How much TV do you watch in a week, on average?
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I'm getting old. (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't just sit still and watch TV anymore. I always have to be doing something 'while' watching. Maybe it's adult onset ADD.
Re:I'm getting old. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds familiar.
Same here. The only TV I watch are films and shows after they have been released on DVD. Even with those sometimes I find myself taking the laptop and doing something at the same time.
Definitely _NO_ broadcast TV though. Never.
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Yep. I watch seasons of stuff on DVD, but pretty much only when I'm on the treadmill (again-- having to do something else). Love it or hate it, Battlestar Galactica on DVD from Netflix made me one hell of a dedicated exerciser.
Just getting into Big Bang Theory now. Loving it.
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Same here. Most of the DVDs that I rent are TV shows (watching a season over a week or two is so much better than watching it over half a year interleaved with other shows), and there's also iPlayer. 4oD, I find manages to be just above my tolerance level for adverts, so I rarely watch it - there are some good shows there, but I'd rather wait for the DVD than put up with the ads and an interface that makes iPlayer look well designed.
I haven't had an actual TV for about 4 years. I got mine repaired the f
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So, to know how to answer the poll, it depends on the definition of TV. If it means 'stuff that is broadcast and must be either recorded or watched at the time the network decides' then the answer is none. If the definition is 'episodic audiovisual content, which debuts in the medium described in the first definition', then the answer is quite a lot more. I actually watch quite a lot more TV programs than I ever did back when I actually owned a TV...
Yes, same here. I do not really watch any TV content anymore by turning on the TV and switching to some TV channel, but I watch a lot of content which started out on TV via the Internet (mainly fansubbed anime). But none of the stuff I download and watch on my computer is/was available on our local TV here, so I do not think it counts as "watching TV". In fact, I do not even turn on my TV anymore except for watching a DVD or two once a month with some friends, plus when some major live sports event is going
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I'm a TV junkie. From the time I walk in the door in the afternoon, at every TV in any room I happen to be in..is turned on. I have TV's on any time I'm in the house, usually in multiple rooms so I don't miss anything as I walk around doing things.
Heck, the TV is my nightlight too...when I crash at night, I set the timer to turn it off after I go to sleep. I actually have a very difficult time going to sleep in a totally dark room, with no sound.
Re:What? Who. (Score:4, Interesting)
The Internet has severely damaged my ability to just sit and watch something slowly. I need a constant variety of varied infomation delivered fast. Even documentaries that I'm interested in seem slow and dull and leave me wishing I could just speed-read a bullet-point list of the information contained in it.
Re:What? Who. (Score:5, Funny)
uh, dude, "tele" relates to sound. The only way it isn't television is if the volume is turned all the way down.
Ah right, that explains the telescope, which enables one to see sound.
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uh, dude, "tele" relates to sound. The only way it isn't television is if the volume is turned all the way down.
Ah right, that explains the telescope, which enables one to see sound.
Or a... Telecaster! Which... oh. Hang on... I've got this...
Re:What? Who. (Score:4, Informative)
"Television? The word is half Greek and half Latin. No good will come of this device."
-- C. P. Scott 1936
Specifically, the "tele" half means DISTANCE, not sound, and if you need me to tell you what "vision" means... well, then there's no helping you.
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I can't just sit still and watch TV anymore. I always have to be doing something 'while' watching. Maybe it's adult onset ADD.
Its funny that you put it that way because it always seemed like in the past the older you get the more you just sit and watch TV.
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Yeah. Most of my TV time overlaps with the time I'm hitting the elliptical at the gym.
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The brain is good at filtering out ambient noise and gibberish. Having filtered it out, you now realise you're sitting around like a lemon and feel you must actually do something.
That's what it feels like to me anyway.
Ad breaks (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it's adult onset ADD.
Maybe it's just commercial breaks that go on forever.
The other thing I've noticed about TV in recent years is just how derivative (being polite here) all the programmes are. Most of the time by about 5 minutes in I've worked out what earlier programme a particular episode is, who dunnit to whom, with what and how it's likely to end.
It just doesn't engage me much any more. I just mentally check back in with the progress a show is making every now and then, then go back to whatever else I am doing. Usually all you need is the sound channel in order to keep up - it's surprising how little actual content is conveyed by the pictures - despite the huge bandwidth consumption.
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Maybe it's adult onset ADD.
That's no ADD [youtube.com], that's a natural reaction to boredom.
