When did you feel like cable started to fall off as an medium of entertainment?

[DinosaurJerky]

You're basically saying two or three channels (HBO, FX) held up all cable channels. My point is there are *always* great shows on television so by this argument critical acclaim is basically out, and you can only use subscriber count, so cable's fall off started...what, a couple years ago?

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No, I'm citing a handful of examples of the shows with broad consensus as to their importance and quality to illustrate that the medium itself had not started its decline during the period you suggest. Just because you want to handwave critical acclaim since it refutes your conclusion doesn't mean that anyone else is obligated to follow suit. Even if I assume that there are always good or perhaps great shows on cable for the sake of argument, there certainly aren't always shows that push the medium forward in terms of craft and storytelling. Do you not see the absurdity of creating a topic to discuss when cable began its decline as a "medium of entertainment" if you are going to automatically dismiss discussion of the quality of the entertainment from that medium during the timeframe in question, except when it bolsters your point (read: discussion of increased reality television as a negative in the original post)? The same reasoning (there are always bad shows) applies to reality programming, anyway.

I don't buy the wholly unsubstantiated timelines for your pitches about "optimizing" and network identity loss. Also, the notion that television networks, the first of which first began in 1939, hadn't started to optimize their programming for profitability until 65 years later is ludicrous on its face. Why do you think programming changes over the decades? Why do you think shows get cancelled? Incorporating a higher percentage of reality programming is not the genesis of optimization - it's another link in a multi-decade chain.

Here's a Wikipedia entry with 250 cites to articles about the golden age of television starting in the '00s:

Golden Age of Television (2000s–present) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm not just making up stuff based on my feelings.

I'd suggest that's cable's relative decline as a medium of entertainment started somewhere in the mid-'10s as streaming services narrowed the gap between cable and its competitors with prestige programming of their own.

 

[mrmoose]

People have always yearned to watch media at their own pace, even new programming. The "binging" model would not have taken hold otherwise if what you're saying was actually true.

TBH, the romanticization of the weekly release schedule and half-year breaks during a season is the weirdest thing to me. Because it was that very structure which led to the redundancy and subsequent decreased interest in cable to begin with, given the incessant inundation of reruns for hours at a time.

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In a lot of ways the forced schedule created a lot of opportunity for discussion, though. If you didn't catch something when it first aired, then you had to wait for a rerun months and months later (if that) so it was appointment viewing and everyone was on the same page when it came to speculating what was happening next. You can't have that today, especially if it's released all at once: some will watch it right away, some will take their time, others will pass for a later time because it's always available.

The reason that structure led to decreased interest in cable is only because there were alternatives to it. I'm not saying we need to go back to being a captive of TV schedules but there was some utility to it. It's also a good reason why sports and some reality shows have basically survived as cable mainstays, there's a benefit to watching it live.

 

[Storminormin]

I pretty much stopped watching tv around 2007 when I finally got off of dialup internet.

 

[SageShinigami]

No, I'm citing a handful of examples of the shows with broad consensus as to their importance and quality to illustrate that the medium itself had not started its decline during the period you suggest. Just because you want to handwave critical acclaim since it refutes your conclusion doesn't mean that anyone else is obligated to follow suit.

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The "everyone else" thing is fascinating, because you're not merely arguing with me, you are arguing with a lot more people. I started the thread asking when people thought cable fell off, and you're actually one of the only one trying to give an "objective" answer. The first few responses (and responses echoed throughout the thread) ran alongside mine, and I'm not even sure they read my entire OP. They were mostly some variation of "When the history and the learning channels started being stuffed with reality TV junk".

In which case, yeah I would probably go with when streaming really took off and cable sales started to stagnate, which is a decade after what I mentioned.

I don't buy the wholly unsubstantiated timelines for your pitches about "optimizing" and network identity loss.

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I didn't say you had to. But again, a ton of people don't even seem like they read my OP and they went with the back half of the 2000s as their choice.

Also, the notion that television networks, the first of which first began in 1939, hadn't started to optimize their programming for profitability until 65 years later is ludicrous on its face. Why do you think programming changes over the decades? Why do you think shows get cancelled? Incorporating a higher percentage of reality programming is not the genesis of optimization - it's another link in a multi-decade chain.

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If you like, the phrase can go from "started to optimize" to "got better at optimizing". The end result is the same. Cable in the '90s did things one way, while cable in the mid to late 2000s did things another way, all for the sake of maximizing profit with minimal effort.

