30 Rock debuted in Germany yesterday and it scored a 0.0 in the ratings meaning less than 5,000 people tuned in to watch it according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ouch!
ZDFNeo picked up the show to reach a younger demographic, but instead it didn’t pick up any demographic. 30 Rock doesn’t do well here in the ratings, I wonder why Germany would think it would do any better for them over there? I mean I never would’ve thought that Tina Fey’s Emmy winning show would do well anywhere but The US because it is a very Americanized show that I don’t think has worldwide appeal. Personally I never got the show, but I know people who love it.
But there were so many problems with actually being able to see it. First: The channel ZDFneo is like 3 days old. 90% of Germans don’t even know it exists. (No, literally 3 days. I heard about it 2 days ago.)
Then: It’s only receivable via satellite. We Germans usually use the free cable connection that exists in every home, and don’t buy dishes. I don’t know anyone that has a dish, so I don’t know anyone that can watch ZDFneo even if they wanted to. (Cable and satellite is both free, but you gotta buy the dish).
Then: ZDF has a rather boring reputation. It’s like the old people’s program. So even IF you have a dish and come across ZDFneo, you’d be like ‘Uh, ZDF. No thank you.’
The only way to currently watch ZDFneo is via online softwares like ‘Zattoo’. Some Germans that don’t have satellite use this thing to watch ZDFneo. But: Their views don’t get counted The media regulators and bureaucrats don’t know shit about Zattoo.
It’s like a Congolese sub-channel gets to be the first program to broadcast the new season of Lost -> nobody would watch it. Besides other reasons.
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