television

Showing 147 posts tagged television

24: Live Another Day Coming In Summer 2014

I was a huge fan of 24 back in the day. The first season was the first television show I “binge watched” on DVD while in college. I think I watched all 24 episodes in four days…

So I’m glad it’s coming back. And I’m actually happy that it’s not going to be a feature-length film. 24’s hook was the real-time aspect played over a long season. I would worry that a 24 movie would be just like 6,000 other action movies.

That said, I’m also glad they’re cutting it to 12 episodes rather than 24. One major issue with the show was that trying to fill 24 hour-long episodes meant there were a handful every year that were total dogs. Now they can hopefully remove those dogs. And now we won’t have to wonder when Jack Bauer uses the restroom…

Of course, this new format alone won’t solve the issue of repetition. After season 3, basically every season was the same — including a few that were almost identical in their story arcs. Every bad guy was only a front for another bad guy who was a front for the real bad guy.

Here’s hoping they can re-capture the magic of the fantastic first season. Pretty stupid title — though at least it’s not: 12.

Pay-TV Sector Posts Worst Subscriber Trends in Four Years

Todd Spangler on the most recent cable television numbers:

Q1 is historically one of the strongest periods for pay TV providers. But the 176,000 net adds in the most recent quarter came in at less than half the totals for the sector in the previous three years, according to Bazinet’s calculations. The industry added 403,000 in the first quarter of 2012; 483,000 in Q1 2011; and 507,000 in Q1 2010.

Indeed, the four largest publicly held MSOs in the States — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems — collectively lost 208,000 video subscribers in Q1 2013, exactly double the 104,000 they dropped in the year-earlier period.

I sense a trend. And if my math is correct, that trend is not a good one for cable television.

[via @ryanlawler]

One Last Cringe for The Office Finale

Bill Carter:

What truly turned their fortunes, however, was that in the first week that NBC shows were available for purchase on iTunes, episodes of “The Office” occupied four of the top five spots. Suddenly NBC was impressed, especially by the makeup of the audience: young, college-educated and affluent. Most shows were made available to such outlets as networks sought new revenue, but “The Office” fit the iTunes audience precisely.

From a show that was going to be cancelled to a nine season run. Makes you wish iTunes had begun selling television shows when Firefly was still around.