I was reading somewhere today that that overall network TV viewership is down 10% from last year at this time. Some are claiming that its because the networks are putting on substandard shows, or that people are recording them on DVR's, but I think that the one thing the networks are overlooking is the inordinate amount of crap they are putting onscreen while you are watching a show.

Case in point: I was watching Heroes the other night, and while I was trying to get into one of the storylines, I saw some promo for the Bionic Woman creep up on the side of the screen which totally distracted from the action being shown. This wasn't just a small little blip either; they had flashing lights around the promo and it crawled halfway across the screen.

Another case in point: during the baseball playoffs, Fox has been showing replays of key base hits and home runs with the Transformers logo. I know that Transformers is being released on DVD, but aren't the studios aware that this is why you but commercial ad time in between innings? I thought that the whole reason that baseball stadiums have ad backdrops which go on green screens during the playoffs is so that the networks and other advertisers can hawk their wares without distracting from the game play.

And it's not just limited to the broadcast TV networks either. Both MTV and BET had huge blips occasionally come across the screen to sell ringtones. Even the so-called network ID promos usually placed on the lower right hand corner of the TV screen have become more obtrusive, often pitching the latest episode of some show coming up on the channel. This is happening on almost all broadcast shows everywhere (except the commercials themselves). No wonder why people are staying away from TV in droves.

I'm going to go with the substandard shows theory. I used to be a couch potato but lately even I can't stand to watch some of this crap. I can usually ignore the blips of advertisement (except for when Brooke Hogan comes on the side of the tv advertising "Hogan Knows Best". For some reason, her text messaging annoys me). I miss the good old days of The Cosby Show and Roseanne.

i think its become crap, because they want us to pay for TV when this whole HD thing get implemented. Soon most good tv will be pay per view.
everything free will be crap.

everything crap will be for the poor, dumbing them down further.
And good TV will be for the educated wealthy who can afford it.
[Edited 10/19/07 16:07pm]