XPost: rec.arts.tv, alt.tv.scifi.channel   
   From: sorta@so.so   
      
   Jim Gysin  ::   
   > stuff that the audience is gonna tend to be drawn to is quality stuff,   
      
   Any reason to think this?  The highest-rated shows on SyFy   
   are wrestling and Ghost Hunters.  When the network does show   
   science fiction, numbers show few watch them.  If people   
   have the TV on, they're choosing non-scifi.   
      
   > desire to get 100% of the audience 100% of the time, both   
   > channels would be producing the sort of programming that   
   > the audience wants to see, based on the ratings for various shows.   
      
   I don't see any reason to expect that, and plenty to expect   
   otherwise.  There's only so much audience to go around.  If   
   I don't watch westerns, you can have two networks showing   
   the best the genre has to offer, and it still won't appeal   
   to me.  TV scifi is a genre that plenty of people simply   
   won't watch, and no matter how good the stuff is *for its   
   genre* it's not a genre all that many people choose.   
      
   > Based on the success of SF movies, I believe that a large   
   > part of the reason why there isn't a larger demand for SF   
   > on television is a lack of quality options.   
      
   Totally different thing, movies and TV.  If a   
   twenty-something straight couple goes to the cinema, the man   
   might choose a scifi movie, and the woman might go along for   
   two hours.  There's a lot less "go-along" when you're   
   talking weeks and weeks of a show.  Further, while a fan   
   might not care about special effects, that's what makes most   
   scifi films: "the plot was confusing or trite, the setting   
   unbelievable, but it sure looked good".   
      
   While I might hope for a better science-fiction network, I   
   think it's the nature of the genre that such a TV network   
   can never pull huge numbers.  Nor is it something enough   
   people will pay for enough to become something like HBO.   I   
   don't see the situation getting better in traditional TV   
   ways.  Possibly small, good, cheap, profitable shows could   
   come out of a web background.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)