[Air-L] Family in the 21st century on TV (Holly Kruse)

[Catherine Middleton]

Re the comment that shows are available for viewing online. Yes, if  
you live in the US. But sites like Hulu.com aren't available outside  
the US, and what's available on iTunes varies by country. This doesn't  
mean that there aren't ways around this (using a US IP address, or  
downloading/streaming the shows through a file sharing site), but I  
think it's worth noting that for a non-sophisticated internet user  
(yes, this might kick off a debate of its own, but I mean someone who  
isn't comfortable with P2P, for instance), the options for watching US  
shows outside the US are limited.

This is also true of shows from some other countries, e.g. you can't  
watch (the other) ABC's shows outside Australia, or the BBC outside  
Britain (here's the explanation why: http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/download_programmes/outsideuk) 
. And then there are issues of download caps also, limiting the  
practicality/affordability of downloading video.

None of these comments are meant to detract from Holly's post, but to  
shed a bit more light on what's possible re online TV viewing.

catherine
--------------
Catherine Middleton
Ryerson University
Toronto, Canada
http://www.ryerson.ca/itm/fcty/Middleton/Middleton.html
catherine.middleton at ryerson.ca

> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:19:59 -0500
> From: Holly Kruse <holly-kruse at utulsa.edu>
> To: "air-l at aoir.org" <air-l at aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Family in the 21st century on TV
> Message-ID: <C6D7150F.637E%holly-kruse at ad.utulsa.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
> On 9/16/09 8:02 PM, "Jason Mittell" <jmittell at middlebury.edu> wrote:
>
>> At the level of programming, there's no doubt that the full-family  
>> hit is a
>> rare exception today (*American Idol* is often pointed to as a hold- 
>> out, but
>> even that's fading), and advertisers are less interested in mass  
>> appeal
>> across broad audiences than dense homogeneous segments that can be  
>> more
>> easily sold specific goods.
>
>
> FWIW, I understand that ABC Family is trying to expand its audience,  
> with
> some success, into adult demographics.  A few months ago NPR's "All  
> Things
> Considered" did a story about how ABC Family and Nickelodeon have been
> positioning themselves as the homes for family sitcoms that would  
> have once
> been on the networks; and that, in fact, many writers who used to  
> write for
> network sitcoms are now writing for shows like "iCarly" and "The  
> Secret Life
> of the American Teenager."  Although I've only watched bits and  
> pieces of
> the latter, I gather that it tackles some fairly serious material.   
> I know
> that several of these shows, like "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,"  
> do not
> feature traditional "intact" families, however; but as I recall they  
> feature
> use of cell phones, etc.  And, on a meta level, they are available for
> viewing online.
>
>
> Holly
>
>
> -----
> Holly Kruse
> Faculty of Communication
> The University of Tulsa
> 800 S. Tucker Drive
> Tulsa, OK 74104
> 918-631-3845
> holly-kruse at utulsa.edu or holly.kruse at gmail.com
> http://personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse