The Four Stories Every TV Fan Must Read Today: 03/27/2015

Here are the four stories that are today's must-read pieces for anyone interested in the television or media business.

1) As a television viewer, there is nothing sadder than realizing that you have fallen out of love with some favorite TV show. Decider's Meghan O'Keefe doesn't care about MAD MEN anymore, and she argues in this piece that fatigue towards a TV show is worse than hate :

I don’t hate Mad Men. Rather, I feel nothing but pure apathy for the show now. Sadly, though, viewer apathy is far more damning to a television show than boiling hatred. We have a term called “hate-watch” because we are sometimes compelled to watch shows we hate. We do not have a term called “apathy-watch,” because it doesn’t exist. You might tune into a train wreck for the shadenfreude, but you’re not going to put effort into a show that doesn’t make you care.

2) While this isn't really a television story, it does speak to the conflicting forces that shape our entertainment choices. The Washington Post reports that a number of country music radio stations have pulled the Little Big Town song "Girl Crush" from their playlists because listeners are complaining that it's a "lesbian song"

There’s a deep chasm these days between what’s popular on country radio — still the genre’s most powerful platform — and what fans are actually buying: “Girl Crush” is No. 4 on iTunes, but lags at No. 33 in radio rankings. And while country music is seen as more progressive now — with explicit lyrics about sex and casual marijuana use — significant portions of the traditional audience will not tolerate a song that they even wrongly assume is about a same-sex relationship.

My advice to anyone unhappy with this story is to go on iTunes and buy the single to show your support.

3) Sure, live video streaming apps like Meerkat and Persiscope are fun. But as The National Journal's Kaveh Waddell writes, there are also some potential copyright issues that come along with the ease of use. For instance, what if someone decides to stream the newest episode of GAME OF THRONES?:

Copyright infringement has been a problem since before the Internet existed, and every new generation of technology presents an easier, faster way to share movies and TV without paying. Still, the most intrepid of pirates won't be able to rip an episode in real time, and those looking for bootlegs will at least have to wait at least a few minutes after the broadcast of, say, the season premiere of Game of Thrones (April 12) or the first of the final episodes of Mad Men (April 5).

But there's little stopping a Meerkat user from pointing his or her phone at the TV and streaming whatever's on free and live to whoever wants to watch.

4) Bloomberg Business has a piece today discussing how programming from Turner Networks such as TNT and the Cartoon Network might end up as part of HBO Go. I only mention the story because it's essentially the same piece I wrote nearly a month ago. I'm not claiming it was copied--it wasn't--I just arguing if you'd read my piece back then you would have way ahead of the conversation curve.