Ads tell too little and TV tries too hard

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

My hamster on the roof can’t run fast enough for Netflix, so I sold my soul to Rupert Murdoch, for a Sky satellite dish. Thanks to the wizardry of digital telly, I’m almost completely protected from having to watch ads, by recording everything and whizzing through.

Between 6pm and 8pm my TV world goes mental, as I record the BBC Six O’Clock, RTE 6.1 and Channel 4 News, fascinated to see how the Irish reports differ from the UK versions.

Relax: I’m not suggesting you become boring news nerds like myself. I’m just revelling in the wonders of modern viewing. I know the tech I’m using is considered pure ancient these days, yet truly could not give a damn, as it meets my needs.

Also, thanks to my limited amount of channels, I’m not feeling crushed by the tyranny of choice, like many millennials.

As Apple and Disney move to join Amazon and Netflix in the world of flush streaming platforms, younger viewers are changing their habits.

Light years from water-cooler moments, their choice is so vast they can’t see the point of watching a show, in case nobody else is. Their chances of sharing their views and experience on social media is rapidly vanishing.

My age group are adopting the ways relinquished by those millennials. Last year the number of over-55s who regularly watched several episodes of a series in one night almost doubled.

I’m not surprised the viewing patterns of young ones have become scattered and splattered all over the shop. Given their attention spans, I felt deeply impressed by their binge watching capabilities.

After the invention of the TV remote control and the arrival of multi-channel TV, teenage attention spans shrank to under three minutes. Writers on soap operas started to insert viewer reminders and recaps into their scripts, to make allowances for an audience who had, in all likelihood, turned over and come back again.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.