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TV is full of BULLSHIT. Shut it off, entirely. Come back in 4 months. Turn on CNN, Fox, and CBS.
Turn on some Star Trek, Family Guy, whatever.
How the fuck do people watch this stuff? Open and shut in 20 minutes with some breaks!
You will quickly become an anime fan and an Enterprise fan, and BSG (BSG was too much drama for me though). Get the DVD and watch it for an hour or three in a big block, continuing story, strong continuity instead of loose continu
Downloads (Score:4, Insightful)
Does downloaded TV count? If not, none (would be 1, except my freeview box has packed up). If so...
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Same here. No TV. But I watch streaming stuff in the 11-15 hrs category.
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Bingo. TV I'd say it's 1-5 (only because the gaming computer is in the same room and I happen to watch something whenever there's grinding to be done) but online streaming including podcasts etc. would be closer to 25.
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How about streaming non-TV shows like video clips? I am addicted to those like on my YouTube subscriptions, VideoSift [videosift.com], etc.
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Does downloaded TV count? If not, none (would be 1, except my freeview box has packed up). If so...
I counted streaming video, TV viewed on official websites and internet-only video content as TV (to name a few) in my total. I thought it might sound misleading to say I watched no TV, when in reality I do see several hours of video programming a week.
Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm more inclined to watch new episodes than repeats, although sometimes watching an old Good Eats will remind me how easy it is to make a souffle or something and sometimes watching an old Mythbusters will remind me how easy it is to blow shit up if you attach enough C4 to it.
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I miss watching Good Eats. Alton Brown always is entertaining, much like the Mythbusters.
That being said, my watch list:
Mythbusters - If I have to explain, you shouldn't be on Slashdot
TMZ - Mindless pop culture before bed
HLN's Morning Express - On while I chase my 16 month old son around and try to have breakfast
Canada's Worst Driver / Handyman - Makes me thank the Lord I have good eye/hand co-ordination and a logical mind
Bored, busy, or hipster (Score:5, Insightful)
Those are the big three, in my mind, that stop people from watching tv. You're either sick of the current lineups, too busy to veg out, or loooooove telling people how you don't watch tv. The advanced variant is "I don't even OWN a tv!"
I'd rather spend time on other hobbies, especially with the ridiculous price of cable, but sometimes it's nice to do nothing but watch Kirk punch some guy in the back for the hundredth time.
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How about "I own a TV, but I haven't used it in over 2 years?" What category does that fall in?
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Toshiba 36", CRT.
Still want it?
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It's bigger than my 35" CRT. Shows how important I think TV is.
Size isn't everything. :-)
I recently got rid of my last CRT TV because the sheer weight of moving it around was too much. I can pick up my flat-panel easily despite the screen being bigger.
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The advanced variant is "I don't even OWN a tv!"
Depends. I don't own a TV, but I watch more TV shows than I ever did when I owned one - they're either rented on DVD or streamed on iPlayer. As an added bonus, this means that I don't need to pay a TV license (it's now gone up to £145/year - was about £120 last time I needed one).
Mainly the reason that I don't own a TV is advertisements. If I want to be entertained, then I want to spend that time being entertained, I don't want the entertainment interrupted by infantile attempts to make m
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I'm amused that you complain about the advertisements after complaining about the cost of the TV license. There's some good stuff on the BBC channels, though of course it's also on iPlayer.
I voted 0, as I don't think of watching films on DVD as "watching TV". I used to watch a DVD film on TV every couple of months and a cinema-film every couple of weeks, but since moving into a new house with a film student I've found myself watching one once a week (and ignoring one every other evening).
I dislike the resul
Hipster? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't care about sports, the latest reality show, or American Idol. That's why I don't watch TV. I realized when I was about 16 that every show on TV is just a rehashing of some older show. There's nothing to see.
Re:Bored, busy, or hipster (Score:4, Interesting)
There are several reasons behind this. First off, I moved a lot (rent was expensive compared to my wage back then), and a TV was heavy at the time. And fragile. Then, I am not a sports fan, I only watch World Cup and European Cup, that IF my country's team participates, and I do that in a bar somewhere or watch the matches online.
