if there's something that too little people talk about, it is this. It's how companies that stay relatively small manage to communicate effectively because of its size and come out tops, whereas companies that started out small and grow bigger, are not able to do this, and evtually, grow arrogant of their achievements and fall under thier own weight.
I don't know if you get what I mean, but speaking for myself. I see it everywhere. Norton antivirus used to be at the top of thier game with version 2002 onwards, and everyone seemed to love it. Norton grew arrogant, and soon enough, thier antivirus software was labeled as "bloatware" (norton antivirus 2004 slowed down computers to a crawl), simply because Norton took thier success for granted, and didn't really give a damn about how their antivirus software product simply grew out of thier hands over the years. In short, they fell under their own weight. Small companies such as the tiny game developer,
Valve (a company so small, they even lack resources at times), on the other hand, have been incredibly consistent and incredibly successful,
Today, Norton antivirus stands at version 2009. Nearly 6 versions later, users finally are giving positive feedback on how Norton antivirus 2009 is blazing fast compared to it's predecessors, and how it literally runs in the background with almost no performance impact on the computer. I've tried it for myself, and I myself was very pleasantly surprised at how Norton antivirus has come such along way.
Long way it certainly is. It took them 6 versions for the company to finally communicate and really listen to what the feedback was given from the users. But really, does this mean everybody is going to think Norton antivirus is on top of their game again? are they going to be able to dominate the antivirus software market like they used to again? No, I don't think so. That's the destruction caused due to the company falling under its own weight.
I thought this was only applicable to the IT industry. An industry where any company can ship a piece of software within months of it's previous crappy version, and suddenly the software kicks ass again. Less lagg, a killer feature, or an user interface overhaul, anything. Its a very, very fast-paced, changing, and competitive industry. You have to prepare both yourself and your computer for upgrades. Its quite scary actually, when you think about it.
I thought wrong. This is applicable to any, I reapeat, any company or industry, no matter how fast-paced or dynamic it is. All that's neede to realize this, is time. Yes, time. In the IT industry, it is realized faster becasue everything is fast-paced. However, other industries slower, still can suffer the same. Because it is realized slower, the company falling could more detrimental that what it was supposed to be.
Now that things are explained, i'll move on to the purpose of this post: mainstream media falling under its own weight.
In the world of media where things are glam, hip and whatever you call it, following trends is everything. However, setting new trends is even more glam than following them. Inventing and setting new trends is part of innovation, and innovating something successfully is the pinnacle of any company, as it is gaurenteed others would follow the new trend, or whatever it may be. However, trying to set new trends and standards with everything that the company is doing would probably just cause people to think that the company is arrogant, and that they want things done thier own new way. So, striking a balance between following and setting trends is difficult. If done right, rest assured, the company is on its way to the top.
Talking about the local media mainstream industry, Channel 5, and Mediacorp in general, has done this before. They have striked a fantastic balance between following trends, and setting them. There was a time, when Phua Chu Kang's antics on channel 5 were as cool as wearing tight skinny pants, with the show bringing and showcasing an incredible amount of local flavour into our screens at home, and yet, it was honest in doing so, and people thought it was refreshing. The show was successful right up to its very last 6th season, where channel5 themselves would know they would have to let go of the show and come up with a new concept just as good.
Channel5, the channel itself, was doing great. They set a new standard (new trend) in local filmmaking with their local hit series, Phua Chua Kang. They managed to strike a good balance of setting new trends and following them. Channel5 showed some great movies at that time from hollywood, and of course, other drama series from the west. It was so good, that at that time, Channel5 would be awarded the Channel of the year award. Incredible, right?
Mediacorp also set other new standards in local mainstream media, with radio stations like Perfect10 (present day: 987fm) which was essentially, the first 24 hour radio station in singapore. Many other radio stations today have followed the trend, and are all today also spinning hits 24 hours a day. Mediacorp also started a dedicated news channel, with a concept which was almost unheard of at that time: Channel NewsAsia aimed to bring the asian perspective into daily news. It was true innovation, and definitely a new trend worth noticing. Channel NewsAsia differed itself from other news channels by changing the way news was presented, a style which matched with our asian colours and views. It was obvious, Channel NewsAsia was not just another news channel. It isn't surprising to hear that Channel NewsAsia is today broadcast to other asian cities.
I don't know about channel8 and other chinese channels (come on, i'm an indian) but I remember how my sister would hog the TV and how my and my brother would be literally forced to watch what she watched: local chinese drama serials. Soon, even I grew to like them. I enjoyed watching local chinese serials such as HollandV, double happiness, and such.
Mediacorp also launched another interesting platform: Central. Central was natuarally unique in its own way, because of the way the channel would purposely have 3 distinct programming timebelts: Kids Central, Vasantham Central, and Arts Central. It started out slow, but Kids central soon grew and matrued, gaining its own form for itself, eventually becoming the ultimate channel for kids here. Vasantham central, which represents the only local on screen tamil media, improved vastly. Arts central too, matrued and gained its own form, with a incredible collection of carefully chosen programmes and documentaries, Arts central really kickedass.