Here's a Wikipedia entry with 250 cites to articles about the golden age of television starting in the '00s:

Golden Age of Television (2000s–present) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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That article pulls from so many different eras that it basically makes my point for me. First, a large number of the most notable series come from three or four networks (HBO, FX, AMC). The entire reason people started growing tired of cable in the first place was that you stopped caring about most of the channels on the air and just wanted a handful, which is the very thought process that led to streaming.

Second, if you believe that entry the second Golden Age of Television either hasn't ended, or ended roughly at the end of last decade. Because, as I suggested before, there have always been amazing television series, that doesn't justify cable as a whole. It even includes a number of streaming television series.

One last thing:

I'm not just making up stuff based on my feelings.

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Everyone else is, because that's technically what the thread is about. When did YOU feel like cable started to fall off.

 

[starbreaker]

IMO, cable TV turned to shit when I was still a kid in the 1980s. The whole point of paying for cable TV, IMO, was no commercials, no censorship, and not having to fiddle with an antenna to get better reception (since broadcast TV came over radio). Once cable TV started having commercials and profanity started getting bleeped, the only thing cable had to offer was better reception -- and who needs better reception for ads? Besides, it wasn't like cable TV had decent pornography. Even the Playboy channel was strictly softcore, and since you had to buy it one night at a time you were better off with a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog or one of your mom's Regency-era bodice rippers.

 

[chewman]

I feel like every time I turn on the tv it's either another hospital show, or a cop show, or fucking big bang theory.

 

[Voror]

For me personally it was when I moved out of my family's home and got my own place. I just wasn't interested in getting cable and realized I often just had it on to have something on. Was perfectly content just having streaming services or going through my own collection. And I've even been doing less of that and picked up reading again.

 

[Ithaca]

I separated from my ex in 2013, so that was the end of cable TV always being on in the background.
Breaking Bad and Mad Men were the last appointment cable TV programs that held over from my old life that takes me to 2015.
After they concluded, I just went Internet only within a few months. I never really transitioned to streaming services beyond a month at a time(Game of Thrones) or deeply discounted trials (Hulu for a year) besides Amazon Prime.

 

[SageShinigami]

IMO, cable TV turned to shit when I was still a kid in the 1980s. The whole point of paying for cable TV, IMO, was no commercials, no censorship, and not having to fiddle with an antenna to get better reception (since broadcast TV came over radio). Once cable TV started having commercials and profanity started getting bleeped, the only thing cable had to offer was better reception -- and who needs better reception for ads? Besides, it wasn't like cable TV had decent pornography. Even the Playboy channel was strictly softcore, and since you had to buy it one night at a time you were better off with a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog or one of your mom's Regency-era bodice rippers.

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Who was making these promises? Seems like a lot.

 

[genericbrand]

I would guess that 2005-2010 period. Writer strike right in the middle. Reality TV became super charged. I don't remember when MTV/VH1/BET/Fuse went from music to reality TV, G4/etc became cops, Discover/TLC/History all became reality TV. Last I had a cable sub was 2009. I know more people that have never paid for a cable/satellite sub than have. The content was still being made on cable/satellite and was the primary episodic content source for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Crunchyroll, etc but people would just wait or find streams online until eventually shows became simultaneous drop TV/streaming or streaming only

Screw paying for being able to be able to view in more than one room. Screw the 300 channel package that only had a few channels you wanted over basic cable but were exclusive to it. 300 channels and large amount were music channels and satellite radio on your TV. Extra for DVR/Tivo. Extra for video on demand. Multiyear contracts with early termination fees. Cable/satelite boxes that sucked power like a refrigerator. A pain to cancel. Getting tech to come out to fix your cables/dish

 

[starbreaker]

Who was making these promises? Seems like a lot.

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This was in the 1980s, when a lot of kids' programming was basically animated infomercials for dolls. Advertisers would promise you a pony and a blowjob if they thought it would get you to open your wallet.

 

[Deleted member 22750]

sports are keeping it alive

and lame ass news channels brainwashing garbage

 

[Stranger Things]

Early 2000s. I have not watched tv commercials outside of the Superbowl.

I just can't. I could tolerate 1 to 2 minutes of commercials per hour. That's it. 15 minutes is laughable :)

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This.

Commercials are really annoying nowadays. It's all bland and fake and corporate feeling. Makes me never want to watch cable TV.

I miss the 90's ... had more effort/creativity. especially during the holidays, really awesome, you can tell they put their heart and soul into this stuff. I genuinely enjoy watching retro ads haha :

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