I honestly and truly believe TV is dumb. Granted, it has *some* advantages, but those are heavily outweighed by its disadvantages. Shows are dumb, SOAPs are dumb, some commercials are nice but they focus too much on the product (doh!) and so on. I gave TV a chance 3 years ago, got gable TV and hooked it to my PC Monitor and for a couple days I was browsing through those 100+ TV channels available, slowly removing them from the default list until I ended up with exactly two. And those were the ones my girlfriend liked and watched every now and then. Couple months after that my ISP started offering free WebTV (was 41 channels and now is 65+ channels, I think). I scrapped my cable contract (paid extra for that too!), installed the WebTV software and... never opened it again. Well I might be lying: whenever there's something really big happening in the world, I might just fire it up, watch what's happening and shut it off again.
I don't miss TV at all. I see it as means to get wasted in a purely intellectual fashion. Dumbs you down, wastes your time and is generally the least preferable entertainment method out there.
Background (Score:4, Insightful)
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Since the poll is about watching TV, I don't think that counts.
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Honest question: Why do people do that? I usually feel the noise pretty distracting, because some part of my brain always trys to listen. And listening without the visuals is usually not really satisfying. And if listening is not usefull, why keep the thing running?
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If you're looking for background noise, why don't you use a radio instead?
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Isn't a CRT a TV? (Score:2)
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Hrm, I think you have your terminology confused the 2ms you mention is response time, which is the time it takes for your computer to send the info to the time it is updated on the display itself.
Refresh rate is what you want to check - a 60Hz refresh rate can only move 60 pixels in a second without jumping 2 or more pixels, and that is probably what you are noticing. It is the default on Windows, I believe (on Windows 7 go to Display->Advanced Settings, Monitor tab). Anything over 85 should be faster th
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This was offtopic, but hey, it's a poll!
Not much... (Score:2)
The TV is mainly for movies & games (Score:2)
Hooray for Netflix on the Wii. I'll sometimes watch the Daily Show on the computer too.
sports... (Score:3)
I've been able to stop watching almost all television, save live sports. One American football game or baseball game is about 3 hours including the breaks, so it's easy for the TV time to start adding up. I usually don't even care which team wins, I just enjoy the contest.
Living alone, I often just have the TV on while I do other things, like clean or cook.
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One American football game or baseball game is about 3 hours including the breaks
Or about 10 minutes without adverts.
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The 90 minutes I used to endure as a child (when my dad wanted everyone to watch the football [soccer]) is brief compared to this!
Re:sports... (Score:5, Funny)
Contrary to popular belief, Canadian football actually has four downs, not three - but we always punt on the third down just to be safe.
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1-5 Hours, closer to 1. (Score:2)
Other than newsfeeds, usually there isn't anything worth watching. Sometimes local tv stations show something relevant to my interests, but that's a pretty rare occurence. My TV usage shot up when my satellite provider issued a promotion for free Discovery and related channels, but that'll soon be over.
I haven't owned a TV for years (Score:2)
I get my South Park fix online and use Netflix when I want to watch a movie.
0.something, on average (Score:2)
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Ok, here's my geek card _and_ my man card...
depends on "TV" (Score:2)
If you count flipping to a channel and watching what is sent to my eyeballs... Maybe a few football games a year.
If you count anything that I use my TV for... 0-5 hours every couple days.
If you count just TV shows... a couple hours every few days.
Overall I just don't see the point of having cable when you can just watch everything online or download it. I don't understand why anyone would bother paying for 500+ channels you're most likely never going to watch. You could pay for whole seasons of every show y
500+ channels (Score:2)
I don't understand why anyone would bother paying for 500+ channels you're most likely never going to watch.
Why do you bother paying for a billion Web pages you're never going to view? Same reason people pay for 500 channels – they're part of a service, and you can't reduce cost by dropping the options that you personally aren't using.
Guess I'm a bigger boob than most (Score:2)
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I would guess that you are more honest than most. A lot of under reporting going on.
Comment removed (Score:3)
I don't watch TV (Score:2)
Who has time for Real TV (Score:2)
Thanks to DVR I am able to watch the few shows I like when I have time. Working a full time job, caring for horses and riding take up much of my viewing time. I got the DVR set for Food Network shows like Ironchef (though its getting old), Chopped, TBS now and then has a good show on repeat that I have not seen. Most of the new series have no interest for me and Most movies these days aren't worth the time. I do love old movies, not just for the plot, but the scene shots, camera angles and pacing. Once
TV Shows? Movies? Sports? (Score:2)
Are we talking TV programs/series (TV comedies, talk shows, crime dramas, reality shows, etc) or movies & sports count as well?
I mainly watch movies and sports, but I find time to hit up Dirty Jobs, Science Channel, and Family Guy/Simpsons for a few hours a week.
