Bishop of London on TV streaming.

[Steve H]

She's got a point - back in the pre-internet days, families would watch programmes together, and the arrival of VHS and DVDs didn't do much to disrupt that, but it's all fragmenting now. People used to discuss the previous night's telly at work and at school, but I suspect that's largely a thing of the past.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/09/streaming-has-made-watching-tv-an-insular-experience-says-london-bishop

[Nearly Sane]

I think that the change in thos is one of the many ways in which new technology has had a huge impact. The fragmentation doesn't just affect small groupings, but as you mention Steve, the 'water cooler' moments become fewer.

That said, these huge commin cultural experiences are a relatively recent phenomenon.

[ProfessorDavey]

She's got a point - back in the pre-internet days, families would watch programmes together, and the arrival of VHS and DVDs didn't do much to disrupt that, but it's all fragmenting now. People used to discuss the previous night's telly at work and at school, but I suspect that's largely a thing of the past.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/09/streaming-has-made-watching-tv-an-insular-experience-says-london-bishop

Not really sure what her point is - does she think that we should go back to the days when you could only watch tv in real-time? If so, good luck with trying to persuade people that is a good idea.

And I actually disagree that people don't discuss tv anymore - it is just done in a different way. Loads of shows go viral with a massive amount of talk around them. And people often come together to watch together (even if streaming), or even choose to stream at the same time in different places. So conversations might no longer be 'did you see [programme x] last night' - to which the answer was actually often 'no, it was past my bedtime/I was out/someone wanted to watch something else etc etc', now it is 'how far have you got through [programme x] - you've seen episode 3 - just wait for episode 6'.

And there are opportunities now for people to delve back into the back catalogue. All my kids are now binging 'Lost' because it is now available on Netflix. And they are discussing it, even though one is at home, and the other two live in Liverpool and Derby.

[Aruntraveller]

A related but slightly different aspect of this is the effect the streamers are having on home-grown productions. the problems are highlighted in this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/07/us-uk-television-ted-lasso-industry

[Nearly Sane]

A related but slightly different aspect of this is the effect the streamers are having on home-grown productions. the problems are highlighted in this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/07/us-uk-television-ted-lasso-industry

Yes, I think the points are good, though ai have to say I hated Industry and gave up after about 4 episodes.

[Aruntraveller]

Again, this is tangentially related to the main topic, but this certainly rings true to me. I doubt I would ever have watched "The African Queen" if I had been given the choice between that and, say, a Bond film when I was in my early teens. But I wasn't given a choice, and so I got to appreciate a great film with (at least) two great actors.

Anyway, here is the article:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/23/the-big-idea-why-we-should-revive-the-spirit-of-christmas-movies-past

[Nearly Sane]

Again, this is tangentially related to the main topic, but this certainly rings true to me. I doubt I would ever have watched "The African Queen" if I had been given the choice between that and, say, a Bond film when I was in my early teens. But I wasn't given a choice, and so I got to appreciate a great film with (at least) two great actors.

Anyway, here is the article:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/23/the-big-idea-why-we-should-revive-the-spirit-of-christmas-movies-past

There are a lot of great films on over Christmas but in many cases from a selection that have been often on fairly recently - it's not that long ago that we chatted about Sweet Charity and it was on last week. I'd like them to do more curated sets of films. It was good to get What's up Doc following Funny Girl but why not one Streisand film for a week at the same time each day.

They sort of do this with the Bond, and Harry Potter films but they do that fairly repetitively. A wider more interesting selection with a perhaps a return of curated selection by someone like Mark Ketmode, rather like Alex Cox doing Videodrome many years ago.