Open letter to the Sci-Fi channel
Posted 11 June 09 by Scott AndrewsDear UK Sci-Fi Channel
I’ve just discovered that the episodes of Dollhouse you’re showing have been cut to fit the timeslot.
Given that, in the current market, you are competing directly with illegal downloads of uncut eps from the US, and trying to attract viewers who might otherwise choose to wait for ad-free DVD releases, I find your decision to screen bastardised episodes incomprehensible and self-defeating.
Your network and its programming was one of the major factors that led me to subscribe to Sky. Now I’ve one more reason to cancel that sub when it runs out.
You need to be smarter in order to survive, and the only way for you to do that is to provide a superior service.
This means, I would suggest, firstly, screening uncut episodes; and secondly, placing your ad breaks in the same places as the original US ad breaks, thus preserving the narrative as originally intended.
Misplacing the ad breaks means I record and watch later – this robs you of ad revenue, as I don’t watch the ads. Cutting the eps loses me entirely.
Given the new business model that Fox seems to have adopted regarding Dollhouse, I now know that buying the DVD directly increases the chances of the show being recommissioned. This allows me, as a consumer, to directly support the show without watching it on broadcast, something that was hitherto not the case.
This is a pretty huge paradigm shift in the way TV business is conducted, and serves to make you even more irrelevant.
So I shall wait for the DVD and won’t be watching Sci-Fi again. This is a shame for you, as I’m slap-bang in the middle of your demographic, which makes me the type of consumer you can least afford to have alienated. And believe me, if I’ve reached this conclusion, many of my peers have too.
You can’t afford to be treating viewers with such contempt; there are simply too many other ways for them to get the content they want.
The market is leaving you behind, and you seem to be colluding in your own extinction. Why?
Scott Andrews
Comment
- Ahh the bitterness of the sci-fi fan! i know it all too well, and i agree with you. Do these people not know their target market?
We are the type of people who will go out and spend the ludicrous amounts of our hard earned money on the things that can sedate our geeky lust! Hence forbidden planet!
So Mr andrews i stand up and tip my stormtrooper helmet to you and say yes! I too get annoyed when TV episodes are cut! (my latest VEX being the fact Sky 1 stopped Fringe halfway through!)
— Ross Willson Jun 11, 10:02am #
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