I still take umbrage with this concept. When we were promised "500 channels" back in the 1990s, we were led to believe there would be channels for niche audiences... that every channel did not need to pander to get every possible viewer. Cut to the present day, and gone are channels devoted to classic movies, actual home improvement that doesn't involve crying homeowners, historical documentaries, and on and on. But I can watch a procedural on every channel, reality TV on every channel, and on and on.
You go to a bookstore and there are all the classics (Shakespeare, Salinger, Plato, the Bible) on the same shelves as the autobiography of an unfunny female comic and the feel-goodery of some snake-oil salesman, and you realize that the pop-culture books subsidize the other stuff, and no bookstore is complete without them all. The same cannot be said for cable, where classics only thrive if they can be turned into social media memes. On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 11:19 AM, Bob Jersey <[email protected]> wrote: > > Cover story at Variety > <http://variety.com/2017/tv/features/overcrowded-cable-sector-esquire-spike-fyi-1202012647/> > (link): "With pay-TV bundles going on a diet, programmers are facing a > dilemma: Let marginal channels die a slow death from steady subscriber > losses, or pull the plug sooner rather than later. Either way, earnings > from affiliate fees will take a hit. The hope among programmers is that > funneling more resources to the strongest channels will fortify the > affiliate fees and advertising potential of their biggest brands." > Included is a spread chart showing availability on OTT sources and changes > in affiliate fees, viewership, and subscribership for channels run by all > the major players (think "basic" or "extended basic", non-premium, > non-local sports). > > B > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
