Peak TV: what's the problem with having so many shows?

With a host of great television shows available on subscription channels, on-demand and streaming services, some commentators are wondering whether the airwaves are saturated. Is there too much out there - and if so, is it a problem?

"How much TV is too much TV?" asks Cynthia Littleton in Variety. It's a question asked this week by a group of senior network and studio execs at NATPE, a US industry conference in Miami.

Panellists agreed that with more than 400-scripted new shows produced in 2015, there are greater choices than ever for consumers, which is good for business overall, says Littleton. However, many industry figures felt making money from selling the rights to a series has become more complicated because the market is fragmented.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But, the journalists adds, as one panellist noted, it's only the executives that are worried about the spike in programming: "In a country of 350 million-plus viewers and 100 million-plus TV households, 400-plus shows doesn't seem like overkill."

Lionsgate TV Group president Sandra Stern dismissed the notion of "peak TV", reports the Hollywood Reporter. We've reached "a niche period" where viewers have "favourite shows", she says, and unless something is somebody's favourite, it's not going to survive. "The market is going to take care of the saturation," she adds.

Yet it is also a problem for viewers because "the more good TV one watches, the harder it is for any one show to seem good", says Margaret Lyons on Vulture.

It's the same with anything else, she adds - clothes have to be luxe, food has to be gourmet, "high-end stops becoming a distinguishing feature and starts becoming a constant companion".

There's another big problem with the "the age of glut TV", suggests Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone - there will not be enough hours to watch all the programmes you want, even "if you give each of your eyeballs its own screen".

It's altering our psyche and our lives, he argues. You can no longer rely on idle TV chit-chat to break the ice or give your friends the speech about this "amazing new show they need to watch, right now, seriously, now", he says. "Your friends will nod politely and lie to your face because they're already overpromised and overbooked."

Whichever way your taste leans, there's more good stuff aimed at you than you have time to sample, so you are missing out, Sheffield adds. There's too much prestige serial drama, too much zany stoner comedies, too much reality slap-and-cry-fest action, too much everything and "no matter what you like, you're shamefully behind schedule" and you're letting people down.

You will die before you catch up, he concludes. "Your final seconds on earth will be spent pleading, 'But I promised my mom I'd check out Outlander!'"