Saturday, July 28, 2007

This is not an advert

Despite what my wife thinks, I do not watch much television. But after dinner almost every weekday evening, I will sit down and wind down in front of the set for an hour or two. And I always have something interesting to watch.

We had the full cable package for a while. Hundreds of channels. But the old cliché felt true - there was so much choice but it was all rubbish. You could never find exactly what you wanted. And when you've just plonked down on the sofa, do you really want to get up again and go ploughing through stacks of video cassettes or DVDs? And even if you could find something to watch on one of the more obscure channels, the programme would have already started or be so littered with advertisements that watching would become a chore.

I am not here to recommend specific products, but a Freeview hard disk recorder really does change your life, well your TV viewing life anyway. You do not need Sky+ or V+. Integrated boxes from Humax or Sagem cost barely more than a basic Freeview receiver. Flick through the weekly schedule, tag things that look good, a few will be. Watch what you want, when you want.

Never hire another DVD for the rest of your life. Never sit through another television advertisement for the rest of your life.

No wonder the marketing industry is worried.

1 comment:

Ann Cardus said...

Ooo! I may have to splash some cash.