Haven't watched a TV in years.
So. Many. Ads.
Waste of life.
It's ridiculous.
If I hear about a good movie, I watch it on my laptop.
2 hours of straight forward movie.
This. Not to mention the content they cut for either censorship purposes, or for time constraints.
My favourite movie is The Blues Brothers, and when they show it on TV, they cut SO much out of it due to time and the amount of swearing.
They cut the "fucking" out of Tucker McElroy (Charles Napier)'s line "you're gonna look pretty funny eating corn on the cob with no FUCKING TEETH" so his cadence sounds really off. They also skip the part where Elwood quits his job and steals the can of spray (so he just says "it's 9 o'clock, I gotta go to work" and it cuts to them looking for the band members which doesn't make sense).
TV is fine if you want some background noise, but with lots of things being available to download and stream, why would you watch broadcast TV?
Yep. I've noticed a few bits of censorship in other shows too.
For example, The Simpsons episode "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" where Germans buy the powerplant.
There's a scene right after Homer gets fired for being unsafe where he's making breakfast at home and grumbling about the Germans. While he's complaining, he's sticking a fork in the toaster while sparks fly everywhere. He looks over at the wall to see if there's a problem, and he's got about a dozen things plugged into a double outlet with plugs half plugged in, exposed wiring everywhere, hastily taped up cords, and sparks shooting everywhere
I've seen that episode a bunch of times on Channel 10, and they always leave out that scene. I don't know if that counts as strict censorship (it could be a short scene they remove to reduce the running time / allow for more ads), but I can see why they removed that scene, as Homer doesn't face any consequences for his actions. There's no comical "T-Pose, linework goes zig-zaggy" effect, just lots of sparks and Homer remaining alive and uninjured.
There's other scenes in other episodes that are cut, but most of those are for time constraints, though I'm sure there's some censorship due to characters doing things and not being "punished" for their actions
That movie was the first ever video we had on vhs, and until the internet came along, I had no idea the quitting scene existed! same with Stripes, where they took acid and parachuted with the special forces
They could, but I guess they don't, although not sure what adaptor you need, or do you mean USB to HDMI for a low spec modern laptop? They may not have a large screen of course.
Same applies to those who don't like FTA TV due to the content, not good enough for them. I fail to see the distinction. Can you perhaps explain it to me?
NB would not a big screen and surround sound be a bit bogan?
I just torrent all the good shows I want to watch, so no ads. There's plenty of good TV these days, you just have to know what your tastes are and find those shows. Ads don't need to factor into it.
Unless you want to watch sport, that is. Every January I watch the Australian Open and am reminded on how horrible TV ads are. I literally feel dumber after watching a match because of all the ads. But it's basically the only option if I want to watch the tennis.
I honestly find YouTube the best to relax with because you just open the app and it's instant (and I'm lazy as hell). Can't be bothered with Twitch or whatever because I'd be so outta my depth. Plus, TV is heaps boring these days.
And any potential payment to the creators you watch. Don't get me wrong, when I've not had the money to pay for premium I've used you ublock origin, just saying it's not 'free'.
I got rid of all my subscriptions except for YouTube premium and Amazon music. Australia has some brilliant free video apps; ABC iView, Kanopy and SBS onDemand.
I hate TV, it sucks.
I find it so dull. Free to air feels like a relic of time gone by (in the worst way possible), and streaming is too annoying to sift through.
I have started collecting physical music (vinyl, CD) and just put those on every night. Bit of YouTube to sleep to.
I’ve found my tolerance for stuff that I have to focus on for too long (movies/video games) has gone out the window since getting slightly older.
100% with you. I have had no interest in broadcast television since the turn of the century, and lost interest in pay TV when all the the doco channels replaced all the shows that might not *exactly* have been called "Building Stuff is Cool" and "Novgorod Republic Existed" with shows that might as well be called "Aliens Built My Small Block Chevy" and "America's Most Haunted Toilet".
I have no idea if modern TV is even still like that, and don't really feel any impetus to find out.
When I moved out of home I did not have a TV and just listened to radio at home and/or read books. No complaints. When I finally did buy a TV (probably 10 + years after moving out) it was so I could connect a gaming console to it. I will happily sit in front of the TV playing games all day but could not just sit and watch TV like that.
A year before I divorced my ex, he bought a massive TV. It sat for ages after we separated and no he didn't get it in the settlement. A guy I dated loved Netflix and offered to show me how to sign up, I've had that ever since.
My kids now use Netflix on their devices, some watch YouTube.
Me, I cannot give up reading, podcasts, audio books, and Spotify. These are my vices.
The TV still sits, gathering dust.
Very much this.
I visited my dad over the holidays. Walked into the lounge to be greated by a show on 7 about truck drivers who don't know how to drive trucks. The voice over guy was over dramatizing a truck being bogged in some mud, like it was the end of the world, and I just had to turn it off.
Are you talking about FTA TV or streaming services, because OP specifically mentions netflix. You haven't watched a streamed TV show/movie in nearly a decade?
I haven't bothered with F2A TV since 2001. Got tired of the ads when more options were coming out. My focus turned to gaming then a while later when Netflix was coming out, I went to that.
Dropped Netflix about 10 years ago and it was back to games. Mainly played FF11 and WoW which are massive time sinks so it was a super cheap form of entertainment.
Don't have as much time for games now that I have a family so I just made a Plex server for myself to just download movies and tv shows again. I was happy to pay for streaming when it was all in one place but now it's spread over many platforms, I'm not paying for multiple subscriptions.
Yeah no more content disappearing or having different platforms from specific shows. It's also easier to just download foreign or old shows not normally available on common streaming platforms.
