Chapter 5, 6, 7
Chapter five was like a crash course on the history of television for me. It’s a funny thing how I’m actually being brought up to speed on the modern goings of television through this book. Since I started college I actually haven’t been watching much TV at all since I don’t own a set and still don’t. This chapter is full of numbers and statistics and I often get lost with what the writers are referring to. I do get the general ideas from each topic but I easily forget the data that goes into those conclusions.
What stuck out to me from chapter six the most is the reasoning behind the “triple play” packages that are so aggressively offered by cable companies. I also wasn’t aware that the government had a hand in paving way for cable companies to also offer services in the telephone and internet mediums. It’s also funny how I’m learning about all the advantages and disadvantages of various types of services from this book. I think this information will be useful when I can finally afford a TV and pay for an appropriate service.
Something I wished that chapter seven had covered is how the money loss of movies is effecting the lives of the production and post-production crew. This is something that isn’t widely covered, but there has been several cases of unpaid post-production work. Most notably the case with Meteor Studios in Canada on Journey to the Center of the Earth. http://www.fxguide.com/article488.html Discovery did take efforts in going out of its way to keep major news stations from broadcasting this ordeal. Therefore most of the people that are aware of these sort of ordeals are people within the post-production industry. I’m sure the same is true with troubles in other fields.
