The household trend of watching less terrestrial TV continues to grow. Apart from the odd bit of Film4, I can’t remember the last time we planned to watch a ‘live’ terrestrial TV programme. Not that we record terrestrial TV either (because we don’t, obviously). We also don’t watch terrestrial TV catch-up services.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon and Netflix are our main ‘TV’ providers, but creeping up on the frontrunners is YouTube.
For example…
I watch the weekly Foxes Afloat channel; their productions are an informative glimpse into another world (living on and cruising around in a narrowboat). The quality of their videos is fantastic.
Still on the water, but a world away from Britain’s inland waterways, the Sailing Uma channel is on my ‘must watch’ list. Kika and Dan’s videos cover more than just sailing a yacht around the world; they take on some formidable DIY tasks. They have gutted, redesigned and rebuilt Uma, stripped out the diesel engine and replaced it with an electric one, and redesigned the boat’s electrical and sail-handling systems. Once again the quality of their productions is exemplary. Kika and Dan are currently inside the Arctic Circle, which brings a whole load of new challenges for them to overcome.
I have just discovered Eric Aanderaa. A singlehanded offshore sailor, Eric is a hardcore Viking, sailing the North Sea. I found him accidentally, and am currently watching him sail from Shetland to the Faroe Isles. Eric looks like a formidable person, and I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.
Back on terrestrial, I have accidentally caught a little of the 1970s TV series UFO, currently enjoying a run on the Horror Channel. The series hasn’t aged too well, but it still retains a little of the Gerry Anderson/C21 charm.
But, you know what’s missing from all this?
BBC, ITV, and C4.
I wonder if we’re trend-setters?
I think there is a trend toward such viewing.
We watch a lot of Netflix (I keep forgetting that we also have Amazon and Disney+ and I haven’t watched anything on there for months), but I still find plenty of watchable stuff on satellite and terrestrial.
Don’t watch anything ‘live’ anymore… except the news, sometimes.
And the YouTube ‘sidebar of time-wasting’, has led me to several documentaries that pander to my tastes and cause me to spend even more time in front of this damn computer!