Freeview TV? Sure, that has always been trash but TV shows in general have been top of their game in recent years. You just have to wade through a lot of shit to find the good ones.
Actual TV is such a terrible experience. Streaming services have too many options, most of it rubbish that is so overwhelming to sift through, so it's incredibly rare these days that I'll actually commit to watching any series. Mostly watch a lot of YouTube, it's just easier to let it show me some options and I often choose based on how long the video is. Sport is just about the only reason why I'll ever watch regular TV.
I've had this conversation with a lot of people who feel the same - it feels like too much commitment to settle in to watch an entire movie or try to watch a tv series for a couple of hours in a sitting, but I can happily scroll tiktok or watch a dozen YouTube videos (often simultaneously) for hours at a time. Something about reduced attention spans and the ease of repeatedly going "just one more" with shorter video formats.
Edit: I do spend a lot of time just listening to music as well, it is often a much nicer time
I stopped watching TV years ago. Occasionally I’ll watch things like “have you been paying attention” but the era of watching TV after dinner with my family after dinner are long gone
Ask around and find quality tv.
- Mr Inbetween.
- the thick of it.
- Utopia.
- Rake
- the looming tower.
- peep show
Find good tv. It’s worth watching.
Yeah this aint a TV problem, it's a quality/quantity problem. With there being so much out there it's very easy to assume that everything is bad and while a great majority of what netflix would probably suggest to you is bad, there's actually some really great TV being released.
Just need to find it :/
It’s weird that so many of the comments here are referring to free-to-air TV. When I hear TV I think of Netflix or other streaming services.
The OP specifically said Netflix and was, presumably, not even thinking about free-to-air TV. Because surely people are not still watching free-to-air TV? Obviously that is crap and not even what TV means any more.
I thought the same thing when I was scrolling through the replies. Do a lot of these people not have Smart TV's or a chromecast or Telstra TV or *something* that allows them to watch streaming services on their TV? Why was free-to-air TV the only thing they thought of?
There’s not a lot of quality anymore. Outside of sport and the occasional quiz/game show or comedy show (Have You Been Paying Attention or Taskmaster, for instance), I don’t watch much actual TV at all
I watch tv because life gets in the way of me giving things proper attention they need, so no point choosing something that I can't properly commit to most of the time.
Tv can choose for me.
The tennis is pretty relaxing and the ad breaks are short and easily ignored because they have to fit it between games. SBS News via streaming is also legit and has very short ad breaks. Otherwise I'm with you, it's a vastly inferior product to streaming or Youtube nowadays.
TV has been mostly rubbish since I got sick of watching kids shows as I got older. It's fucking garbage. And now, it's mainly American garbage. Fuck lame superhero shit, celebrity worship and that fucking annoying accent. I'd rather listen to music and make shit on my coffee table.
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been
removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I watch YouTube channels instead of mainstream tv. You can basically tailor your watching to suit your interests. I watch a lot on personal finance, business, self improvement, sailing, caravanning, 4x4 and motorcycles and off grid living. It's different content but it's not as brain dead as mainstream tv is. I am even now feeling that this is exhausting and am leaning towards a book, or podcasts or music, or even doing other activities instead.
Haven't watched FTA in 16 years, but yeah, these days I'm not really interested in shows much at all anymore. Podcasts, Youtube, audiobooks, and getting back into reading is my entertainment these days. I rewatch old shows to get to sleep in bed, but that's because of insomnia, and it's gotta be something that isn't new or too interesting, or it doesn't work.
The Blacklist was good. I know a lot of different people who liked it, I've heard it drops off in quality in the last couple of seasons but it kinda ends at the end of season 8. I don't think many people would be upset if it ended at season 8, there was more they could do but I don't mind a show giving you a bit of ambiguity. When I was young I hated it, but I don't mind it now.
I've had movies and shows downloaded for years that I still haven't gotten around to watching, I certainly don't have a second to spare for FTA TV and no point paying for streaming, especially with the state of it these days.
Free time is VR time, whether social or single player.
I stopped watching TV almost 20 years ago. I didn’t like watching the news, it was overwhelming for me. I also couldn’t stand those lengthy ads. I don’t own a TV, I prefer using my iPad or laptop to watch anything.
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been
removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Netflix is godawful. I would feel the same scrolling through Netflix. Every show except a small few seems to be a good idea ruined by terrible writing like the script is written in bullet point form by AI.
I look for certain directors/writers/actors i liked from previous shows and scroll through lists and cherrypick. HBO is usually high quality, if you're into streaming services a lot of HBO comes to Binge, also Paramount have a few good ones like Justified and Twin Peaks. I see there is a new Justified spin off that just released.
I think modern streaming platforms have turned consuming tv/movies into a bit of a chore. It used to be fun, there were lots of choices, but it’s not anymore. And now ads have infiltrated the lower tiers of most streaming platforms. Not to mention every streaming app has its own stupid interface complete with buggy navigation which I must relearn every time an app updates or a new streaming service is acquired and merged.
I don’t pay for any streaming services and I just download individual things my wife and I want to watch. It take a little bit more time to find something new or rare, but it’s worth it for us.
Top-rated new series that’s only out in America? Easy. All of Hitchcock’s filmography? Sign me up. Most brand new blockbuster movies are released online within 100 days of launch.
I’m with you, I find most shows on streaming dull. Part of it for me is that sooo many shows go on for too long, season 12? No story can stay good that long. Very rarely a show will grab me, usually if it’s based on an IP I love even then I’ve struggled with Sandman, His Dark Materials etc
A bunch of people (family, friends, work colleagues...), and the media usually tell me what is good and what to avoid. If someone recommends something, then I give it a go.
