"Television at an End"--the result of insufficent advertizement

Stevenson, Seth "Is Television Over." Slate. 13 Sep. 2009.http://www.slate.com/id/2224464/pagenum/all/#p2

Television is a large source of entertainment in our society. What is it that everyone will do when there is nothing to do? Sit down on the couch flip through channels and watch brain melting shows with no point and little appeal. This is what has happened to television viewing with our generation. There are very few shows that actually grab the viewer’s attention. This popularity is a necessity in television shows in order to make money. If a television show is popular then it is more widely viewed by the public at any given time. This viewer number is what gets advertisers interested. The more viewers the more people will see their advertisements and the more these advertisements will cost. This is the reason that advertisements in the Super Bowl are upwards of $4 million, people will see the ads, see the product, and hopefully want to buy it. Our nation is viewing less and less of the same broadcasts on television so advertisements are striking fewer eyes. As our nation views more various television broadcasts the advertisement will change from all shows to the popular ones. This absence of advertisement will cause budget cuts in the less popular television broadcasts resulting in poor quality, fewer viewers and a termination of that show. This will lead viewers to find different forms of entertainment, and advertizing to find that form of entertainment as well. This could be the end of television.

I think that this article has a very valid point. Our nation watches fewer and fewer of the same shows, so advertisement is not getting the publicity that it would hope for. Television is run by the advertisers and advertisers are run by the people. If television does not have the necessary numbers of people then advertizing will eventually pull out and find some other form of advertisement that will get more people's attention. This will lead to funding problems and poor quality in TV programming. As our nation diversifies in interest of entertainment, ironically entertainment will diminish, leaving us without the television that we hold so dearly to our hearts.