Our partner

C.'s Rants
Because LiveBlog has a character limit. I think. Haven't really checked in a while.
NicS
Consumer 6
Consumer 6
 
Posts: 367
Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:55 am
Blog: View Blog (122)
Archives
- November 2022
UPDATES!!
   Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:45 pm

+ January 2014
+ October 2013
+ September 2013
+ July 2013
+ June 2013
+ May 2013
+ April 2013
+ March 2013
+ December 2012
+ October 2012
+ September 2012
+ August 2012
+ July 2012
+ June 2012
+ May 2012
+ April 2012
+ March 2012
+ February 2012
+ January 2012
+ December 2011
+ November 2011
+ October 2011
+ September 2011
+ August 2011
+ July 2011
Search Blogs

G4's Nightmare by NicS

Permanent Linkby NicS on Tue Sep 10, 2013 3:13 am

About a year ago, Esquire Magazine had announced the acquisition of G4, a TV channel based around 4 things: Games, Gear, Gadgets and Girls (4 G's, hence G4). Because of this, two of my favorite shows from my teenage years, Attack of the Show (AOTS) and XPlay, ended their years long, thousands of episodes run to make way for the oncoming manly shows about travel and wine tasting in leather jackets or whatever. Along with this, Neal Tiles, then CEO, retired a little before the takeover was announced. I like Mr. Tiles. He had a thing where the community would ask him questions and he would honestly answer them. It was great.

On top of that, during commercial breaks, G4 had little moments like "Viral Video Classics", which showed quick 5-10 second clips of truly legendary viral videos, such as Komodo Dragon Throwing Up, Little Superstar, Lonelygirl15, that biker who tries to land on the roof but misses and cracks his ribs. Then there were things such as Urban Dictionary Presents the word of the day, where you'd get the definition for "Edgehog", or someone who takes up the edge of the seat on a bus, in a theater, a church or Super Smash Bros. Melee, or a guy named KnuxSonic would have a quick panel discussion with other viewers on what they just saw on a show, or Morgans Minute, where Morgan Webb, co-host of X-Play, would give her thoughts on whatever was bothering her about gaming. Or just other cool stuff. It made me want to watch commercials, because there was always a surprise hidden in there. Honestly, if I ran a TV network, it would be like G4: Excelllent programming and engaging commercial breaks. I never wanted to turn it off.

So I ran a public access station for 2 months in March and April, 2013. Treasure Valley Community Televeision, or TVCTV (Although I hear they're changing the name soon to Idaho Open Media Center or some stupid name like that. It will always be my TVCTV.) Well, not really ran it, but, lets face it, I knew what I was doing. And I had responsiblities from the board of directors. And I was great at my job. I skipped classes just to help out there, and it was all volunteer work. When people are fighting for paid internships, I get confused. I'm all for paid internships, but honestly, I'm fine with not getting paid if the place is a place I genuinely look forward to working at at going to. They gave me a key to the whole building and a code to get inside and turn off the alarm. The building was all mine whenever I wanted it. And even though I had volunteered there on and off for 4 years, I had been heavily interested in video production since I was seven, studying everything I could from then on. It was and still is a dream job.

I know what I am talking about. Running a station is hard, but so, SO rewarding IF you do it right. We could not do it right, for the simple reason that people just weren't tuning in, or coming in to make programming. I did what I could to get the word out that the station wasn't a dilapidated homeless hellhole and was actually a functional building. But the management (AKA Alex the old hippie manager) was so terribly #######5 that she forced all the paid staff off the roster. It became volunteer run because of her mismanagement. Tens of thousands of dollars in the hole because of her. I'm basically saying ###$ her, because she did a terrible job of managing a place I love and knew it.

Anyway, getting back to G4: the problem all cable channels these days face is programming. I'm focusing on G4 here, but it really is a universal problem. You are expected to fill 24 hours a day with quality programming.

There are, in my view, 4 main blocks that people really care about: Morning, Daytime, Prime Time and Late Night, followed by the one no one cares about, Infomercial Alley. Now Infomercial Alley can eat up the time between, say, 1 AM to 6 AM, so it's not a problem, and you could also put anything in there without FCC oversight, because of the Safe Harbor laws, so long as its not too explicit (I.e. Decapitations, excessive swearing, nudity of any kind, etc.). Because of IA, you really have just 17-19 hours of programming a day, depending on the length of the infomercials/rerun/soft core porn you air.

