Sep 09
7
Entertainment for the Bush? They Don’t need it – They’re Busy Farming…..
(An indictment of Australian Television Programming that
Wasn’t Written by Moi……)
I was surfing today, about Australian IQ (ummm that would be
Intelligence Quotient and not some Foxtel rubbish) and the Television watching
habits of Australians, as you do and I came across something so honest that I
immediately had to plagiarise
it so that I could share it’s obviously “from the heart” assessment of the
state of Australian TV.
From the SMH….
The Tribal
Mind: We doubt they'd suit the office
by David Dale
The article started out……
“FOR centuries (well, a century and a half, at least),
Australians have been fascinated by the question of whether there is a
fundamental difference between city people and country people.”
And it went on to prove why the Nielsen's rating “Black Box”
viewer ratings system was not actually designed to include real country viewers
but only the “banana region of Brissie to Melbourne.
In response Kate, resident of somewhere on the Darling Downs
wrote her opinion……
I can appreciate that.
I live 770km from Adelaide in far western NSW, 1000km from Sydney. Not only do i live no where near sea water (in fact,
living on the Darling down stream from Cubbie Station, I live no where near any
water), I have access to three television stations.
I point this out as a slight anomaly in remote and isolated NSW. I once lived
in Ungarie (also NSW, not nearly as far west) and we only had two channels (one
which i think was primarily WIN, but took some programmes from Seven and some
from Ten – was always disappointed that we never got the see the Henderson
Kids).
However, now, i have Imparja (which is a nice merge between Nine and Ten where
they show the worst bits from both channels and nothing of the good stuff -
except House, NCIS and there was something else I enjoyed) … Prime or
Southern Cross Broadcasting QLD (clearly I dont pay that much attention to its
name – i did watch Brother's and Sisters, i also watch Ugly Betty and I did
watch Passions – not that i am happy about this this evening, unhappy that it's
been replaced by 'champ cars'?) and the ABC.
In my entire existence, i had access to SBS for two of the four years I lived
in Lismore, the two years I lived in Tassie, the two years i lived in Sydney
and when i lived in Canberra (oh the pain). A total of less than a third of my
life (and i've lived in Australia for somewhere around 27 and a half years of my life
now).
I am disappointed that in order to see SBS I would have to get Pay TV (not
great for soccer world cups, nor watching Iron Chef, even if they are repeats),
but to see ABC 2 I would also have to do that.
When digital rolls out in the bush area, I would have to be concerned that
because digital has such limited range I think i'll probably lose one of my
three channels. As it is, for the last five weeks Imparja has not been terribly
robust (that said, since i arrived here – two and a half years ago – I have not
been able to receive all three channels at once unless black and white and
grainy imagery counts).
It's great that people want to find out what regional Australian's watch. It's
a pity that no one cares what remote and isolated Australians watch. And its
worse that to get half way decent programming we have to fork out for pay tv!
Worse still – given that rural, remote and isolated Australians generally have
less in the way of (well) everything, they should be a bigger market for telecommunications
generally – at least, that's how i get all of my information. Then again, we
were lucky to get moderately decent ADSL before Telstra was sold.
Perhaps the government could consider either funding better television (then
again, its a Liberal government) or better access to telecommunications.
Sorry – I should know better than to make stupid statements!
Sorry about the length – feel free to edit as appropriate.
Posted by: kate on July 24, 2007 3:29 AM
It’s an oldie, but oh, still so relevant.
In one long Paragraph, Kate has explained the shortcomings
of the imminent Digital TV system, the lack of suitable programming for country
folk on VHF and the almost mandatory requirement to accept subscription cable
to view free to air.
At the very least I would consider that Australia
needs to provide SBS 1 & 2 and ABC 1 & 2 to all Australians everywhere
via satellite at no cost.
Channels 7, 9 & 10? Well they’re already on the satellite
(as are SBS and ABC) so there really isn’t any extra cost.
There just needs to be a little bit of legislation…….. a
dish and a set-top box (STB).
Oh, the dish ? Most remote farmers already have a satellite dish
pointed at the relevant satellite for their internet connection.
So the cost is an STB?
Yep around fifty bucks for a good one.
Thank-you Kate,
Having lived in Darwin
for a good many years (in the 80’s), I empathise.
Maybe we can convince Canberra
to give something back to all the farmers that supported this nation for so
long.
From the “To True Not to Plagiarise Department”