Why is Christmas TV so shit nowadays?

[YourMotherSortsSocksInHell]

We're currently watching Raiders of the Lost Ark for the zillionth time and it's one of the newer offerings, Dad's Army, anyone?

Once upon a time you would get a relatively new blockbuster at Christmas (I seem to remember is was a big deal when ROTLA was first shown at Christmas around 40 years ago).

OK, the times when you had to wait 3 years after cinema release to get a film on the telly are long gone but come on.

Right now;

BBC1 - Shaun the Sheep
BBC2 - Dad's Army (1975)
ITV - ROTLA (1981)
C4 - The Snowman (1990ish) followed by Home Alone 2 (1992).
C5 - Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).
ITV2 - Mrs Doubtfire (1993)
ITV3 - Carry on Camping (1969)
ITV4 - Battle of the Bulge (1965) followed by Force 10 From fucking Navarone (1975)

The rest of the schedules are just Christmas filler tat - "celebrity" editions of quiz shows, 100 best Christmas doo-dah's etc.

I can see why people don't pay the TV Licence.

I think it's also important to remember that a lot of elderly people - many of whom will be alone at Christmas and/or might not have ready and confident access to streaming - might take comfort in 'traditional' TV and classics.

Millions of hours of everything on YouTube, plus other subscription streaming services, as well as catch-up on all the 'main' channels... why are they going to put decent new stuff on on the day when most families will be doing anything apart from watching television?

No there’s some good stuff on YouTube and you can pay premium if you want rid of the adds (and yes, I know, a lot of people think they shouldn’t have to subscribe but since when was anything free?)

Oh, right, I pay to get rid of the ads on all the others, Netflix, Prime, Paramount, ITVx, Disney etc. I don't find much on YouTube though to watch

I pay for YouTube premium and have the app on my TV.
More often than not I end up watching a good documentary on YT rather than broadcast TV. It's actually better than streaming in some ways, though not so good yet for movies.

You do need to pay for premium though on most of them to get a decent picture and skip the ads, it can mount up in price though if you don't have much money

There is so much content on YouTube that it would take you something like 12 thousand lifetimes to watch everything available. If you don't like 99.9999% of it, you could still watch stuff that you DO like 24/7 until the end of your days.

As for all of the adverts, just be Brave and try to find a way that you can come to not let that bother you.

Last year was good with the new Wallace & Gromit and Gavin & Stacey but I think that was the exception to the rule. My guess is families don't watch much TV together anymore due to a combination of massive choice and multiple devices in the home.

I just don’t watch tv at christmas, it doesn’t add anything really so what is point ?

Because there's so.much streaming etc, everyone can watch whatever they want..why should the stations bother?

I think you've probably summed it up here. Today's (Boxing Day) offerings are actually a bit better than Christmas Day's. Minions 2 is only 3 years old.😀

We have Netflix and Prime but we spend more time looking for something to watch than actually watching 🙁

YT has loads of excellent documentaries. If you have an interest in a subject you can be sure to find lectures or documentaries or discussions of it on YT.

well, I hope you’re right and it’s not an elaborate ruse to let his on/off friends the Murdochs bid for the royal charter!

I struggle to find anything on Netflix but I found The Swimmers and Harriet both very engaging.

There's a case to be made that on Xmas Day itself folk are visiting families and to have event TV on that day only leads to arguments or a sense you'd rather watch TV than chat to rellies. Decades ago it was different, there really was the sense you had to mark the day with a movie premiere or some such thing, now there's so much media everywhere that might be unnecessary.

I saw The Great Escaper with Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson on Boxing Day I think, that was good though not brilliant imo but it was a movie premiere.

Fortunately some revered old traditions live on, one of which is the cheery post-festivities spectacle of people who grew up with The Generation Game moaning about Christmas telly.

If folk are whinging about the lack of Morecambe and Wise, or complaining that they're still showing Morecambe and Wise, can spring be far behind?

We haven’t watched anything on terrestrial TV this Christmas, there’s not been one thing on worth paying the license fee for.

The only thing I’ve watched on the ‘normal’ traditional channels of BBC1 /ITV etc is

Would I Lie To You?

literally nothing else

Streaming services and sky have a budget that terrestrial tv can only dream of, and in real terms I expect that stars are paid a lot more. Then there are more free to view channels as the OPs list shows.

Will add that there are loads of movies that could have been on telly, such as the original King Kong, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Helzapoppin, Vertigo, Superman: The Movie and the sequel, and so on. And these films are actually on most Christmases. The problem is, when they do this, they tend to repeat those same damn films several times anyway. We've got that this year, where you check out the schedules and find that Notting Hill or what have you is on yet again, the following evening, In some ways this is good - it allows you 'another chance to see' - and I'd have loved this decades ago when Gone With the Wind clashed with The 39 Steps or Bond - but it devalues TV as a brand and it isn't necessary really as some of it will be on catchup or if you really want it you can get the DVD. Now it's becomes something like Magic FM or something, just the same movies at any given time, next year they'll be a glut of different classics but same effect.

Yes, @NewspaperTaxis, for example, I quite enjoy Grease, but I have to be in the mood for it and to me it's a summer film anyway. I swear it's been on every single day this week, maybe more than once.

BBC2 did have some classics on today, The Man who Knew too Much, The Third Man, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Godfather: Coda is on later but thrillers aren't really my thing and the first three were all made well before my time.

There must have been 10000s of films made in the last 20-30 years but apart from animation, they hardly ever seem to make it onto TV.

No Scrooged Trading Places or Gremlins this year, i watched the Christmas ghost story and Amandaland and rewatched the Motherland Christmas specials on i player. these are on bbc three tonight.
Im looking forward to the Dave Allen retrospective on New Years Day on Channel Five.

I couldn't find The Wizard Of Oz anywhere on normal TV, and I was looking forward to seeing it for the first time since I've seen the Wicked films.

The Jaws documentary on BBC2 was fantastic (as is Jaws 😀🦈), so I can watch that again on iplayer. Currently watching a lovely programme about a train in Switzerland on C4, so no complaints ☺️