His solution is to give the shows away for free, without any restrictions, with minimal advertising before and after the show, and all money being made my merchandizing? Sorry, but that just won't work.

That's pretty much what I thought when I read TFA.

It's pure drivel, and it would do nothing to create better shows and keep them on the air. Other than giving it away DRM free, I'm not sure of WTF it would accomplish.

You want to know how to make better shows? Copy what HBO is doing -- make good programming, with good scripts and not pandering to the "prime time" audience or worrying about adult-themed content. Wait for the other networks to want to syndicate your critically acclaimed show. Watch the money roll in, and use some of that to bankroll more good shows.

I think a pretty good chunk of the really good TV I remember from the last decade is attributable to HBO. And, even the stuff I didn't/don't watch I've likely heard of.

As to the quality of BSG, can't say. Never got into the show; not even a little. I remember the original series, and, frankly, I didn't care enough to care.

Seriously, most of the stuff the show is crap-and-drivel. Caprica seemed better than average there, which is probably why they canceled it, they only want to show garbage.

The qualitative assessment aside, that's probably about right. That is to say, the problem is quite likely that (as was the case with Firefly, the Babylon 5 spinoff crusade, and quite possibly Babylon 5 itself in its first home, among many, many other series) its not just the ratings of the show that matter, its how good the show is at bringing in audience members that will stay for the rest of the programming the network has to offer. I think its difficult to get enough solid scifi to support a network, and the kind of "scifi" you can get for filler doesn't make a good mix that keeps people on your network when mixed with good scifi. So good scifi shows are, generally, are hard fit for network TV. ("Good", of course, is subjective, but I think with the references to other shows here and in context of this discussion, and on Slashdot, I think the kind of thing I'm talking about in general is, clear enough.)

If a show is perceived as great by a group of people that see the rest of the networks offerings as "garbage" (and not liked by the people that like the rest of the offerings on the network), then it doesn't, in the end, do as much for a network whose revenue is driven principally by advertising as a show that is somewhat less well-received on its own by which reinforces the rest of the networks lineup.

This is not the case on premium networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.), which is one reason that shows that appeal strongly to a particular, often fairly narrow, audience but that don't necessarily appeal to the same people as other shows on the network work better there.

Unfortunately for scifi fans, none of the premium networks, despite plenty of non-mainstream series, have been particularly big on scifi series of any kind so far. But maybe those networks (perhaps rightly) don't think that the people that would be willing to pay for premium networks in any case include enough scifi fans for that to be worthwhile.

Be glad you didn't fork out $400 cash monies for the Blu-Ray BSG box set... That motherfucker put "artistic grit" on the entire picture for the entire series. It was like watching it with a bad reception on an analog TV in 1985. I called UHE to complain, and they informed me that the grit filter was added to "preserve Ronald D. Moore's artistic integrity".

I asked for a refund which they, and Best Buy, kindly denied me.

So, I pirated the 720p HDTV rips which IMHO did not contain these visual artifacts. Fuck you Universal, and Ron Moore too!

What hurt Caprica even more (having just seen some of the season 1.5 episodes) is that information needed to watch an episode is found in earlier episodes of the season. In other words, it is very much a serial where the whole season tells the story and not just one part. The problem with a series of that nature is that it sort of pushes away new viewers who don't have access to the first episode.

I thought the series was extremely well done, but it was very dark and in some ways very disturbing as well. Much of the first half-season dealt with virtual reality and MMORPGs in a way that I have never seen dealt with by a major media outlet before. The show's producers "get" what it is like to play in an MMORPG and if you want to see what one might be like in a couple hundred years, Caprica has a very good example of one that Zoe Greystone plays in. Then again, it also captures the MMORPG experience by having a bunch of kids playing around in a virtual environment where the parents don't know what the heck their kids are up to other than "playing with computers".

The second half-season deals more with the "STO", which is an Al-Queida-like terrorist organization which foreshadows the rise of the Cylons and goes into depth of how that organization is put together. Again, this is something that is certainly part of the backstory of Battlestar Galactica and being brought forward, but isn't easy for people to watch or the complex interplay between religions, where most normal "colonists" are polytheistic and the terrorist organization uses a monotheistic approach that echos Islam but isn't quite that either. Many people don't want to have religion crammed down their throats in this fashion, especially when it might be pointing out that their own religion could be just as corrupted.

>>>>>"Episodes offered via this medium should display no interstitial advertising. Ads should only appear just prior to and just after an episode plays."
>>
>>Already the way it's done.

Not quite true. NBC.com, Syfy.com, and hulu.com insert either 1 or 2 ads at every standard commercial break. The writer is saying they should stop doing that, and just play the episode straight through w/o interruption.

No, no I did not.

I watch the ads at the end of TED [youtube.com] talks. I even spent an evening reading about metallurgy after watching an "how it's made" ad about watches. Learned a lot about exotic steel alloys. Fascinating stuff. If I ever feel like dropping a few grand on a watch, I know what brand I'll shop for first.