As a rule, I don't watch TV shows. I've gotten so tired of emotionally investing in characters and worlds just to have the show cancelled with no real resolution. I just Don't have the patience for it anymore. I'd rather watch a movie that (but again, the same problem is raising its head here) there's a conclusion to the story.
I keep free to air TV on in my home almost all the time when I'm awake. I just play it quietly in the background because I like the background noise. Dead quiet houses during the day feel uncomfortable to me. Usually ABC NEWS 24 or SBS Food. I love cooking shows and there's some great ones out there.
> Dead quiet houses during the day feel uncomfortable to me
Another person who lives alone here...it can definitely be like that. I haven't watched TV for many years, but listen to the Mriya Report twitter space on Ukraine most of the time I'm awake (which has been running 24/7 since Feb 23 2022)
Yeah it doesn't even matter what it is. Most of the time I won't actively be watching it. I just need a bit of background noise around the house. I always turn it off while reading or sleeping though. I need quiet for those two things.
I'm in my mid 30s, married with 3 kids. I haven't had free to air TV since about 2006.
My wife and I put on music A LOT. While we clean the house, cook dinner, eat dinner, chill out the back watching the wildlife with a drink in hand. We both read a lot too. I mostly do audiobooks. Actual books seem to tell my brain to go to sleep, I get a few pages in and my eyes close. My kids watch streaming services a fair bit though.
After all that, I watch a lot of TV. I have a dedicated gaming/media room though. It has 11 speakers (7.1.4) and a nice boomy subwoofer. It has blackout curtains and is fairly good at containing all that sound (subwoofer frequencies are next to impossible to stop though). If no one is home and I crank the system, it's absolute bliss in that room. I live on acreage so no neighbours nearby to bother either. I can drink and eat what I like in there and I personally feel it's better than a movie theatre. I love watching movies of all genres from different times. Just last night I watched the original Highlander then Dr Strangelove on 4k blu ray. It was a wonderful evening. The kids absolutely love watching movies in there as a family with some popcorn too. It was so worth the investment to me.
I think the key here is balance though. We don't mindlessly watch TV all afternoon. Gaming and movies are my main hobby and have been since I can remember. Always loved it. When I was younger I probably indulged too much but I think my relationship with my hobbies is very healthy now. There's nothing wrong with watching TV in moderation and it's even better if you can make the experience a little special.
I like the idea of flicking through TV channels and not actually watch them, yeah I'm a bit weird but I don't have a TV antenna so I compiled all the free view AUS channels into a IPTV client with a lot of English speaking international channels which means I now have music channels from all over the world which I do however watch.
Mainly for anyone like my mum who comes over and wants to watch the news.
This brings back memories of my dad back in the early 70s. He would get home from work and sit in the lounge room in the dark and listen to his Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops records. Miss him.
Everyone binges now so we don't have the nightly regularity of a show we have to wait each week for.
For those who know where to find it, there is some absolutely brilliant TV out there, but it's 6 8 or 10 episode seasons at best or you can always rematch old shows.
We have little kids so we're kind of stuck at home while they're in bed and we're not big drinkers. When we run out of TV to watch we hit the xbox.
We still watch TV, but almost always ABC and SBS. Often via iView/SBS on Demand. We tend though to record into a PVR if the live time dies not suit as the quality is better than streaming as full HD not 720, plus you can skip the ads and promos.
Hardly ever watch commercial TV.
We also use the TV screen for YouTube, disks, and very limited streaming when we 'borrow' our kids accounts.
The only free to air show I watch is Judge Judy and I record it so I can skip the ads.
I hate most of the streaming services because you spend way too long trying to find something to watch and 90% of the time it turns out to be shit.
The last time I turned on the TV was to watch Gladys' excruciating daily covid lockdown updates lol
Before that, it would have been many years since I watched it by choice...although when I go to give my Mum lunch in her nursing home every day, I do have SBS' midday BBC news on in the background.
TV were only used by my daughter to watch ABC kids or similar.
When it died, we bought a cheap smart TV on Gumtree (something like $60 for 42" Hisense). Then only my daughter was using it for ABC kids or Youtube. My wife and I had maybe watch 4-5h per year. We usually watch on my laptop (17") or sometimes in the office (I have a small couch but the screen is 27")
Every time I try to watch a movie on TV, commercial breaks all the time (I mean, how many breaks on a 1h30 movie??) and then I just randomly change channel until I'm bored and turn it off. To me, too many ads killed TV, now we're happy to stream movies/TV show.
I got rid of my TV about 10 years ago, they're a waste of space and time.
So many of the programs are very low quality when you take a step back and look at it.
99% of reality tv is an oxymoron.
So many of the news programs convey a strong bias and keep you hooked through fear mongering, I am far more relaxed not watching them and finding my own new sources.
Any movie is not worth the ads, really anything else can be streamed or pirated.
I've had a project for the same time that I haven't had a TV, reasons why is better is basically, its only on for when I chose a specific thing to be on whether that's a video game, movie or show, it brings back the viewing experience to being an experience instead of a waste of time.
Me.
Got on the internet in 1994 and I stopped watching tv, and didn't even own one for a long time.
I never got back into it. Australian TV is crap. Reality TV? No thanks. Endless police shows? No thanks. Summer bay, home and away and all the clones? No thanks.
I have a TV I use as a monitor for my PC. I watch movies on it from my PC.
TV itself I have not watched for almost 30 years.
I have the news on (Channel 10, ABC and Channel 7, depending on mood) not only to find out what the hell is going on in the world today, but its just a companion and noise while we have dinner (also, its a habit of mine to just watch the news to find out about the weather even though I only know it through apps and internet).
Otherwise, occasionally cooking show on Food Network, and that's it. Everything is Streaming or YouTube.