As far as I can remember, I began paying more attention to Central. Kids central had managed to nurture its own style, together with local "kid celebreties" such as Vignesh and Kim Walkerman. They did a good job coming up with things such as 30 seconds of fame, and the likes. Admit it, there was no other kids channel like Kids Central. For its time, it was good. Really good.
As for vasantham central, my mum would watch it. I personally didn't watch much tamil at that time, because I never found anything interesting on that channel. However, things slowly began to change. I found local indian drama series very interesting, and I began to watch a few. Incredible local indian productions such as the award winning telemovie, "Matchsitck", were all really impressive. Other local drama serials at that time such as "boys" and "guru paarvai" just wowed me. I was impressed. Tamil movies from kollywood also began to churn out a steady rapidfire of mega hit movies, and needless to say, I didn't dread watching tamil anymore.
Arts central represented the tiny community of the arts here. Arts central also broadcasted a very good range of documentaries, and unique series of programmes. It became obvious the programmes on arts central were all carefully chosen and, soon I would watch programes such as Brainiac and documentaries under thier "the human spirit" timebelt. Arts central is also a platform for the Arts, and soon, they started thier project, "Scene in singapore". Scene in singapore allowed arts events to be listed on TV, so that they would get more publicity, given the tiny arts community here. Obviously, Arts central means business.
Overall, central simply only became more successful over time.
All these new standards in new local media were good, for its time. However, screw it. Sadly, it was all downhill from here. Today, Channel5's programs are just western and hollywood ripoffs from other channels with absoulutely no (i repeat, NO) local flavour in it. They just spam all the englishman shit. Movies from hollywood everyfuckingday, and drama serial spam:
Ugly Betty
(OVERRATED IMHO)
Terminator: the sarah conor chronicles
(I didn't understand any sht lol)
Supernatural
(never watched it)
House
(Grey's Anatomy ripoff. And that guy is a disgusting doctor.)
Prison Break
(no idea.)
Heroes
(fck this show, any idiot can wake up in the morning and start writing about people with superpowers. WOW)
Lost
(fck this show too, it wasted my time. They ended season4 with "so, you guys can help us get off this island?" and the reply was "hell yeah we can!"...but the show continued for a 5th season. I got pissed, and I didn't bother watching it anymore. The show simply lost its flavour. GAY AS HELL)
Grey's anatomy - okay
Desperate Housewives - fuk pro
Samantha Who? - quite pro
Pushing Daisies - fuking pro
Reaper - somewhere above noob
...and the list goes on. To be honest, some on this list are simply not worth watching at all. Its funny, how Arts central manages to choose its programs so carefully while channel5 just follows trends and rip everything off other channels.
How bout the even crappier gameshows made today? Stuff like "Ninja Warrior" and "I survived a japanese gameshow" are all just...urrgh. Nice work, following the trend. Now get aids and die.
Their "come home to 5" campaign to promote the channel is absoulute crap, and I personally get easily annoyed by watching all the celebrities doing lame stuff in pretty places, with Hadi Mirza trying too hard to be cool singing in the background:
I'm Coming Back Home
I'm Coming Back Home
To 5
I'm Coming Back Home to 5
Come Home to 5
Its a complete waste of airtime. I can't believe how poorly written it is, but that might be their intention of a having a simple, tasteful jingle for the channel asdwasdf. It may be a nice song, but IT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE CHANNEL FUK
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987fm plays gay music all the time, thanks to emo singaporens requesting breakup songs all the time from bands which have cute guys for lead singers. These emo songs are popular here, but they are NOT fucking hits. Not at all. The deejays on air are becoming incredibly lame, and some, horny. I listen to radio mostly for the songs, but its kinda hard when the deejay talks crap and kinda pisses their listeners off, doncha think?
I never, ever, ever watch Channel newsasia unless i'm seriously drop dead desperate for looking up the lastest news or something, and their "asian perspective" infomercials are all epic fail. Maybe when I grow up and when the day comes where the market numbers could mean if or not I would become depressed and commit scuicide the very next day, I probably am not going to even touch CNA at all. Channel NewsAsia do documentaries too, but Arts central does it better. Wtf.
The indian community here is certainly growing to make its mark, and we're surely more than just a minority today. Being this, Vasantham central took over Central's broadcast frequency to become a full-fledged channel of its own. Sure, it starts daily only at 3pm on weekdays, but really, who the hell watches before 3pm on weekdays? Its a smart move, and certainly well thought of. Vasantham Central, today, is simply Vasantham. It is has only gotten better. As a matter of fact, I think its the best channel! Vasantham is unique in a way because its the only tamil channel here, it has to cater to all our viewing needs. What you get is a channel which has infortainment, edutainment, and entertainment all balanced out very nicely altogether (channel5 caters only to entertainment. You gotta GTFO to Channel NewsAsia for edutainment/infortainment, but again, thier asian perspectives are fail.)
