Do you feel disenchanted with TV?

A new survey claims TV viewers feel disenchanted with the medium and find ad breaks an annoyance. And it's programmes, not channels, that keep viewers coming back for more.

However, it's not all doom and gloom, with many young people now accessing programmes through their mobile phones and other devices so broadcasters still have much to feel optimistic about as they face the future.

Have you started watching less TV? Are you loyal to channels or programmes and have you started watching TV through devices other than your bog standard TV? Let us know ...

I've watched TV on my laptop but I haven't gone any further than that.

No, I'm not loyal to TV channels. I wouldn't sit watching a cr@p show on ITV while something really good was playing on Channel 4 for example. Why would you? You don't owe broadcasters your loyalty. If they play boring shows, then your not going to sit there watching them, wasting your time.

I guess I am loyal to TV programmes. But I don't think 'loyalty' is the correct word. I think you keep going back to a show because you enjoy watching it and that's as far as it goes. If the show stops being entertaining then naturally you'd switch over to something else. 

It's a cut-throat world out there! 

I watch programmes because they're good, simple as that. But, having said that I never normally even look at ITV or Five (as they generally seem to show complete tosh and they're not on my 'favourites' flick-through list) - so I guess that is a kind of channel loyalty to BBC and C4.

Also, while I think software like the iPlayer is great, I would never go that step further and watch TV on my mobile. Why on earth would you want to squint at a tiny 3inch screen when you can just wait & watch it at home, in HD, on an enormous screen with surround sound. Are we really in that much of a rush that we have to see it now now now?

Bad scheduling is my biggest gripe about TV these days. Entourage - midnight ITV2. Great show but why bother if you don't give anyone a chance to watch it at a normal hour. Pushing Daisies - Saturday night is wrong wrong wrong. Midweek at 9pm is sensible. Match of the Day - Saturday night when many football fans are out socialising and then repeated early Sunday morning. The only people up to watch it on Sunday are those that went to bed early enough to catch it the previous evening. I could go on.

Scheduling is not even an issue anymore. Other than the odd footie match there is nothing i want to watch live. Everything else is recorded on Sky +, which means in essence that multiple TV channels that i might sample content from become increasingly less relevant as brands.

While some channels i have a really good impression of, and feel for them, some i don't. That is certainly the case and if it wasn't for House and Sunday/Monday Night Baseball I wouldn't ever see it.

Sadly not everyone in the UK has a Sky + box. What about the elderly and low income viewers? And scheduling is still important in terms building audiences, channel identities, programmes like the news etc etc

That ads are needed to support programmes being made is a given, most viewers know a transaction is being made and are happy to go along with it providing the ads don't become excessive.

It's the frequency of them that's the problem, the way they completely break up the flow of that programme you're completely engrossed in, or worse, when it's a sporting event you actually miss some of the action! Satellite channels are the worse offenders for this no question...

Hello Brand Republicans btw :)

I watch many programmes on demand these days via the internet. There are a few serials I follow but I never manage to watch them all  at the desegnated time so I'll download them and watch them when it's convenient for me.

Have to say though the quality of some of the downloads leave a lot to be desired (especially the first Shamless series on 4OD) is this on purpose?

Hello Alex :-)  !

Hello Susan,

For what it's worth, ITV Wales is just as pants as its other regional counterparts. As for S4C, Pobol y Cwm has definitely gone downhill since my student days tsk.

There are a few specialist digital channels that still make watching TV worthwhile. The terrestrial channels haven't improved the quality of their content much in the past few decades, but the channels that cater for niche audiences with special interests are a great refuge. Long live Horse & Country TV - I don't mind sitting through a few ads for Chudley's dog food if they support programming for horse riders.

Who needs ad breaks when you've got Sky+?

who needs SKY+ when you can read a book?

Hello Alex!

Errr maybe when you get tired of reading. Just a guess.

Errr maybe when you get tired of reading. Just a guess.