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I think TV remains popular with certain people largely out of ease of use. You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. It

I think TV remains popular with certain people largely out of ease of use. You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. It's always there. Also, changing would require learning something new. People genuinely find learning to have a level of discomfort so they avoid it. https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/learning-hurts-your-brain/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/learning-hurts-your-...

macintux 9y ago
> You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. That...doesn't jive with the limited exposure I've had to cable television. Hundreds of channels and very little good on, I suspect people waste a lot of time flipping through.
- __jal 9y ago
  Yep. Visiting relatives frequently involves me watching them flip channels until I can't take it anymore and go read. Having never owned a TV myself, I'm actually considering buying one now. The fact that shows are actually getting better, combined with how easy it is to wait for other people to be a filter, combined with no ads makes TV actually attractive to me for the first time since I was like 5. But still zero reason to pay for cable.
  - macintux 9y ago
    When the digital transition took place, my TV sat idle for about a year until a line of severe storms rolled through and I decided making it usable again made some sense. Went out, bought a nice directional antenna, bought a converter box from a friend, turned it on. 5 minutes later I realized I had zero tolerance for ads shouting at me, boxed everything up, and eventually took the TV to recycling. (It also nearly put me in the hospital, big CRTs are big.) My iPad and Netflix/iTunes are all I need. Someday maybe I'll get a 13" iPad Pro and stick it on a wall, but I doubt it.
    - xj9 9y ago
      get a tv, a small computer, plex, and a wireless media keyboard its amazing
      - ghaff 9y ago
        TV and Plex yes. But, after having tried all sorts of permutations connecting TVs to media servers and controlling them with keyboards, I find that Chromecast plus a tablet and/or a laptop over WiFi is a far better approach to getting content onto a TV.
- DubiousPusher 9y ago
  I oversimplified for brevity. What I mean is, it doesn't require making an informed decision. You just flip it on and start making yes/no decisions. It has a lower barrier to entry in the same way that Tinder has a lower barrier to entry than other dating sites. Trust me, having grown up in a broadcast and then cable TV household, there's a habituality to TV consumption that isn't there in streaming. Though streaming has its own habituality in the form of bingeing.
MBCook 9y ago
That’s sort of where I am. Most of it is garbage but there are some channels that during some times of day have some decent stuff on. It’s just random what episode it is. One thing I’d kind of like on Netflix and their ilk would be a way to choose a series and say “play me a random episode“. Some shows work well that way. I don’t want to have to go choose through six seasons to find something that appeals to me, I’ll just take an episode. Surprise me.
- xj9 9y ago
  that's what i do with Plex. i use my legally obtained library of shows i like (updated on the regular), i open one up, and press shuffle.
pesfandiar 9y ago
I wonder why Netflix doesn't add a "random content" button. That's one of the appeals of TV versus Netflix that could be replicated very easily. Something more akin to changing channels like "random cartoon" or "random comedy" would remove one last obstacle in the way of converting cable subscribers.
- niftich 9y ago
  The 'random' button would interfere with their aggregate viewership tracking and recommendation algorithms. When the viewer appears to select a particular show to watch, you can have reasonable faith in the viewership numbers. If the platform were to offer a random choice, the fact that the resulting view was not organic would need to be tracked separately. Conversely, you'd want a better way of figuring out whether the viewer was satisfied with the content after all. These problems require nontrivial effort. Right now, things are much easier. The viewer always makes a choice, ostensibly a conscious choice, and all views factor into aggregate numbers that correlate with show popularity.
  - scott_karana 9y ago
    I'm sure they have Referrer metrics, and could add a "from Random" flag. The UI could even continue doing separate random programs, but allow the watcher to say "Keep Watching this", locking in their choice and making it a "discovered" show.
  - 8ytecoder 9y ago
    They should seriously consider "channels" whereby something random is always playing by genre.
    - flavor8 9y ago
      Not even random. They could generate channels based on their observations of what you "switch channel" from.
  - glenstein 9y ago
    >If the platform were to offer a random choice, the fact that the resulting view was not organic would need to be tracked separately So just track it separately and don't interpret it the same way as deliberately chosen shows. I don't see the problem.
b0rsuk 9y ago
I use radio for that. It's good for when you're doing something else that's not too absorbing (programming is out of question for me). Since you have something else to do, you by definition don't have time to sift through potentially interesting stuff.

macintux 9y ago

> You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. That...doesn't jive with the limited exposure I've had to cable television. Hundreds of channels and very little good on, I suspect people waste a lot of time flipping through.

