JMS babylon 5 producer - "you should buy tv shows"

[theaveng]

I just don't like the idea of having to pay $200-250 for BBC-tax. I'm a cheapassgamer, and I try to avoid spending money. I prefer the US/Canadian method where tv is free (and rich corporations pay the bill). I like to keep my money in my pocket.

 

Yeah we have about ~15 minutes of commercials in each hour, but commercials are easily ignored (press the fast-forward button -or- go to the bathroom) and worth saving $250 a year.

 

 

 

BTW since we're discussing the BBC, do they have any good shows worth $300 a year? The shows I've seen like Are you getting Served, As Time Goes By, Keeping up Appearances, Ab-Fab..... well, I would never watch them again.

 

troy

[S0V13T]

Two words: Coronation Street.

[Soulreaper]

I think people should try to think more about the artists and not just 'download' because ' I want it, I don't want to to be illegal, therefor it isn't ' .

 

For me myself, if I download LOST or TREK, it's exactly like making a 'video' recording since they go on cable which I have anyway, it's just a bit more convenient this way and since we pay for cable here, it's all *fair* at least in a sense. To my defense for other things, I mainly download things I already have, have had or will buy - so far, I've bought all I've been wanting to keep or watch, CDs, DVDs. etc.

 

Still the prices are high and the major corporations are bad yadda yadda, and yes there should be some changes in the biz and make it all more fair and square, especially for the artists - being an artist I understand.

 

Now if all the 'nerds' out there have such a hard time letting go of cash, why not try to develop something together that can CHANGE the business.

 

Put some heads together!

[drken]

Doesn't a producer get a lot more than the writters and actors from DVD sales? I think JMS is worried about his own pocketbook, which will be affected a lot more is DVD sales drop. Not that I have anything against him. He fronted the money to make the series and now he is expecting his return on it. When people started talking ethiclly their usualy tring to hide an alterior motive. Face it, we are all amoralists. If I was in his position I'd say the same thing.

 

Anyway, I've talked to starring actors from Babylon 5 who say the royalties are so small it's a joke, and most of them are more worried about finding work and cursing the contracts they signed than scrapping the pennies together they might lose.

[theaveng]

I asked JMS one time, "How much do you get from DVD sales?" and he replied, "Almost nothing."

 

I think he makes his money off the books & collectibles. If you re-read his post, you'll see he's mainly concerned about the *other* writers who are just scraping by, not the top 2%.

 

troy

[Soulreaper]

By the way, when it comes to artists and all kinds of artistry, MOST of 'us' or 'them' do it for the art of it, money is a bonus - or a recipie on how good you were; for instance, people like me and Fenriswolf are mainly concerned about at least being able to work with your art and live an ok life while paying bills, we're not in to make billions of dollars - it's ARTISTRY. Some may want to debate this, but there are different levels of artistry as well... some might be called 'fake-artists-all-in-for-the-Hollywoodpromise' and we're NOT part of that category as it is for the art and the love it, not something as simple and obscure as money.

 

So for the working artist it's about being able to do what you do and be able to have a life while doing it. For instance, my bassbuilder Chris Stambaugh is one of the best in the business yet he charges about 1/3 of what others do - he's not rich nor famous as such, yet he's doing precisly as good as he wishes to - sometimes I wonder how he manages to stay afloat at all - but that aside, those of us 'real' artists out there are no fakers or wannabe's so don't try to excuse ALL downloading with the badcorporations chat. - Just making a point or a second one.

 

[EDIT]: Most of the problems with *downloading* hit the big bad guys anyway so there's no love lost there, however still some of the decent people also get a slap in the face and that's something they don't deserve.

Another problem is that all the kids being brought up with the wrong or rather misplaced values who *think* it's all ok to just download and share without thinking or understanding the consequences of it for the unlucky ones. Lastly to a degree, my favoured market - namely UNDERGROUND, is rather spared from the abuse of downloading and one of the odd places where filesharing actually is BENEFICIAL instead of the other way around. So in closing I just want to implore that people THINK a bit that's all.

 

Cheers

[Ulysses]

I just don't like the idea of having to pay $200-250 for BBC-tax. I'm a cheapassgamer, and I try to avoid spending money. I prefer the US/Canadian method where tv is free (and rich corporations pay the bill). I like to keep my money in my pocket.

 

Yeah we have about ~15 minutes of commercials in each hour, but commercials are easily ignored (press the fast-forward button -or- go to the bathroom) and worth saving $250 a year.

 

 

 

BTW since we're discussing the BBC, do they have any good shows worth $300 a year? The shows I've seen like Are you getting Served, As Time Goes By, Keeping up Appearances, Ab-Fab..... well, I would never watch them again.

 

troy

 

its actually $200 a year and the shows you have quoted are actually all old series that are hardly shown on the bbc now, it is also liberating to know when your watching a show or film you aint gonna get shed loads of crappy adverts, i was watching the Grand Prix last weekend on ITV, boy adverts every 10 minutes it gets on your nerves when a important part of the race is missed due to being away with crappy adverts.

 

The BBC do offer some very good shows ranging from world class documentries on nature (planet earth), DR WHO, men behaving badly, live football, etc etc.

 

To be honest you cant really comment on what they show as you hardly watch it and the BBC cater for British viewers as our taste in TV could be different to yours (example british comedys tend to be to us more funny than american made comedys).

 

 

[theaveng]

re: the BBC tax. Figure the average person earns ~$8/hour. So that person has to work 25-30 extra hours each year, to pay their $200 tv tax.

 

Is it worth the effort of *25-30 hours* of extra work, just so you can have 1 commercial-free channel? IMHO, it is not. I'd rather spend that time watching 25-30 hours of free tv, even if there are commercials sprinkled throughout. Let the rich people (corporations) support my entertainment & give it to me for FREE.

 

 

 

 

I guess it's a matter of what you're used to. Growing up in America/Canada, I saw commercials from day 1. As a result, I think commercails are "no big deal". I don't understand why people hate them so much??? They are extremely-easy to ignore & they provide the benefit of free tv.

 

troy

[queenhank]

I find some commercials quite enjoyable, actually.

 

As to the why of downloading instead of buying, I do it because I can't afford to buy DVD box sets. I don't really see buying them as paying for the content, but rather the quality and extras. Now, if they'd switch to a more reasonable format than DVD for TV shows, it'd be a lot better. I can see plunking down 30 bucks for a movie, but for a fourth of a season of a TV show? That's outrageous. Hell, it'd be cheaper if they sold TV shows on 200gig external hard drives! I can get one of those for 120 bucks, and if they sold 200gigs worth of DVD quality TV for, say, 200 bucks per, then they'd be making a hell of a lot of money, and still be putting out a cheaper product! (Anybody care to do the math and see if I'm right? I was guestimating.)

 

Of course, it'd be far easier for each production company to just have a website for the legal, paid download of their shows/movies, at a reasonable price. I mean, would it be that hard to pay 2 dollars for an episode of Trek, in DVD quality?

 

Back to my point: if it were affordable, I would purchase the TV shows and movies, instead of downloading them from here.