TV: Have We Ever Had It So Good?

The holy grail of TV these days would be a programme which combined public service, integrity, quality and huge ratings in one cutting edge, challenging, barrier pushing package. Just like the TV they made in the good old days. But were those good old days really that good? And would what worked back then work now, when competition is not just fierce, but multi-platformed? Anna Wise, editor of MediaTel NewsLine, has her doubts.

Thirty five years ago today the BBC screened the first episode of The Forsyte Saga. This season ITV1, currently suffering a ratings crisis in part due to the efforts of the beeb, will broadcast its own remake of the classic drama serial.

Speak to people old enough to remember Muffin the Mule or, indeed, The Forsyte Saga the first time round, and one of the reasons they would offer for why ITV1’s audiences are shrinking would be that they just don’t make TV like they used to.

“Quality programme making”, with all its accompanying jargon: “challenging”, “cutting edge”, “pushing back barriers” “nurturing new talent” etc, is a key phrase in TV executive speak these days. Quality programme making is, after all, what David Liddiment would do if the BBC would just stop being so popular, according to his MacTaggart lecture.

But was TV really so much better when it was all black and white, or when there were only two channels, or when it was only on for a couple of hours a day? Certainly there are programmes made twenty or thirty years ago still being made today- Coronation Street for example. And there are those made twenty or thirty years ago but still repeated to positive audience response today- Dads Army springs to mind. Only Fools and Horses falls into both categories- lucky old BBC, eh?

However, for all the challenging drama, intelligent documentaries and quality arts programmes we’ve supposedly sidelined or even abandoned these days, there must still have been dross back in the good old days. Among the golden archive nuggets it’s also possible to witness wooden presenters on excruciatingly dull “gameshows” or cringe-making racism and sexism in those sitcoms which have not stood the test of time. What’s more, few could deny that programmes such as the Blue Planet have pushed the boundaries of the medium, or that formats have been successfully reinvented to great effect in programmes such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or Changing Rooms. Maybe there is more rubbish around now, but there are also a lot more channels and a lot more hours of TV.

And therein lies the rub. While everyone kicks up a fuss about whether or not its right that BBC1 is or isn’t beating ITV1 in the “ratings war” there is less fuss being made of the fact that BARB figures show that the total hours and minutes of TV we’re watching overall is dropping year on year. Or that a growing chunk of the time that’s left is being spent watching non-terrestrial channels. The fact is, these days its not just about competing with the “other side”, it’s about matching up to digital TV, DVDs, text messages and the internet, all growing in popularity.

All this means that a drop in audience figures for any given programme, however high quality, is more or less inevitable. Can you really achieve “appointment to view” when our entertainment schedules are so busy? A national sensation is still possible, but it’s more likely to be across a demographic than a nation- look at Big Brother. Advertisers would not necessarily have a problem with this, either, as today’s brand-centric approach often demands a certain type of image and following for its advertising vehicles, rather than just a certain number of eyeballs.

But rather than accepting audience shrinkage as inevitable, the industry is becoming ever more obsessed with size, with sometimes critcally acclaimed programmes being dumped after a few episodes when they fail to give good number at BARB.

Speaking of which, with the all-new BARB on the blink for the first few weeks of this month, the industry could be said to be on a sort of enforced “detox” from its usual feast of figures. It would be nice to think that this will encourage a healthier attitude when it comes to reach and share once things return to normal. It’s probably about as likely as all those new joiners at your gym sticking around past March…

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