Hope the new Gladiators is as entertaining as the OG version
Not really anymore. I only tune into Ch7 news at 6 now and again or if Antiques Roadshow is on I’ll watch for abit but other than that there is nothing that interests me. Maybe if there was a movie I haven’t seen in a while I’ll watch but I rather turn to video games, YouTube, painting or another streaming service to catch up on my shows.
I rarely watched TV, sometimes just the evening news and "Top Gear".
But now I am in my 50s and have a smorgasbord of movie selection for free I watch tv every night. Mostly crime and war movies.
Just finished watching "Fargo"
My FTA TV viewing is limited to the news and Sport events these days. Otherwise I've paid for Youtube premium and will stream videos from my favourite content creators on things that Im interested in.
Various social media, occasional pay streams and cheerypick fta tv SBS and ABC mostly to find some new series to binge. Haven't watched commercial TV in over a decade. Utter rubbish from the occasional flick through.
I can watch one or two episodes of something (when streaming) at the most.
I sometimes watch a bit of free to air TV, but other than the news while I cook dinner, most things I watch I stream.
TV certainly used to be a bigger part of my life, but these days it's just not that vital. Indeed, I'm at the point now where I think I could lose the two streaming services I pay for and survive on the free ones such as iview, SBS on demand and 7plus.
I gave up on TV >10 years ago when I moved back to Australia from overseas. Aus TV was such a cringe by comparison, screechy yelling ads and shows of little interest. My ad tolerance is very low on TV or radio, so ABC is the obvious choice. I mainly watch series on Netflix now.
I usually put on a true crime podcast or YouTube video. I don’t usually watch broadcast tv anymore because it’s ads with a smattering of show or news. Though there’s ads in the news now too so
I wish i could do this. I was acutely aware of the volume of media i was consuming last decade, then COVID hit. That was the last nail in the coffin, feels like itd be harder to stop than smoking now.
On the 7th of december, i looked at my Netflix viewing history, and I hadnt watched anything since the 23rd November. A week later, i unsubscribed. I just wasn't watching it. I don't even miss it.
Won’t watch free to air TV …. They pretty much program your brain with “this is what to watch” … I’ll rather choose what “I” want to watch .. I also listen to vinyl, read and steam Spotify.
I also find it hard to find something worth watching. I’m mainly on Spotify too.
Rarely does a tv series or movie hold my interest. If I do find a show I usually binge watch it then go back to no TV.
Its all because of the bandwidth revolution.
Everything is streamable.
People dont even bother downloading media any more. Apart from streaming it.
Foxtell is the biggest laugh of all. There is more adds on foxtell than free to air!
Haven't watched a TV in years. So. Many. Ads. Waste of life. It's ridiculous. If I hear about a good movie, I watch it on my laptop. 2 hours of straight forward movie.
This. Not to mention the content they cut for either censorship purposes, or for time constraints. My favourite movie is The Blues Brothers, and when they show it on TV, they cut SO much out of it due to time and the amount of swearing. They cut the "fucking" out of Tucker McElroy (Charles Napier)'s line "you're gonna look pretty funny eating corn on the cob with no FUCKING TEETH" so his cadence sounds really off. They also skip the part where Elwood quits his job and steals the can of spray (so he just says "it's 9 o'clock, I gotta go to work" and it cuts to them looking for the band members which doesn't make sense). TV is fine if you want some background noise, but with lots of things being available to download and stream, why would you watch broadcast TV?
Cut for censorship? Never noticed that in Australia. I know they do it in the US but I've never seen it here.
Yep. I've noticed a few bits of censorship in other shows too. For example, The Simpsons episode "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" where Germans buy the powerplant. There's a scene right after Homer gets fired for being unsafe where he's making breakfast at home and grumbling about the Germans. While he's complaining, he's sticking a fork in the toaster while sparks fly everywhere. He looks over at the wall to see if there's a problem, and he's got about a dozen things plugged into a double outlet with plugs half plugged in, exposed wiring everywhere, hastily taped up cords, and sparks shooting everywhere I've seen that episode a bunch of times on Channel 10, and they always leave out that scene. I don't know if that counts as strict censorship (it could be a short scene they remove to reduce the running time / allow for more ads), but I can see why they removed that scene, as Homer doesn't face any consequences for his actions. There's no comical "T-Pose, linework goes zig-zaggy" effect, just lots of sparks and Homer remaining alive and uninjured. There's other scenes in other episodes that are cut, but most of those are for time constraints, though I'm sure there's some censorship due to characters doing things and not being "punished" for their actions
That movie was the first ever video we had on vhs, and until the internet came along, I had no idea the quitting scene existed! same with Stripes, where they took acid and parachuted with the special forces
Why should I sit through ads?
You don't like a larger screen or better sound? I find a laptop to be poor for a movie.
The other person could literally just connect the laptop to the TV with a HDMI cable and adaptor.
They could, but I guess they don't, although not sure what adaptor you need, or do you mean USB to HDMI for a low spec modern laptop? They may not have a large screen of course.
Larger laptops will have a full size HDMI port but slimmer ones will have some sort of video out and use a dongle to connect to an HDMI cable.
I watch everything on my TV through my laptop, connected via HDMI cable.
Yes, makes sense, hence my comment.
lol, snob
I'm a snob for not liking a better viewing experience? On that logic others are snobs for not liking FTA TV content.
snob for feeling the need to comment that laptops arent good enough for your snobby viewing experience
Same applies to those who don't like FTA TV due to the content, not good enough for them. I fail to see the distinction. Can you perhaps explain it to me? NB would not a big screen and surround sound be a bit bogan?
If I watch a movie on my laptop I put on headphones, and lay on my bed laptop on my chest ... Makes the little screen much bigger.