This is where the problem really lies with most networks, and why TV has gone down the drain. They need to fill the slots with things people want to watch. And what people want is slime and filth. And by God do they have it. And it's actually... Kinda quality? Go watch your favorite reality show and notice the camerawork, how steady it is and how everyone's always in frame and beautiful, how the sound is fantastic, the music ridiculous, but fitting, the graphics, amazing, etc. They have standards on how these things are shot because they want quality, but they want the people's attention, because the more eyeballs they have on their channel, the better the advertisers they can get. You ever wonder why the crappy little channel gets ads for mesothelioma lawsuits and vintage collector coins, and the big national network gets Pepsi, McDonalds and Ford alongside the other big name brands? Because advertisers want their dollars going to the most effective audience. Effective, meaning largest. CBS gets millions of viewers, daily. YouTube is the third largest website on the entire Internet, behind Facebook and Google, and all three get billions a year from advertisers. MeTV, even though I love it SOOOOOOOO much, gets something like a hundred thousand on a good day. Even at its peak, with some of the best shows you've never seen like Vanguard or InfoMania, Current averaged 35K viewers a day. So, who do you go with if your Pepsi or McDonalds or Ford or Wendy's? You go with CBS, obviously.

But the programming. The programming needs to be attracting, to retain the advertisers quota and make them happy. Add to that the required hours needed to fill (24, minus 4-5 hours of infomercials), and you will get anything that comes your way. Here's why: in order to fill those hours, programming, AKA TV shows, need to be commissioned or ordered or transfered to the US, etc. How this is done is through pitches, where people pitch shows to you, and you go "That sounds great" or "PAAAAASSSS". But, now you need to retain this formula of filth and slime, to retain eyeballs, to retain the big name advertisers who pay a lot to get viewers. So even if the show is terrible, it goes on, most people know that. The problem they don't realize is that most execs don't have a choice. If your prime time block is 7PM to 10 PM, that's 3 hour long shows or 6 half hour shows. And you don't get to put the same thing on every night. You have to have a new show every night, for each hour or half hour. And you get a gazillion pitches, only 3 of which match the formula you need for retention, 7 of which are actually good but won't get any viewers until people watch it after its cancelled and demonize you for canceling it (Arrested Development, Firefly, Freaks & Geeks, etc.) and the other 999.98 Billion other pitches being from bored housewives and daydreaming hipster types who think they're clever when really their pitch just sucks. So take the 3 hour block every night for 7 nights a week, and that alone is 21 shows to fill 3 hours per week, at minimum. Add that to the shows needed to fill in the other hours, and it's 100 or so shows, per network, per week. All of them crap, because that's what keeps people coming back.

It's a catch 22, basically. You either get the formulaic shows you know will last till season 21, making you millions, or pick the good show that will make you millions but will not last past season 1. Either way, you are demonized for making the choice for quality over formula or formula over quality.

Enter G4, which cannot get any shows because of the esquire situation. We thought esquire was taking over, so we jumped ship. Should we come back? The numbers are down way too much, most people think the network has already died or been taken off the air, and the only programming seems to be American Ninja Warrior, which can be seen on NBC much more easily to the average viewer without cable or satellite access. No one wants to pitch, because people think the network will be defunct soon anyway, so what's the point, and because of this, there is no new or original programming coming in. Because of that, no big name advertisers. G4 is in a nightmare I wish I could save them from, just because I still love them and what they were.

-NicS

57 Felix 55 Alexis 46 Aaron 42 David
33 Rick 27 Riley 25 Peter Isaac
21 Nic C. Nic TK Zack JR2 Brian Charlie Steve Tyler
14 Daniel 13 AlexBrandon
12 Michael 11 Ellen
9 Alice Andy Micah Nathan
8 Jason Dwyer Cheyanne Timothy
7 Rebecca Eric
6 Dakota Lukas Ivan Luna
5 Gary Mathew April Martin
4 Ryan Anthony Zenith Danielle June Bobby
3 Derrick Sam Paul Larry Shawn Emily May
2 Ethan James William Christina Colby
1 Noah
? Eli Kevin Joshua Andrew Carl Jay Blake Meghan Tiffany Scott Skyler + others
0 Comments Viewed 3549 times

Who is online

Registered users: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], Google Feedfetcher, Julifee, Julihvh, Julipga, Julippn, Julirra, Juliulz, Majestic-12 [Bot], Snaga, xiximmxi