TV programming: 1-5 hours
TV programming + Sports + Movies: ~20 hours
Healthy or sick? (Score:2)
When I'm healthy or when I'm sick? When I'm healthy probably much less than 5 hrs per week. Probably 5 hours per month. When I'm sick and laying on the couch or I need something to do in between food poisoned visits to the can, I can rack up 14 hours in a bad day. I caught the flu some years ago and watched most of a season of BSG, thus getting addicted to BSG. If it were not for occasional illness, I'd not watch much TV at all.
More POWER!!1! (Score:2)
Top Gear is my new favorite, but I love the classics; Python, Fawlty Towers, Addams Fam, Munsters, Dr. Who (#4 Tom Baker), Connections and Connections II, Hogans Heroes, Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, and ST:TOS of course. DVDs are the preferred collection media, which render to other portable formats very nicely and are not too expensive. How about Red Dwarf, Mr. Bean, The Young Ones, The Sopranos, Chappelle's Show, MST3K, Simpsons, South Park... too many shows to watch! I have to do house work sometime.
Whitenoise (Score:2)
Depends on the definition of "watch".
Well, okay, I guess it doesn't, because I only really "watch" about five or so hours a week (Daily Show/Colbert, maybe Mythbusters if I remember it). The TV is on and producing sound more often than not unless I have something more important to listen to (real-life guests, computer games, etc), but I mostly use it as a form of whitenoise while I'm doing other work.
Now, if I could replace one TV so part of said whitenoise wasn't ACTUAL whitenoise in the form of an electr
Rating key says it all (Score:5, Interesting)
A reviewer in a local newspaper gives his rating key for TV shows as
which seems to adequately capture the universe of programming.
Kill your TV (Score:3, Interesting)
TV is an incredible waste of time.
TV is nothing more than a vehicle used to deliver commercials to you. Commercials are engineered to create discontent. Why waste your time doing something that is designed to make you unhappy? I pulled the plug sometime around '91 and haven't looked back. There are so many other things to do with my time: read a book, go outside, visit friends, learn something, exercise, etc.
The few times I've browsed through the channels while staying at a hotel I'm always disappointed by the lack of quality programming. I'm not missing anything.
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TV is an incredible waste of time.
I could argue so is reading a book. I'm wasting my time rewatching STNG, but if I were to read books people have written I'm not wasting my time?
TV is nothing more than a vehicle used to deliver commercials to you.
Umm, not really.
Commercials are engineered to create discontent. Why waste your time doing something that is designed to make you unhappy?
Valid enough that some commercials are engineered to create discontent. But then you generalize and say that all watching TV is doing something that is designed to make you unhappy? That is only true if someone is sitting there watching commercials all day. I don't even watch commercials when I'm watching TV. Mostly because I download the shows
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Butthurt much?
By the way, why do you read a book that has no intellectual value in first place?
Are you some kind of masochist?
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TV is nothing more than a vehicle used to deliver commercials to you.
You're only mostly right on this one. There are at least 2 exceptions:
1. PBS. Obviously, you have to skip the "generous support from" messages which are way too commercial-like, but shows like Newshour generally have long chunks of time where they're giving you actual information or artistic value.
2. C-Span. Of course, while it's extremely informative and/or funny at times (depending on how comically stupid our elected representatives are being at the time), it's also extremely boring at other times.
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Agreed. I've not owned a TV in about 7 years. The end result is that we've found better ways of spending our time (reading more, playing board games, taking up dance and fencing lessons etc).
And now, every time I look at the TV, I am amazed by the number of ads and the "fakeness" of the experience.
Of course, I remember a time when you paid and the ads would go away -- back then, we were the customers. Today, the media companies are the customers, and we are merely the eyeballs. So, ads it is. Everywhere.
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I haven't had T.V. in almost 12 years--during which time I've spent my free time on reading, hobbies, and playing with my kids.
Think about how much TV you watch each day--or better yet, use a stop watch and actually time it. I suspect you'll be surprised at how much time you actually spend: the average American watches a staggering 5 hours PER DAY of television. Now, think about the value of your time, the value of what you're watching, and then think of all the other uses you could put 35 hours a week to.
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Maybe 5 years ago it would have been something you could make fun of for showing off. Not today.
Pretty much most of my friends do not own a TV, and those that do have a TV only use it to watch DVD movies (no cable). Arguably, this pertains to a certain demographic (young working professionals in consulting/banking in a big city).