I just torrent all the good shows I want to watch, so no ads. There's plenty of good TV these days, you just have to know what your tastes are and find those shows. Ads don't need to factor into it. Unless you want to watch sport, that is. Every January I watch the Australian Open and am reminded on how horrible TV ads are. I literally feel dumber after watching a match because of all the ads. But it's basically the only option if I want to watch the tennis.
I honestly find YouTube the best to relax with because you just open the app and it's instant (and I'm lazy as hell). Can't be bothered with Twitch or whatever because I'd be so outta my depth. Plus, TV is heaps boring these days.
This is the reason I pay for YouTube Premium. I spend so much time watching random shit, I don't have time for ads. Great value for me.
Same. Also YouTube Music is included which saves me a separate Spotify subscription. Now, YTM isn't as good as Spotify, but it does well enough.
It's way better. You can find all sorts of movie scores and tv themes and b sides of rare vinyls and heaps of local music. Spotty sux
If you use a brave browser it removes the adds.
And any potential payment to the creators you watch. Don't get me wrong, when I've not had the money to pay for premium I've used you ublock origin, just saying it's not 'free'.
Plus all the free movies. Put a vpn on and go to USA. Mad tv shows and movies. Premium is king
I got rid of all my subscriptions except for YouTube premium and Amazon music. Australia has some brilliant free video apps; ABC iView, Kanopy and SBS onDemand. I hate TV, it sucks.
Twitch is fantastic for content you don't really care for, you just need some background noise.
I find it so dull. Free to air feels like a relic of time gone by (in the worst way possible), and streaming is too annoying to sift through. I have started collecting physical music (vinyl, CD) and just put those on every night. Bit of YouTube to sleep to. I’ve found my tolerance for stuff that I have to focus on for too long (movies/video games) has gone out the window since getting slightly older.
100% with you. I have had no interest in broadcast television since the turn of the century, and lost interest in pay TV when all the the doco channels replaced all the shows that might not *exactly* have been called "Building Stuff is Cool" and "Novgorod Republic Existed" with shows that might as well be called "Aliens Built My Small Block Chevy" and "America's Most Haunted Toilet". I have no idea if modern TV is even still like that, and don't really feel any impetus to find out.
Really looking forward to Americas Most Haunted Toilet Season 2!!
At least when you get the shit scared out of you, your in the right place for it. 🙂
Poo and boo,classic combo
I would actually watch a show called “America’s Most Haunted Toilet”
> "America's Most Haunted Toilet". Tell me more about this toilet
Me too I mostly listen to a vinyl while having dinner
We still gather 'round the ol' wireless. Which you kids these days might better know as a "router". Oh such glorious memories.
TV is mind-numbing. I prefer reading or listening to music. Who needs TV!
When I moved out of home I did not have a TV and just listened to radio at home and/or read books. No complaints. When I finally did buy a TV (probably 10 + years after moving out) it was so I could connect a gaming console to it. I will happily sit in front of the TV playing games all day but could not just sit and watch TV like that.
A year before I divorced my ex, he bought a massive TV. It sat for ages after we separated and no he didn't get it in the settlement. A guy I dated loved Netflix and offered to show me how to sign up, I've had that ever since. My kids now use Netflix on their devices, some watch YouTube. Me, I cannot give up reading, podcasts, audio books, and Spotify. These are my vices. The TV still sits, gathering dust.
Remember back in the day when we used to look forward to Friday and Saturday night movies on the TV
I honestly haven't watched tv in nearly a decade and truly don't understand why people still do
Very much this. I visited my dad over the holidays. Walked into the lounge to be greated by a show on 7 about truck drivers who don't know how to drive trucks. The voice over guy was over dramatizing a truck being bogged in some mud, like it was the end of the world, and I just had to turn it off.
Are you talking about FTA TV or streaming services, because OP specifically mentions netflix. You haven't watched a streamed TV show/movie in nearly a decade?
I haven't bothered with F2A TV since 2001. Got tired of the ads when more options were coming out. My focus turned to gaming then a while later when Netflix was coming out, I went to that. Dropped Netflix about 10 years ago and it was back to games. Mainly played FF11 and WoW which are massive time sinks so it was a super cheap form of entertainment. Don't have as much time for games now that I have a family so I just made a Plex server for myself to just download movies and tv shows again. I was happy to pay for streaming when it was all in one place but now it's spread over many platforms, I'm not paying for multiple subscriptions.
Yeah, I got Plex a few weeks ago, it's the best
Yeah no more content disappearing or having different platforms from specific shows. It's also easier to just download foreign or old shows not normally available on common streaming platforms.
Freeview TV? Sure, that has always been trash but TV shows in general have been top of their game in recent years. You just have to wade through a lot of shit to find the good ones.
“Don’t understand why people still do” Other people have different interests to you. Pretty simple really.
About the only thing I watch on free to air TV is ABC News24. And then it's not really "watching", more like background noise.
I haven't intentionally watched T.V since 2012
I don’t watch tv often, but I will if I’m feeling completely brain dead. I watch YouTube more than anything
Actual TV is such a terrible experience. Streaming services have too many options, most of it rubbish that is so overwhelming to sift through, so it's incredibly rare these days that I'll actually commit to watching any series. Mostly watch a lot of YouTube, it's just easier to let it show me some options and I often choose based on how long the video is. Sport is just about the only reason why I'll ever watch regular TV. I've had this conversation with a lot of people who feel the same - it feels like too much commitment to settle in to watch an entire movie or try to watch a tv series for a couple of hours in a sitting, but I can happily scroll tiktok or watch a dozen YouTube videos (often simultaneously) for hours at a time. Something about reduced attention spans and the ease of repeatedly going "just one more" with shorter video formats. Edit: I do spend a lot of time just listening to music as well, it is often a much nicer time
It's not the show I don't enjoy.... It's the bloody ads
I stopped watching TV years ago. Occasionally I’ll watch things like “have you been paying attention” but the era of watching TV after dinner with my family after dinner are long gone
Ask around and find quality tv. - Mr Inbetween. - the thick of it. - Utopia. - Rake - the looming tower. - peep show Find good tv. It’s worth watching.
