I’m in Seattle for the weekend for my cousins wedding. I finished my taxes in an awesome hot dog / coffee shop that I go to everytime I’m there. Taxes were… painful, and more than usual this year. But at least after all that procrastination it’s finally done.

This is the first time I’ve been to Seattle and it’s rained on me, I used to think everyone was crazy talking about how much it rains here. But it hasn’t stopped since I got here yesterday and I guess it’s supposed to keep going until I leave. Don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.

TV To Them

I’m still getting responses to the TV Survey questions, one and two, which is excellent! The more information the better.

Some interesting notes compiled so far…

Advertisements

Many people responded that their favorite commercial on Television right now are the VW GTI commercials, both the “Fast” and “Swede pretending to be a German” version. If asked “Have you seen all of them?”, most people had to search online to know the answer.

The top complaints against Advertisements were:

• Mis-targeted (i.e. showing a Ford F-350 commercial to someone who drives a Toyota Prius)
• Repetative (i.e. showing the same Ford F-350 commercial 4 times or more during a single show or sitting or week)
• Annoying, this often comes out of the repetative viewing of the same ad
• Not entertaining, again probably largely due to the repetativeness, but some just aren’t entertaining even before the 50th time

Types of Programming

TV executives most likely have some other kind of break down for this, but this what I’ve noticed from talking to people.

• TV Shows with Plot (Lost, The Shield, and Battlestar)
• Require attention during the show
• Need to be seen in release order
• Often have forums for related discussion
• Sitcoms (Seinfeld, Will and Grace)
• Order doesn’t really matter, plot is usually contained to single show
• Reality TV Shows (American Idol, Amazing Race)
• Order kind of matters, but is very easy to recap (i.e. they voted off these people, there you’re pretty much caught up on Survivor)
• Can often have forums or fantasy games attached (i.e. Who will be kicked off next? Pick the order…)
• Genre Streams (Genre based Networks like HGTV, Food Network, CNN)
• While these do have individual shows attached, most often are described as good background noise when doing other things
• People half listen to catch events, (like corporate meetings where everyone is on their laptop)
• Sports Games
• Almost always need to be watched Live (experience of watching the game can be ruined by prematurely finding out the final score)
• Fantasy sports and forums are often attached to the game
• Local News
• Evening or morning watchers
• Similar to sports, needs to be live only or else it’s not news anymore

Well I have lots more than that and I observed two of my friends who watched American Idol, so I got some good notes from that as well. Will write it all up later now that my tax troubles are done.

Ok, sorry. I’ve gotten a lot of great responses from people and am trying to keep up with compiling all the information. If you haven’t had the chance to answer the first tv habit questions please do. Mail these along in the same way as the old. I’ll be posting the synopsis of our questions asked and with some breakdowns of information found later in the week.

Again, please copy these questions into an email and send off your answers to me (bclark [at] redhat). Thanks for helping!! Starting off with some general questions I should have asked last time.:

• Broadcast, Cable, Satellite, other? What package (Digital, HBO, Starz)?
• Location? Age? Married / Single / Engaged / Dating / Roommates?
• Setup: TV, Gaming, Home Theater, Home Theater PC (HTPC)?

• What shows do you watch when someone else is in control?
• Maybe not shows you’re embarrassed about, but ones you wouldn’t normally turn on if you had the remote.
• What shows do you usually watch alone?
• What shows do you usually watch with others? Who? Why?

Of the shows you make time for

• Please pick the two you most recently started watching and describe how you got into them

• When do you go to TV Show related sites?
• After, during, or before the show?

• Are there shows you will not watch recorded?
• Why is that?

• Do you watch Live Sports? Which ones?
• When you watch Live Sports, do you use the pause / rewind features of your DVR?
• Do you do your own Instant Replays or wait for network instant replays?
• Do you watch sports at home or at a bar?
• Do you usually watch sports with friends?

• If you download shows off the internet, how do you watch downloaded episodes?
• On your TV or on your Computer or your iPod or Other?

• If you’re recording reruns to catch up on a season of a series, do you watch the re-runs in the order they aired or as you collect them?

Commercials

• What was the last commercial you remember watching?
• Do you have a favorite commercial right now? Which one? Why?
• What’s the worst thing about watching commercials?
• What’s your least liked commercial right now?