Word: broadcast
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When ER goes off the air April 2, we will say goodbye to more than the medical staffers who have lived, loved and been tragically killed off for sweeps over the years. We will also say goodbye to the era of broadcast TV it represented: the era of big shows, big audiences and big money...
...networks. But for me as a critic and you as a viewer, the important question is, Are there better shows on TV or not? The answer is - and has been for years - yes. More important, the answer is yes for precisely the same reasons that the big broadcast networks are fading. (There's also more bad TV on the air because there's more of everything. Unless it bothers you that other people are watching bad TV, this is also not your problem...
...they can get away with sex and swearing (though it helps). They are able to aim high, and thrive, precisely because the economics of cable allow them to succeed with smaller audiences that want to be challenged. FX's Emmy-winning thriller Damages never would have made it on broadcast because of its byzantine twists and turns; it would have to be simplified, Law & Order -ized. Ditto HBO's and Showtime's hits: an audience intensely interested enough to pay to watch TV will reward risk, not caution...
...Broadcast's new enemy is digital media, including venues like Hulu that were created by the networks themselves, which cut into their ad dollars. Last year Heroes creator Tim Kring gave a legendary rant about how viewers using TiVo or DVDs or downloading - legally or not - cut into the show's audience, leaving "the saps and dips____ who can't figure out how to watch it in a superior way" to watch live TV (which still counts most for ad dollars). In one sense he was right, if undiplomatic. But only half right, because technology also makes it possible...
...because they get their local news from other media, mostly TV. But since papers are the primary source for most other news outlets, a major link will be missing from the news ecosystem. If a paper does not cover a story, it is unlikely to be covered in the broadcast media, whose reporting staffs tend to be even smaller...