We'd much rate go out and hang with our friends, or do any number of far more engaging things than watch a TV. Besides, if you're that desperate, you can always get a DVD and watch
Too many ads, no foreign content (Score:2)
They tend to limit what foreign content is broadcast as well, and some shows I like just aren't in the programming, so that's one less reason to tune in.
What about Internet videos? (Score:2)
Do those count too if they are shown on TV? I do watch TV on my computer screens as well. Does that count too?
NFL season vs. non NFL Season (Score:2)
No NFL Season = 15 - 20
Background Noise (Score:3)
Depends on what you mean by TV (Score:2)
Define.... (Score:2)
"watch TV"
Brain dead consume programming?
Gaming?
If I add in gaming, it goes up a big notch.
NOT watching TV weirds people out. (Score:2)
We have two TVs at our workplace, though; one is usually set to NY1 and the other to CNN. One is right in my field of vision, which is a bit annoying, especially when it was set to NBC...
i included internet content (Score:2)
All my "TV" watching is now from streamed Netflix or Hulu. I use it more like a radio, but it is on all the time.
Life is too short... (Score:2, Insightful)
on average an hour a week, if that (Score:2)
For some years now, I do not really watch TV anymore. It's a combination of the TV content turning into crap (I just cannot stand "judge xyz" shows or talk shows with (to me) irrelevant celebrities anymore), plus news being available on the net whenever I want to read them - not only at fixed times on the TV, plus the few shows I actually WOULD want to see not being available on our local TV programs here, or only with horrible dubs (stuff like anime, mythbusters, top gear). Even if a movie I am interested
I was born in a TV-less house... (Score:3, Insightful)
about 20 hours. (Score:4, Insightful)
It used to be possible to watch a series in the US a year or 3 ahead of the UK broadcast, but in recent years it's noe possible to follow along perhaps a week or 2 behind in some cases, if you can be bothered to wade through adverts and spend approx 30% of your viewing time watching adverts, I mean seriously - WTF?
Who would do that, I don't understand why you would do that.
Theres also been some Australian programmes which have been interesting which I otherwise wouldn't get to see, plus the fact I can watch when I want, do mammoth 'catch-up' sessions, not run the risk of being spoilered when browsing the net, and pause, fast forward etc.
It's now possible to watch all the UK freeview channels, live, for free, via the interwebs. With a 10MB connection, this makes a TV card a antiquated peice of hardware these days.
Why watch? (Score:3)
The Video Consumer Mapping Study (Score:4, Informative)
When people self-report their media consumption, they tend to underestimate (or under-report) the amount of TV they watch. The Video Consumer Mapping Study [bsu.edu] (VCM), the largest study of video consumption to date, also documented this tendency.
Even for the well-intentioned, it's easy to underestimate. While participants in the VCM commonly under-reported by 25%, I find it especially interesting when a person under-reports by a very large amount—like 80%. There is a social stigma about watching television. Some people feel shame about it, and may even be aware that television is part of a coping strategy in their lives—one of the factors in television addiction [turnoffyourtv.com].
But the VCS is a media study, not a sociopsychological one. It has a lot of fascinating data [researchexcellence.com] about American's viewing habits. Do people watch more TV or less if they own a DVR? Do most people watch alone or with others? How many people watch more video online than on television? It's in there.
So maybe reading the study will make you feel better about watching TV. Or maybe, like Jerry Mander, author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television [wikipedia.org] , you feel more depressed and concerned as you think about the impact of TV-viewing on our bodies, brains, and societies.
I'm very fond of Peep Show [channel4.com] . But I can't shake this nagging awareness that time I spend consuming is time taken away from creating.
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Shouldn't that be "Internet killed the video star" instead?
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You mean like direct to video movies? Who would be a star of that crap? (no porn jokes allowed)
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No video is as popular as ever, it's the specific distribution medium television that is dying.
Even out of those I know who have a TV, none use it to watch broadcast television.
And because the industry is so incredibly slow and set in their ways, Internet "piracy" is still king for television episodes and movies..
Unwatching (Score:2)
Any more questions?
Yes, is there a better way to unwatch TV than my current method (bourbon, one bottle equals -1h of TV)?
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Agreed. I would be downloading and watching Doctor Who also, but the new season hasn't started yet.
I have plans to watch Game of Thrones when it eventually comes out.
I also watched Spartacus: Blood and Sand and I hope there is another season!
OK and maybe True Blood also...