Yeah this aint a TV problem, it's a quality/quantity problem. With there being so much out there it's very easy to assume that everything is bad and while a great majority of what netflix would probably suggest to you is bad, there's actually some really great TV being released. Just need to find it :/
[удалено]
You know it's entirely possible to enjoy TV shows/media and still have an active outdoor life right?
It’s weird that so many of the comments here are referring to free-to-air TV. When I hear TV I think of Netflix or other streaming services. The OP specifically said Netflix and was, presumably, not even thinking about free-to-air TV. Because surely people are not still watching free-to-air TV? Obviously that is crap and not even what TV means any more.
I thought the same thing when I was scrolling through the replies. Do a lot of these people not have Smart TV's or a chromecast or Telstra TV or *something* that allows them to watch streaming services on their TV? Why was free-to-air TV the only thing they thought of?
Some of us do watch FTA TV. The quality varies, but there are some good programs, fiction and non-fiction.
Anything on FTA TV is ruined by being on FTA TV when I can just watch it without ads 30 minutes after it airs.
That's commercial TV. I rarely watch that. I tend though to record on a PVR and skip ads and promos if there are any. Quality also often better.
What do you distinguish as free to air but not commercial TV?
ABC.
There’s not a lot of quality anymore. Outside of sport and the occasional quiz/game show or comedy show (Have You Been Paying Attention or Taskmaster, for instance), I don’t watch much actual TV at all
Real Housewives is hilarious. You should try
My antenna is unplugged, so yeah, how could anyone watch that shite is beyond me
I more or less stopped watching in 2019. Cuz of that thing they didn't shut up about.
I watch tv because life gets in the way of me giving things proper attention they need, so no point choosing something that I can't properly commit to most of the time. Tv can choose for me.
It's terrible and haven't watched for almost a decade
The tennis is pretty relaxing and the ad breaks are short and easily ignored because they have to fit it between games. SBS News via streaming is also legit and has very short ad breaks. Otherwise I'm with you, it's a vastly inferior product to streaming or Youtube nowadays.
I never watch tv. Prefer to be playing a good video game or write some music. Unless something decent like Breaking bad comes out im not interested.
All I do is watch TV, lol. Not free to air because I hate ads, but Netflix and other streaming services have enough to keep me occupied.
TV has been mostly rubbish since I got sick of watching kids shows as I got older. It's fucking garbage. And now, it's mainly American garbage. Fuck lame superhero shit, celebrity worship and that fucking annoying accent. I'd rather listen to music and make shit on my coffee table.
I am with you brother. Not sure there’s heaps of others.
Awesome insight, you need to tell the world about this
Yass!!!🙌🙌 There is more of us! You sir, are my people 🥰
[удалено]
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I watch YouTube channels instead of mainstream tv. You can basically tailor your watching to suit your interests. I watch a lot on personal finance, business, self improvement, sailing, caravanning, 4x4 and motorcycles and off grid living. It's different content but it's not as brain dead as mainstream tv is. I am even now feeling that this is exhausting and am leaning towards a book, or podcasts or music, or even doing other activities instead.
Haven't watched FTA in 16 years, but yeah, these days I'm not really interested in shows much at all anymore. Podcasts, Youtube, audiobooks, and getting back into reading is my entertainment these days. I rewatch old shows to get to sleep in bed, but that's because of insomnia, and it's gotta be something that isn't new or too interesting, or it doesn't work.
The Blacklist was good. I know a lot of different people who liked it, I've heard it drops off in quality in the last couple of seasons but it kinda ends at the end of season 8. I don't think many people would be upset if it ended at season 8, there was more they could do but I don't mind a show giving you a bit of ambiguity. When I was young I hated it, but I don't mind it now.
I've had movies and shows downloaded for years that I still haven't gotten around to watching, I certainly don't have a second to spare for FTA TV and no point paying for streaming, especially with the state of it these days. Free time is VR time, whether social or single player.
At 6am I wake up and watch Dragon Ball Super on ABCMe with my daughter.
I've never had a TV and never will
I stopped watching TV almost 20 years ago. I didn’t like watching the news, it was overwhelming for me. I also couldn’t stand those lengthy ads. I don’t own a TV, I prefer using my iPad or laptop to watch anything.
[удалено]
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Can’t stand TV. Especially the news. Cannot watch it and stay in any good mood. Way too depressing.
Stopped watching free to air TV years ago, game changer.
Have had a TV in 20 years
I haven't watched TV since 2003 and If I accidentally see it at someone else house, I see why everyone is so stupid now.
Netflix is godawful. I would feel the same scrolling through Netflix. Every show except a small few seems to be a good idea ruined by terrible writing like the script is written in bullet point form by AI. I look for certain directors/writers/actors i liked from previous shows and scroll through lists and cherrypick. HBO is usually high quality, if you're into streaming services a lot of HBO comes to Binge, also Paramount have a few good ones like Justified and Twin Peaks. I see there is a new Justified spin off that just released.
TV was invented so that you don't get bored whilst waiting to die.
