Television irritations
Jan. 8th, 2008 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI watched the second episode of Sense and Sensibility last night, which I'd recorded the previous night. We reached the end of the episode, got a fraction of a second of blackness… and – bang! – straight into a preview of next week's episode. I hate how they do this. I'm quite fond of trailers in their place, but there are definitely times when I don't want to see any spoilers for the next episode. At any rate, I like to have the choice of whether to watch it or not, rather than to have it come crashing in before I've realised that the episode has actually finished, totally ruining the effect of the ending.
Announcers are even worse. A few weeks ago, I was watching an episode of a TV series in which heartbreaking things happened. The end of the episode was quiet and deeply emotional, and I was in tears. The screen just began to fade to black… and in came the loud and cheery voice of the announcer telling me about some stupid laugh-a-minute programme coming up later in the week. (Yes, I know I can just reach for the "mute" button the moment the programme is finished, but it's hard to get quite so emotionally caught up in a programme if you're poised over the remote control, ready to mute at the slightest hint of an imminent ending.)
Viewers often complain about things like this, but the BBC (and others) never take the blind bit of notice. Of course, they want to attract and keep viewers, and presumably they've done research that finds that more people are attracted by pushy trailers and announcements that are deterred by it. It's just a shame. I wonder if things like this genuinely do attract more people than they deter. Perhaps they assume that people like me will get cross, but will still watch. However, I've pretty much given up watching television documentaries because I've got so annoyed by their irritating habits, such as concentrating on the presenter and not the content, and telling us everything three times – one in a "coming up" preview, once properly, and once in a "previously in" recap.
Announcers are even worse. A few weeks ago, I was watching an episode of a TV series in which heartbreaking things happened. The end of the episode was quiet and deeply emotional, and I was in tears. The screen just began to fade to black… and in came the loud and cheery voice of the announcer telling me about some stupid laugh-a-minute programme coming up later in the week. (Yes, I know I can just reach for the "mute" button the moment the programme is finished, but it's hard to get quite so emotionally caught up in a programme if you're poised over the remote control, ready to mute at the slightest hint of an imminent ending.)
Viewers often complain about things like this, but the BBC (and others) never take the blind bit of notice. Of course, they want to attract and keep viewers, and presumably they've done research that finds that more people are attracted by pushy trailers and announcements that are deterred by it. It's just a shame. I wonder if things like this genuinely do attract more people than they deter. Perhaps they assume that people like me will get cross, but will still watch. However, I've pretty much given up watching television documentaries because I've got so annoyed by their irritating habits, such as concentrating on the presenter and not the content, and telling us everything three times – one in a "coming up" preview, once properly, and once in a "previously in" recap.
