In the comfortable house in the centre of Amsterdam, temporarily home, is a large flat screen TV.
Sometimes this TV is switched on and an amazing discovery was made.
There are ten TV channels in the Dutch language.
Three TV channels are sponsored by the Government and seven are from private companies.
All ten of them show commercials.
The three Government sponsored TV channels show programs made in the Netherlands.
With the seven TV channels of the private companies it is different.
They show films and programs they buy abroad.
Take last night.
The private channel RTL 5.
They start with Dr. Phil.
Followed by the comedy series “The king of Queens”.
Then “Everybody loves Raymond”.
At 18.15 h “Dharma and Greg”.
At 18.45 h “Masterchef”, an English culinary program.
At 19.55 h “Take me out”, a datingshow.
At 20.30 h “Leverage”, an American action series.
At 22.20 h “House”, an American drama series.
At 23.10 h “Shock doc: Life after burns”.
What on the next channel?
RTL 7
At 20.30 h the film “Speed” with Sandra Bullock.
At 22.55 h “Ticker”, American action film by Albert Pyun.
How about Net 5?
First “Friends”.
“Will & Grace”.
“Airline”.
“Bondi Rescue”.
“The little couple”.
The American film “The wedding date”.
“Cold case”.
“Law & Order”.
“Medium” American crime series.
With the two last private TV channels it is the same kind of programming.
Most programs on all seven private TV channels are from the USA.
Why would this be?
Can’t they make TV programs and films in the Netherlands?
Can’t they show TV programs and films made in European countries?
Absolutely.
They could.
Nevertheless they show exclusively films and series from the USA.
The explanation must be that they are the cheapest.
To show an old film like “Speed” with Sandra Bullock fills almost two hours of airtime at a low cost.
Hence, the criteria of the private TV channels is not to show a decent and educative and entertaining evening of TV.
They simply try to make as much money as possible.
On the one hand selling TV-time for commercials for as much as possible.
On the other hand keeping costs down to a minimum.
Obviously, this strategy results in poverty.
Poverty of the mind, the intellect and the heart.
Because most what is shown and came from the USA is of a very low level.
And made with the same principle as how the private TV channels operate: low cost productions, mediocre actors, few locations, superficial story, no imagination, no artistic efforts, to be as much in the middle of the road as possible, making money by selling this bullshit in bulk worldwide to private TV channels as there are in the Netherlands.
There is a TV in the comfortable house in Amsterdam but most evenings are spend reading a book.
.
4 comments:
Ja, zekker! I know exactly what you're getting at. Wall to wall mediocrity, still with the subtitles, it helps me with my Dutch. :) Also, when they want to go to a commercial, they just stop the program without any warning and jump into 8 minutes of crap. So any atmosphere that has been built up is completely lost. If they care about their audiences, why do they do that? Simple, they don't give a damn as long as their making money.
Having watched TV in a lot of countries to me the BBC is without the best program maker in the world; the USA can and does produce a lot of great TV, but this is often swamped with the crap - just like the art world really.
Mick Davidson
Dude, you need to calm down a bit and focus on the positive. You dwell on mostly negative things in, or about, the USA. Don't be a hater.
You take nice snapshots with your cameras, so do that and write about that.
Instead of dwelling on the negative things you perceive, try to accentuate the positive. Work on your relationships with other people. If you can find a bit of peace in your mind and with others, your view of the world will improve greatly.
Life is far too short to be so negative. Go out and live happily.
Best Regards,
Robert S
Speed? It's kinda fun, isn't it?
They are playing what people want to watch. That is how they sell air-time to the advertisers, by selling them time on TV shows that the most people watch. So it is not the TV channels whom you should be complaining about, but your fellow Nederlanders, who are watching this programming.
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