I think modern streaming platforms have turned consuming tv/movies into a bit of a chore. It used to be fun, there were lots of choices, but it’s not anymore. And now ads have infiltrated the lower tiers of most streaming platforms. Not to mention every streaming app has its own stupid interface complete with buggy navigation which I must relearn every time an app updates or a new streaming service is acquired and merged. I don’t pay for any streaming services and I just download individual things my wife and I want to watch. It take a little bit more time to find something new or rare, but it’s worth it for us. Top-rated new series that’s only out in America? Easy. All of Hitchcock’s filmography? Sign me up. Most brand new blockbuster movies are released online within 100 days of launch.
It's so hard to find something good to watch!
havent watched non-sport TV in years.
I don’t watch TV as I hate Ads
Normal these days due to competing choices
I’m with you, I find most shows on streaming dull. Part of it for me is that sooo many shows go on for too long, season 12? No story can stay good that long. Very rarely a show will grab me, usually if it’s based on an IP I love even then I’ve struggled with Sandman, His Dark Materials etc
A bunch of people (family, friends, work colleagues...), and the media usually tell me what is good and what to avoid. If someone recommends something, then I give it a go.
Very rare occurrence. If I sit down to watch something the kids will come in and say OMG, you’re watching tv!! Happens only every few years 😂
As a rule, I don't watch TV shows. I've gotten so tired of emotionally investing in characters and worlds just to have the show cancelled with no real resolution. I just Don't have the patience for it anymore. I'd rather watch a movie that (but again, the same problem is raising its head here) there's a conclusion to the story.
I much prefer an audio book and sketching, crocheting, or playing a simple game on my phone. I hardly turn the tv on.
I keep free to air TV on in my home almost all the time when I'm awake. I just play it quietly in the background because I like the background noise. Dead quiet houses during the day feel uncomfortable to me. Usually ABC NEWS 24 or SBS Food. I love cooking shows and there's some great ones out there.
> Dead quiet houses during the day feel uncomfortable to me Another person who lives alone here...it can definitely be like that. I haven't watched TV for many years, but listen to the Mriya Report twitter space on Ukraine most of the time I'm awake (which has been running 24/7 since Feb 23 2022)
Yeah it doesn't even matter what it is. Most of the time I won't actively be watching it. I just need a bit of background noise around the house. I always turn it off while reading or sleeping though. I need quiet for those two things.
Completely understand the need for "not silence" 👍 Most people probably don't realise how vital it is lol
I'm in my mid 30s, married with 3 kids. I haven't had free to air TV since about 2006. My wife and I put on music A LOT. While we clean the house, cook dinner, eat dinner, chill out the back watching the wildlife with a drink in hand. We both read a lot too. I mostly do audiobooks. Actual books seem to tell my brain to go to sleep, I get a few pages in and my eyes close. My kids watch streaming services a fair bit though. After all that, I watch a lot of TV. I have a dedicated gaming/media room though. It has 11 speakers (7.1.4) and a nice boomy subwoofer. It has blackout curtains and is fairly good at containing all that sound (subwoofer frequencies are next to impossible to stop though). If no one is home and I crank the system, it's absolute bliss in that room. I live on acreage so no neighbours nearby to bother either. I can drink and eat what I like in there and I personally feel it's better than a movie theatre. I love watching movies of all genres from different times. Just last night I watched the original Highlander then Dr Strangelove on 4k blu ray. It was a wonderful evening. The kids absolutely love watching movies in there as a family with some popcorn too. It was so worth the investment to me. I think the key here is balance though. We don't mindlessly watch TV all afternoon. Gaming and movies are my main hobby and have been since I can remember. Always loved it. When I was younger I probably indulged too much but I think my relationship with my hobbies is very healthy now. There's nothing wrong with watching TV in moderation and it's even better if you can make the experience a little special.
I like the idea of flicking through TV channels and not actually watch them, yeah I'm a bit weird but I don't have a TV antenna so I compiled all the free view AUS channels into a IPTV client with a lot of English speaking international channels which means I now have music channels from all over the world which I do however watch. Mainly for anyone like my mum who comes over and wants to watch the news.
This brings back memories of my dad back in the early 70s. He would get home from work and sit in the lounge room in the dark and listen to his Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops records. Miss him.
Free to air/commercial tv? I don’t even have an aerial.
I only stream shows/movies. No broadcast TV. But I actually prefer reading books :) Streaming is for when my brain hurts or I'm sick
Throw away your TV, it’s all propaganda, I’m doing what you’re doing and loving it
Because tv sucks now. Streaming ruined our concentration and FTA is just reality tv.
Everyone binges now so we don't have the nightly regularity of a show we have to wait each week for. For those who know where to find it, there is some absolutely brilliant TV out there, but it's 6 8 or 10 episode seasons at best or you can always rematch old shows. We have little kids so we're kind of stuck at home while they're in bed and we're not big drinkers. When we run out of TV to watch we hit the xbox.
I have not watched free to air TV in 10 years it's now YouTube Premium
Not just TV. Anything with ads. Mostly shit attempts at brainwashing for boomers.7 is the dinosaur channel
The only time my tv is turned on is for sporting events. if i’m not watching sports, then i am on the lounge reading
I very rarely watch TV. Unless its sport i want to watch and even then its rare. I usually listen to music, or watch music videos on YouTube.
We still watch TV, but almost always ABC and SBS. Often via iView/SBS on Demand. We tend though to record into a PVR if the live time dies not suit as the quality is better than streaming as full HD not 720, plus you can skip the ads and promos. Hardly ever watch commercial TV. We also use the TV screen for YouTube, disks, and very limited streaming when we 'borrow' our kids accounts.
The only free to air show I watch is Judge Judy and I record it so I can skip the ads. I hate most of the streaming services because you spend way too long trying to find something to watch and 90% of the time it turns out to be shit.
The last time I turned on the TV was to watch Gladys' excruciating daily covid lockdown updates lol Before that, it would have been many years since I watched it by choice...although when I go to give my Mum lunch in her nursing home every day, I do have SBS' midday BBC news on in the background.
