Doing it for themselves

A few days ago, the chatroom was honoured by the presence of the man from the inside. And we got to hear the reasoning behind these late-night theater experiences. Of course, the reason given, as if often the case, is only part of the picture and whether by accident or design more has been revealed.

I will present you with two short clips. In the first you hear the words spoken by Safo who goes at length to explain that the team wanted to do something different. To change the routine. To amuse themselves. And invite comments or criticisms.

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Yet, as the second clip shows, this reason hides the commercial logic to these shows. What you see here is a direct comparison between the sequence that immediately follows the words with the Astra version on the left of the screen to the Hotbird version(recorded the following day) on the right. It had already been revealed where these shows were targeted but we could now see the channel name where, unless I am much mistaken,they have been broadcast. Indeed the timings of the broadcasts match those of a late night program scheduled for which very little detail has been forthcoming.

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I do not want to pass too much comment about the actual performances - only after scratching my head for several days and fast reading through various classic texts have I realised the inspirational source of the drama - yet I wonder what this new frontier for ETV thought of it all. A frontier with such a small potential audience which would mean a very small financial return for all that effort and assumed expense. So yes, to a degree, they have been doing this for themselves.

But I must also ask if it really was neccessary to broadcast all of these shows on both satellites. Both had already seen what was effectively the 'director's cut' or a full un-dress rehearsal. What has followed are practically 'special' editions with additional scenes but still the same overall theme.

And I doubt whether many of the normal paying customer were actually impressed and were thus denied many hours of normal viewing. After all, all normal Hotbird phone numbers were suppressed and the models who you could now see in the wings did not look terribly busy. So I, maybe incorrectly, assume there was little phone income or standard SMS's/VIPs during these hours. So yes, to a further degree, they have been doing this for themselves.

Programming may now return to some 'normality'. But reading the thoughts of the man from the inside, he is looking for a new form of interactive tv. A form which does not reply upon the old cliche of 'Talent & Ability'. So, in future, we may see more talent. We may see more ability. This new form may not please the, clearly stated, minority that frequent these pages but as he said our comments are largely insignificant. It's the opinion of those that really contribute that matter so that in future they will not be doing these for themselves.

I think who said in the chatroom there was no payout told us the truth, italian sms costed just 1€, and mobile operators didn't want increase the charge (of course fear of a telecom authority intervention) .

Add that the same telecom autorithy (as I already wrote many times) will disable 899 numbers by default since the 1st of october, and sure this will get much less calls from my country (how many people would request to their telephone operator to enable 899 numbers? not many I suppose). So i think HvB is right, Italy is not so profitable as in the past.

I just ask to myself what will be next step. Margo has a little child and Aria is pregnant, please don't fire them. :))) (Gin and Jasmine already fired? And what about Spirit?)

In the last year, ETV is: no shows, sad girls.

Dream screens is: avant-garde performance of erotic theatre from molvanian school of visual arts with very motivated girls.

My humble suggestion for ETV team: is it possible to choose a middle course, a compromise?

We're sure missing lots of information about their plans, but still, I just don't get any of the stuff that's happening lately...

They would certainly make an interesting study case for any business school.

I don't buy that doing it for themselfes bit.

As you know very well yourself the channel broadcasting it is part of a chain covering large parts of eastern Europe. So I assume that this is the new market etv is going to target in the future. I don't think that it is pure incident, that the Italian SMS service was dropped at nearly the same time. And the reasoning giving in that chat ("who needs italian sms :) the payout is not good") in combination with the reasoning for those special shows ("we just want to have fun, to amuse ourselves") doesn't make sense. For me this sounds like a move towards the east.