And the whole point of subscription TV, like HBO in the US, is to avoid having adverts. Sky charges you a fee and makes you sit through adverts. All the best TV writers in the US prefer to write for HBO and rival cable outfits because of the appalling influence advertisers and sponsors.
I agree that it's great watching TV as a shared experience, either with friends or family, or watching in the knowledge that next day at work everybody saw the same thing. However, it's been a while since american shows were treated with any kind of respect on the main channels. Most are smuggled at ridiculous times. Or dumped on an obscure feeder channel so you don't now it's on. Which is why I've ended up consuming most American shows on DVD.
On the subject of HBO, aside from Curb and Trueblood, they ain't got to many classics at the moment. The Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Oz heyday's a while back now.
Quote: chipolata @ July 30 2010, 3:52 PM BSTI agree that it's great watching TV as a shared experience, either with friends or family, or watching in the knowledge that next day at work everybody saw the same thing. However, it's been a while since american shows were treated with any kind of respect on the main channels. Most are smuggled at ridiculous times. Or dumped on an obscure feeder channel so you don't now it's on. Which is why I've ended up consuming most American shows on DVD.
On the subject of HBO, aside from Curb and Trueblood, they ain't got to many classics at the moment. The Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Oz heyday's a while back now.
Interesting point. Comedy has become a more solitary affair for sure but so long as that stops awful watercooler catchphrase calling I think we're better off.
Quote: David Bussell @ July 30 2010, 3:54 PM BSTInteresting point. Comedy has become a more solitary affair for sure but so long as that stops awful watercooler catchphrase calling I think we're better off.
I miss that. One of the things I like about the BCG is when a popular show finishes and we're all online seconds later piping up with our opinions.
I think the future of television is live studio-based shows. As everything else will be ondemand/streaming/whatever.
Vernon Kay, Ant & Dec will be kings.