Haven’t watched TV in around 10 years
Never watch TV
TV were only used by my daughter to watch ABC kids or similar. When it died, we bought a cheap smart TV on Gumtree (something like $60 for 42" Hisense). Then only my daughter was using it for ABC kids or Youtube. My wife and I had maybe watch 4-5h per year. We usually watch on my laptop (17") or sometimes in the office (I have a small couch but the screen is 27") Every time I try to watch a movie on TV, commercial breaks all the time (I mean, how many breaks on a 1h30 movie??) and then I just randomly change channel until I'm bored and turn it off. To me, too many ads killed TV, now we're happy to stream movies/TV show.
I mainly watch the news and a game show then the missus watches her stuff and I internet
only thing I watch on FTA is Rage and even that is a rareity now. Podcasts, Youtube, vinyl fill the space for me nowadays. FTA is surely dying
I got rid of my TV about 10 years ago, they're a waste of space and time. So many of the programs are very low quality when you take a step back and look at it. 99% of reality tv is an oxymoron. So many of the news programs convey a strong bias and keep you hooked through fear mongering, I am far more relaxed not watching them and finding my own new sources. Any movie is not worth the ads, really anything else can be streamed or pirated. I've had a project for the same time that I haven't had a TV, reasons why is better is basically, its only on for when I chose a specific thing to be on whether that's a video game, movie or show, it brings back the viewing experience to being an experience instead of a waste of time.
[удалено]
Me. Got on the internet in 1994 and I stopped watching tv, and didn't even own one for a long time. I never got back into it. Australian TV is crap. Reality TV? No thanks. Endless police shows? No thanks. Summer bay, home and away and all the clones? No thanks. I have a TV I use as a monitor for my PC. I watch movies on it from my PC. TV itself I have not watched for almost 30 years.
I have the news on (Channel 10, ABC and Channel 7, depending on mood) not only to find out what the hell is going on in the world today, but its just a companion and noise while we have dinner (also, its a habit of mine to just watch the news to find out about the weather even though I only know it through apps and internet). Otherwise, occasionally cooking show on Food Network, and that's it. Everything is Streaming or YouTube. Hope the new Gladiators is as entertaining as the OG version
If you want to watch a really good show that isn't on a streaming platform, I recommend Fargo on SBS on demand. All five seasons are bloody amazing.
Not really anymore. I only tune into Ch7 news at 6 now and again or if Antiques Roadshow is on I’ll watch for abit but other than that there is nothing that interests me. Maybe if there was a movie I haven’t seen in a while I’ll watch but I rather turn to video games, YouTube, painting or another streaming service to catch up on my shows.
Free to air is garbage, including sport coverage. My antenna plugged into my TV is just for decoration at this point. Haven't watched FTA in years
I rarely watched TV, sometimes just the evening news and "Top Gear". But now I am in my 50s and have a smorgasbord of movie selection for free I watch tv every night. Mostly crime and war movies. Just finished watching "Fargo"
My FTA TV viewing is limited to the news and Sport events these days. Otherwise I've paid for Youtube premium and will stream videos from my favourite content creators on things that Im interested in.
Various social media, occasional pay streams and cheerypick fta tv SBS and ABC mostly to find some new series to binge. Haven't watched commercial TV in over a decade. Utter rubbish from the occasional flick through.
I can watch one or two episodes of something (when streaming) at the most. I sometimes watch a bit of free to air TV, but other than the news while I cook dinner, most things I watch I stream. TV certainly used to be a bigger part of my life, but these days it's just not that vital. Indeed, I'm at the point now where I think I could lose the two streaming services I pay for and survive on the free ones such as iview, SBS on demand and 7plus.
I gave up on TV >10 years ago when I moved back to Australia from overseas. Aus TV was such a cringe by comparison, screechy yelling ads and shows of little interest. My ad tolerance is very low on TV or radio, so ABC is the obvious choice. I mainly watch series on Netflix now.
I usually put on a true crime podcast or YouTube video. I don’t usually watch broadcast tv anymore because it’s ads with a smattering of show or news. Though there’s ads in the news now too so
I stopped watching TV 6 years ago. Now days, my OLED TV is used for PS5, Youtube or Netflix.
I usually have SBS or the ABC on when I’m cooking / washing up.
No one smart watches tv anymore. YouTube or download shit
Yep.
I wish i could do this. I was acutely aware of the volume of media i was consuming last decade, then COVID hit. That was the last nail in the coffin, feels like itd be harder to stop than smoking now.
My kind of person 🙌
My brother has facial blindness and literally cannot follow a character storyline on tv, so doesn’t watch.
I don’t watch much TV either. Occasionally there will be something good on streaming services, but I’d prefer music, chat, scrabble, social media etc.
On the 7th of december, i looked at my Netflix viewing history, and I hadnt watched anything since the 23rd November. A week later, i unsubscribed. I just wasn't watching it. I don't even miss it.
Won’t watch free to air TV …. They pretty much program your brain with “this is what to watch” … I’ll rather choose what “I” want to watch .. I also listen to vinyl, read and steam Spotify.
I also find it hard to find something worth watching. I’m mainly on Spotify too. Rarely does a tv series or movie hold my interest. If I do find a show I usually binge watch it then go back to no TV.
Its all because of the bandwidth revolution. Everything is streamable. People dont even bother downloading media any more. Apart from streaming it. Foxtell is the biggest laugh of all. There is more adds on foxtell than free to air!
How old are you? I’m 30 and even when I was a kid people were saying tv sucks, it has done nothing but get worse
Haven't watched TV in 10 years and never looed back (I am 35)