At the risk of sounding like i'm promoting the channel, Vastantham really listens to their viewers. There was even a special show which showed celebrities from the local tamil media scene walking around little india asking viewers what they expect from the new Vastantham. Incredible, no other channel has ever done this before. They even took in the request of repeating the tamil news at 11.00PM. The news is now broadcast at 8.00PM and 11.00PM. What more do I have to say?
Entertainment-wise, Vasantham is not anything like Channel5. Unlike Channel5 which rips off shows off other places, Vastantham actually makes most of their shows themselves. Easily, i'd say 95% of the shows shown on Vasantham are all local productions (Channel5 is the complete fucking opposite, 95% of its shows are all non-local productions). If the show on vastantham has subtitles, i'd recommend you check it out. All of these shows made locally are incredible.
These local productions include infortainment and edutainment, as mentioned earlier. As I flick through the channels and discover that NONE of the english channels have nothing fucking worth watching, i'd discover that Vasantham, would have something nice on, most of the time. I ended up watching a show called "This is our story" on Vastantham, which essentially is debating show. They get people relevant to the topic of the day, and debate away! Typical topics they debate about are such as, the rising costs of living, changes to the primary school education, today's parenting changes, and even how to help gamblers. Face it, there is absouloutely no other program on any of the english channels here that rivals this. The closest you will get to this debate show on Vasantham is the show Talking Point on Channel NewsAsia. Which is crap, trust me. While "This is our story" on Vastantham gets people relevant to the topic to debate about on TV (and they do a good job talking about it), Channel NewsAsia's Talking Point gets people who literally back out of the debate/talk. Their debates can become really bad easily, and they don't even come close to rival "This is our story". To top it all off, Talking Point debates the topic with 4 people, 2 of them hosts, asking questions and listenting. Vasantham's "This is our story" has one host, who isn't seated, standing in the middle of a circle of around 7-10 people. Debating, on TV. That pwns talking point, which can't even seem to manage 2 "special guests".
Vasantham has moar. There is another show, which also talks about today's issues, only this time, the talk is with the viewers. The viewers can call the show up, and talk to the 2 people in the studio. One of them, the host, the other, the guest relevant to the topic. The most recent show had a counsellor from the salvation army, and the topic was about "Teenagers who take the wrong path, and how to help them". One of the callers on the show was a teenager herself, who said couselling didn't help her. I can't remember what the answer the Counsellor on TV gave though. Another caller was an adult, who said her neighbour's kids were having issues with the parents, and asking how she could help. Too bad, I don't remember what the reply was.
Point is, there is nothing like this on the english channels on TV that can possibly come close to rival these infotainment/edutainment programmes. So, okto live's 3G video calls can go and fuck themselves, because Vasantham pwnd thier asses with regular voice calls. Newer isn't better.
Talking about okto, okto is yet another huge failiure. Although Vasantham took over central's broadcast frequency, Kids central and Arts central could have simply just moved. BUT NO.
So, today, we have okto. It isn't kids central, niether is it arts central. It's a odd mix of both, and that's the annoying part, especially since the two channels were good on thier own. They say the name "okto" was chosen because it appeals to both adults and kids. Riiggghhhtt....get out.
Today's worst shows are all on okto. My classmate dad, Cosmo and George, GX5, and all the other local shit that kids central brought over. It's fucked up. They did a good job of adding better shows like Avatar, and people seem to like ben10, but I still think there are more bad shows than good on okto. its fail. Have I whined about how weird and incomplete oktolive is? Don't get me started.
What's even more annoying is that arts central and kids central are not actually merged yet. Yeah, although they both are collectively merged as okto now, they are actually still sperate. They distinctly sperated kids central and arts central as "oktoday" and "oktonight", which is annoying. If the two channels were to be still seperated so distinctly even after "merging", then what exactly is okto?
F-A-I-L.
It was my fear that after arts central became okto, it would not be so awesome anymore. Actually, oktonite (it really is arts central) still kicks ass. I watch MythBusters and Retro night on oktonite. Thank god arts central is still awesome (with a not-so-awesome name).
Before I end, i'll apologize if you thought reading this blogpost was a waste of your time. I just feel that these few days, as I flick through the channels, there's always nothing interesting to watch. Then, I when lie on my bed to listen to radio, they're always cracking lame jokes and playing emo songs!
I also apologize if you think my blogposts are too long. It's my bad, really. I can't seem to help it!
one final thing before I end:
Red thread is a new drama series coming to channel5 this april. This is the trailer, if you haven't seen it on TV yet. To begin with, I was completely disgusted by it. Which is why its part of this blgopost. I'm not too keen on watching it, but hey, it might be more of a keeper than a looker. This stupid series seem to be focused wayyy too much on form, that the horrible concept of it comes through really easily. I pray it doesn't dissapoint. Local content on TV, with the exception of Vasantham, is currently a complete disaster.
anyways, valentine's coming, and happy valentine's day, even if you're lonely and not exactly celebrating, like me. FEEL THE LOVE BITCHES!!!!1
