Today the Federal Communications Commission is expected to pass regulations requiring that all commercials on TV be at a constant level — which means no sudden blaring of Wacky Wild Wally screaming at you about the best RV deals in town. Well, he might still be screaming but he won’t permanently damage your hearing. [More]
tv
Panasonic Has No Idea Why Your 3D TV Keeps Adding Phantom Channels
By 12.1.11
Josh really enjoys having a 3D television in his home, and spent a lot of money for the privilege. About six months after purchase, the set began adding phantom channels to his lineup. Not a catastrophic problem, but not a problem that’s easy to ignore when you dropped more than two grand on the TV set less than a year ago. But Josh is apparently the only one on the planet with this problem, and while Panasonic can’t figure out the cause, they’re not about to send Josh a new TV or even send someone out to his home to fix it, even though his service agreement states that’s sort of what they have to do. [More]
Docs Again Warn Against TV For Kids Under 2
By 10.19.11
Letting kids under two watch TV doesn’t provide them with any educational benefit and can cut down on the interaction with others and play time that is key to their growth, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns in a new report. [More]
A Workaround For DirecTV's 50 Show DVR Limit
By 10.3.11
Reader Paul is pissed because he found out that DirecTV’s DVR will only let you schedule 50 shows to record and watched. Having more than one person in his house, he hit this limit pretty fast. So how can you record more than 50 shows on the DirecTV in-house brand DVR? One thing you can do is use the enhanced search function with “boolean operations.” [More]
Study: Fast-Paced Cartoons Mess With Kids' Minds
By 9.13.11
SpongeBob SquarePants and other silly, rapid-fire cartoons have come under the cross hairs of the research community, with a study finding that 4-year-olds who watch a cartoon fitting the description of SpongeBob SquarePants had more trouble immediately performing cognitive tasks and maintaining self-control than those in two other groups, one of which watched a slower-paced cartoon while the other spent time drawing. [More]
Knocked $30 Off My Cable Bill Just By Asking
By 9.9.11
I’ve been hearing how the ol’ “threaten to cancel to get your cable bill reduced” ploy is “dead” but I decided to give negotiating with the cable company a shot. I got my monthly bill reduced by $30, and, indirectly related to my conversation with them, somehow also got free HBO. Schweet. [More]
Frustrating Chat With A Comcast Rep Impersonating A Robot
By 7.22.11
Is it a man or a robot? A robot impersonating a man? A man impersonating a robot? Such are the questions that flitted through bobbymac’s head as he engaged in text-based dialogue with a Comcast customer service rep. [More]
5 Pay TV Companies Make 19 Most Hated Company List
By 7.13.11
5 of the 19 companies getting the lowest scores on the American Customer Satisfaction Index are pay TV providers. In 3rd, it’s Time Warner, 4th, Comcast, 5th, Charter, 17th, Cox, and 18th, Dish. Hmm, why might that be? [More]
Samsung And Science Work Together To Make Smell-O-Vision A Reality
By 6.20.11
Thanks to scientists at Samsung and the University of California, San Diego, the next time you’re watching Jersey Shore, you won’t have to imagine the smell of spray tan, jagermeister and Axe body spray, because those scents could be right there in the room with you. [More]
PBS To Add "Promotional Breaks" Within Shows
By 6.1.11
In a break with long-standing tradition, PBS is going to start putting those sponsor announcements as briefer breaks within the shows themselves, instead of long stretches at the beginning and end, NYT reports. While the programming and mission remains non-commercial, the format is going to make the messages look more like, well, commercials. [More]
Netflix Now Has More Subscribers Than Comcast
By 4.28.11
The Rubicon has been crossed. Netflix now has more people subscribed to it than Comcast. Netflix reported 23.6 million subscribers at the end of the 2011 first quarter, while Comcast ended 2010 with 22.8 million. (They could still possibly report more but considering that they’ve been dropping the past few quarters, it’s unlikely). See, we don’t need to worry about hegemony or legal monopolies, they’ll just obsolete themselves out of business. [More]
Watching Shows On DVR Might Save Them From Being Canceled
By 4.27.11
Stop feeling guilty for watching network TV on your DVR — you might not be contributing to the threat of low ratings, as the programming world is starting to take notice of shows that perform well up to a week after airing. [More]
Hoover Pulls Ads From ABC To Protest Soap Opera Cancellations
By 4.19.11
Unhappy with ABC’s plans to cancel One Life to Live and All My Children in favor of lifestyle programming, longtime advertiser Hoover is sucking all its ad dollars away from the network. [More]
TV Continues To Cleanse Itself Of Soap Operas
By 4.15.11
Soap operas were once advertising vehicles for cleaning product manufacturers to promote their goods to homemakers, but their time is now slipping away like sands through the hourglass. [More]
TV Execs Concerned Hulu Is Undermining Their Business Model
By 4.13.11
ABC, Fox and NBC created Hulu in order to get ahead in the web streaming game, but may have been too successful. Now that more viewers are becoming comfortable with catching their favorite shows online rather than through traditional means, Hulu may be hurting the companies’ bottom lines. [More]
YouTube Planning $100 Million Spending Spree To Compete With Cable
By 4.8.11
Google-owned YouTube is getting quite ambitious, not only aiming at more live sports broadcasts, but focusing on creating its own entertainment programming and shifting to a TV-like channel format to compete with cable and satellite companies. [More]
Netflix Locks Down Exclusive Streaming Rights To Mad Men
By 4.6.11
Netflix may not be interested in charging viewers extra to watch specific shows, but it appears very interested in paying companies to make sure it’s the only place you can find some programming. [More]
Showtime Will Yank Shows From Netflix Streaming
By 3.23.11
If you’re catching up on Showtime shows via Netflix streaming, you’d better step up your pace, because Showtime doesn’t plan on renewing its pact with the streaming company when it expires this summer. [More]