__jal 9y ago
Yep. Visiting relatives frequently involves me watching them flip channels until I can't take it anymore and go read. Having never owned a TV myself, I'm actually considering buying one now. The fact that shows are actually getting better, combined with how easy it is to wait for other people to be a filter, combined with no ads makes TV actually attractive to me for the first time since I was like 5. But still zero reason to pay for cable.
- macintux 9y ago
  When the digital transition took place, my TV sat idle for about a year until a line of severe storms rolled through and I decided making it usable again made some sense. Went out, bought a nice directional antenna, bought a converter box from a friend, turned it on. 5 minutes later I realized I had zero tolerance for ads shouting at me, boxed everything up, and eventually took the TV to recycling. (It also nearly put me in the hospital, big CRTs are big.) My iPad and Netflix/iTunes are all I need. Someday maybe I'll get a 13" iPad Pro and stick it on a wall, but I doubt it.
  - xj9 9y ago
    get a tv, a small computer, plex, and a wireless media keyboard its amazing
    - ghaff 9y ago
      TV and Plex yes. But, after having tried all sorts of permutations connecting TVs to media servers and controlling them with keyboards, I find that Chromecast plus a tablet and/or a laptop over WiFi is a far better approach to getting content onto a TV.
DubiousPusher 9y ago
I oversimplified for brevity. What I mean is, it doesn't require making an informed decision. You just flip it on and start making yes/no decisions. It has a lower barrier to entry in the same way that Tinder has a lower barrier to entry than other dating sites. Trust me, having grown up in a broadcast and then cable TV household, there's a habituality to TV consumption that isn't there in streaming. Though streaming has its own habituality in the form of bingeing.

MBCook 9y ago

That’s sort of where I am. Most of it is garbage but there are some channels that during some times of day have some decent stuff on. It’s just random what episode it is. One thing I’d kind of like on Netflix and their ilk would be a way to choose a series and say “play me a random episode“. Some shows work well that way. I don’t want to have to go choose through six seasons to find something that appeals to me, I’ll just take an episode. Surprise me.

xj9 9y ago
that's what i do with Plex. i use my legally obtained library of shows i like (updated on the regular), i open one up, and press shuffle.

pesfandiar 9y ago

I wonder why Netflix doesn't add a "random content" button. That's one of the appeals of TV versus Netflix that could be replicated very easily. Something more akin to changing channels like "random cartoon" or "random comedy" would remove one last obstacle in the way of converting cable subscribers.

niftich 9y ago
The 'random' button would interfere with their aggregate viewership tracking and recommendation algorithms. When the viewer appears to select a particular show to watch, you can have reasonable faith in the viewership numbers. If the platform were to offer a random choice, the fact that the resulting view was not organic would need to be tracked separately. Conversely, you'd want a better way of figuring out whether the viewer was satisfied with the content after all. These problems require nontrivial effort. Right now, things are much easier. The viewer always makes a choice, ostensibly a conscious choice, and all views factor into aggregate numbers that correlate with show popularity.
- scott_karana 9y ago
  I'm sure they have Referrer metrics, and could add a "from Random" flag. The UI could even continue doing separate random programs, but allow the watcher to say "Keep Watching this", locking in their choice and making it a "discovered" show.
- 8ytecoder 9y ago
  They should seriously consider "channels" whereby something random is always playing by genre.
  - flavor8 9y ago
    Not even random. They could generate channels based on their observations of what you "switch channel" from.
- glenstein 9y ago
  >If the platform were to offer a random choice, the fact that the resulting view was not organic would need to be tracked separately So just track it separately and don't interpret it the same way as deliberately chosen shows. I don't see the problem.

b0rsuk 9y ago

I use radio for that. It's good for when you're doing something else that's not too absorbing (programming is out of question for me). Since you have something else to do, you by definition don't have time to sift through potentially interesting stuff.