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TechTV Woes
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Posted by: Fofer

Everytime I watch the shows on TechTV, I can't help but shake the feeling that it's a sinking ship. Half the time I feel bad for them.

With the frequent cast changes, the poor scheduling data, and constantly repackaged/repurposed content, it just feels like a network in trouble. I love their shows, but I hold them at arm's length before I can't shake this gut feeling that the network will close someday very soon. All of the mainstream tech news magazines and publications have shuttered in the last 2 years... Entertainment Weekly's special "tech" insert, LA Times "Cutting Edge" weekly section, Yahoo! Life... they all went away as America soured on the dotcom revolution and the economy went south. I predict TechTV will (sadly) go this way too.

Today's news just adds fuel to this depressing fire:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanj...04/daily20.html

Don't get me wrong, I love "The Screensavers," (especially their strong attention to Macs and cool geek projects,)"Fresh Gear" and "Extended Play" -- but part of my appreciation is coupled with the sadness that they won't be lasting long.

Anyone else have this hunch?

Posted by: Convert

I think they only make one Fresh Gear and one Extended Play a month, but they air them two hundred times. I got tired of seeing the same ones over and over. I didn't like The Screensavers because I was always waiting for the good part to come, and it never did.

I wonder how they made it this long.

Posted by: avaloncourt

Read the article. How depressing. :( I watch The Screen Savers faithfully. It would be a shame for them to fold. You're absolutely correct in the recent changes and the frantic attempt to find a programming style that works. Maybe that's why Patrick said bitch on the air a few nights ago.

Posted by: gtrogue

Didn't Patrick say something like 'lots of people are going to complain about bitch...'.
He wanted to say bitch but said complain and then said it anyway when it didn't make sense. :)

Posted by: Hoffer

I loved TechTV when I first got satellite. I watched every show they had on. After a while, you started hearing the same things day in and day out. I find The Screen Savers to be especially repetitive.

I still watch Fresh Gear and Extended Play, but fast forward through most of it.

Posted by: JivinJeff

They lost me once they hacked TechLive from 8 hours down to 30 minutes.

I loved it when they were the CNN of the tech world...

Jeff

Posted by: Fofer

quote:
Originally posted by gtrogue
Didn't Patrick say something like 'lots of people are going to complain about bitch...'.
He wanted to say bitch but said complain and then said it anyway when it didn't make sense. :)

No, unless Patrick likes saying "bitch" a lot lately...

In this thread... avaloncourt said:

quote:

I was catching up on yesterdays Screen Savers and they were doing the segment on the Pringles Can/Coffee Can 802.11b external directional antenna and Patrick had a bit of a slip of the tongue.

He was attempting to say, "The problem with the Pringles can is that they're kind of a mess to build," but it came out as "The problem with the Pringles can is that they're kind of a mess to bitch." Leo got a big smile and said, "It's a mess to what?" Patrick replied, "Nothing."

I wonder if there had been some behind the scenes grumbling on the set and his mind automatically went there.

In the same thread a .wav file of the gaffe is attached.

Personally I don't think it was anything that scandalous. Sounded to me like Patrick's brain was thinking "that they're kind of a BITCH to build," or "a mess to bitch with" and then he quickly edited himself, but it came out wrong. Classic case of the brain working faster than the mouth.

Not a big deal really, happens all the time on live TV.

Posted by: gtrogue

Well, I couldn't remember exactly what he said but my thought was still the same. He wanted to say a bitch to build. So let me rephrase.

He wanted to say bitch but said mess and then said it anyway.

Posted by: TheSimpsons

CNET used to have a TV show. However, that seems to have bitten the dust too. :(

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

Posted by: eric_mcgovern

I still like watching the screen savers. TiVo usually records it as a suggestion, then I just turn it on while I am surfing. If something catches my attention I watch it.

Extended play has gotten better, but I have noticed they have 1 or 2 new games each show, and all the others are merged from past shows. I remember the days of them repeating the shows for a couple weeks in a row, and the description just said "games" or something like that.

Posted by: mrboo

I've just rediscovered The Screensavers after upgrading from analog to digital cable the other day. Man, I missed that show. I usually surf through it while I put my shoes on in the morning. It's really the only show on that channel that I watch (once in awhile that Sumi Das girl will catch my eye if she's got on a nice outfit). I would *really* miss Leo if TT goes away (he's my favorite--met him once at an appearance). I hope it isn't so.

I find it hard to fathom that with all of the narrowcasting that's being done in this age of 500 channels we don't have more interest or advertiser support for a serious tech tv channel. It's seems a natural. (Now, CNET radio on XM, *that's* a crap channel I can hardly stand).

Posted by: ajfishman

Don't take away my Call For Help or Screensavers!

Posted by: avaloncourt

I'd sure like Call for Help a lot better if it didn't have Pirillo. He annoys me something terrible.

Posted by: MrSpiff

Let's not overlook the fact that TechTV has an abundance of high quality female hosts and reporters. Especially Sumi. It would be a shame to lose that.

Posted by: Barrett

Things don't sound too good, Paul Allen recently shelved his Sports Network he had up here ASCN, mostly due to the fact that AT&T wouldn't carry the channel because Allen owns a rival cable system. Here I have ATT cable and Tech TV is not on the lineup, I used to watch the screensavers almost daily when I had it, Patrick was so awkward, always had his hands in his pockets or doing something, like a nervous tic.

Posted by: staufj22

It seems like the screensavers are just the same show being run over and over again. People have the same questions and they give pretty much the same answers.. check online, go get new drivers, upgrade..

Remember the good o' days when Leo & Kate would say "Well.. its not legal, but here's how you do it"

Nowadays, not much of that goes on, especially when it comes to MP3s and software piracy..

I think one of my favorite show on TechTV was Silicon Spin.

Posted by: EchoBravo

quote:
CNET used to have a TV show.

C/Net Central was a great show back in like '94 - '95, but quickly lost its focus. It started out as a showcase for new products and a preview of tech stuff to come. It devolved into just another financial show. By 2000, it was just more of the same "This company missed its earnings. This company reports on Wednesday, blah, blah, blah..." you could get anywhere else.

The show began, believe it or not, on the USA Network. More recently it could be found on CNBC.

They went through a number of hosts, as well. I forget the guy's name, but he came across as a know-it-all. I finally stopped watching.

Posted by: Vesper

quote:
Originally posted by eric_mcgovern
Extended play has gotten better, but I have noticed they have 1 or 2 new games each show, and all the others are merged from past shows. I remember the days of them repeating the shows for a couple weeks in a row, and the description just said "games" or something like that.

This is new. They are now showing 3 episodes of Extended Play a week. Friday night is a completely new episode (well, except when the whole thing is a rerun). Then on Monday & Wednesday they have episodes that have new content plus some merged rerun content (almost always from the previous Friday's show). The Mon/Wed episodes also don't have features, just previews/reviews. I like getting more reviews per week, actually.. I just fast forward through the parts I've already seen on Mon/Wed episodes.

Posted by: LoadStar

Actually, I liked the C|Net TV block of shows - C|Net Central (with Richard Hart and Daphne Brogdon), The New Edge (with new TV personality Ryan Seacrest), The Web (with Aussie host Sophie Formica), and Cool Tech. Interestingly enough - C|Net was started with seed money from Paul Allen.

I, for a while, expected C|net to pick up TechTV and turn it into C|NetTV - but with the rather rapid decline of TechTV, I actually now expect it to be gone within a year - probably sooner rather than later.