TV Documentaries

[Actor]

Something I've noticed about documentaries on TV, like the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the like.

• Out of an hour show 20 minutes is devoted to commercials, leaving 40 minutes of actual show.
• Every time we come back from the commercials we get an update of what's happened so far, meaning we see a lot of footage we've already seen.
• Even without the update a lot of footage gets shown a second or third time.

So I'm estimating that an hour show only uses about 20 minutes of film (or tape). Of course they may have shot a lot more than that but that's what we see.

[wahiba]

Just think of us poor Brits watching a BBC documentary. 60 minutes on the scedule and 58 minutes of programme.

Mind you, it gets Murdochs goat, so no complaints.

[aj]

The most efficient manner of getting information in is still reading books and serious newspapers (ie text). Reading a full page broadside may seem a major task. When you actually measure time needed it is not all that long.

These documentairies are more some kind of slow motion entertainment. And then you have people at work citing from from these

I have actually deprogrammed National Geographic and Discovery from my TV-receiver. Not to mention Animal things and Sellsell channels

[ToddSmith354]

Actor -

I agree 100%. I might want to watch a show about....say....digging up some fossils or minerals or something along those lines. The formula all these shows have are after loooong commercial breaks they spend several minuets rehashing the same information and footage they showed before the break. And sometimes even will show you what's coming up after the commercials. (sort of a double dip even!)

[wahiba]

There was an article in the newspaper recently about 65 US citizens who had applied for political asylum in the UK (non were granted). Not sure if any cited TV adverts and a desire to watch the BBC with no advertsing breaks.

Seriously, some of the documentaries we get over here are pretty deep. There was one the other day on ageing (including old home movies from the presenter showing mom and pop). Interestingly the presenter was a US Professor, but it was a BBC production.

[S8 Booster]

this is - in my opinion - why the net - Tube and other places will eat TV broadcast from behind. the problem you describe seemed to hit all my favorite programs and i was really pissed abait it.

for almost 1 year I have been TV-less and i am really fine with it.
the net got the most of what it takes for me - even docu stuff check out the tube et al next time you get bothered.

shoot....

[aj]

many on-line moving images publishers now put a commercial in the stream first. cnn and most newspapers. youtube blends in annoying text bars on every new clip etc. it only goes away if you X-close it.
For free you only get lousy service.

[BigWorm]

many on-line moving images publishers now put a commercial in the stream first. cnn and most newspapers. youtube blends in annoying text bars on every new clip etc. it only goes away if you X-close it.
For free you only get lousy service.

AJ,

Please explain what you are talking about? Advertising is what makes terrestrial/Internet broadcasting "free" and pays for the multi-million dollar HD YouTube service. Exabytes of storage are required to make it possible for folks to share their videos with the world. I have never seen the YouTube/Vimeo video service degrade in quality by closing a pop-up add?? Maybe I missed something because I'm not in Germany?

[S8 Booster]

to AJ, ill easily live with a few seconds of ads at start of streaming internet video as it is peanuts compared to what actor correctly describes with TV docu programs..

additionally a lot of docu stuff from TV is available on the tube and is ad free as soon as you de-click the google banner ad....

shoot....