Many, many years ago I sat with a stopwatch in hand and timed the total amount of advertising that occured during "The Evening News". This is the 1/2 hour period of time that the original 3 networks devoted to all the news that could be fit into an half hour. Way back then, advertisers claimed about 7 minutes of the 30 minutes of news, leaving us with 23 minutes of real news stories.
A few years back it became apparent that the advertisers were gaining on the news and so I pulled out my digital watch with a timer and clocked 10 minutes of advertising. So, 1/3 of the entire news program was advertising. I vowed that when the ratio became 50/50 that I'd never tune in again.
I understand the economics of advertising and why networks need the income...but I challenge the relevance and scope of a 30 minute news program that is bookended by 10 minutes of advertising.
Two weeks ago it had become painfully apparent that the advertisers had claimed more time so I pulled out my I-Pod and used the timer to clock 13 minutes and 30 seconds of advertising. That leaves 16 minutes and 30 seconds of news in a 1/2 news program. This is absurd!
It is quite obvious to me that more and more of us will refuse to tune in to a "talking head" to hear the news when you can just look at Google News and find more news that you could read in 1/2 hour.
Good bye to the nightly news. Sure, I'll still catch a few minutes here and there, but I can state categorically that their preminence has been long gone, and now their relevance is about to go the same way as the dodo.
Gee
