• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 23, 2008

To some TV pressure groups, we are a society growing indecent, filled with raw images of stripper clubs, foul language, and whipped cream over strategic body parts.

Yet why do TV ratings keep falling for specific TV shows?  Perhaps people are tuning out anyway.

At the same time, there is growing dissatisfaction , not the least of which is how TV is delivered. The majority of TV viewers, who get their TV stations and network through local cable systems, are increasingly dissatisfied with the service.

The crux of this research, recently put together by Parks Associates, says giving consumers more Video On Demand services would improve these results.  What does all this mean?  Giving viewers more individual control is good.

Control is what organizations like the Parents Television Council want as well, even as it bashes specific broadcast shows that may offer up brief scenes in a strip club.  But the group's definition of control isn't targeted to a specific person. It wants a blanket ban.

Even senior media company executives may from time to time agree with the PTC. "I'll admit some of the content we are defending is not particularly tasteful: the expletives, the brief nudity, the carefully placed whipped cream and, of course, the pixels," Peter Chernin, president/COO of News Corp., said recently. "I would not have allowed my own children, when they were younger, to watch some of these shows."

No matter. Not when possible censorship is on the loose, he says. This takes precedence over any possible indiscretion. Looking at Chernin's comments closely, they are about what HE would do concerning his children's viewing habits, which may not be the case for everyone else.

So what do we have here? Some TV viewers are miserable about certain racy content; many more TV viewers are fed-up with most prime-time TV overall; and virtually all TV viewers are unhappy with their cable operator.

I'd start at the bottom and work my way up. But that's just for me.   ;