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HGTV, Fox News Among Only Top Cable Networks to Boost Ratings This Year
Wall Street Journal ^ | Dec. 18, 2015 | Joe Flint

Posted on 12/19/2015 11:31:07 AM PST by sparklite2

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To: sparklite2

Cable TV standard package channels are usually ho-hum.

The premium channels like HBO, Starz, Showtime, Encore and The Movie Channel are just $$$$ for cable junkies to subscribe to them.

Bundled cable TV is a dying business model when Internet streaming video is a la carte and costs a fraction of what cable costs.

Either cable cuts its rates or it’ll go out of business.


21 posted on 12/19/2015 1:35:49 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

People are watching HGTV for escapism I suspect. That married couple from Texas renovating houses is enjoyable.


22 posted on 12/19/2015 1:37:17 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

Reality TV is cheap to produce and home renovation shows are addictive.

You get to see designer homes at the end of it most people can only dream of living in.


23 posted on 12/19/2015 1:40:01 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

I look at their budgets and renovation costs and shake my head, it’s a little too good to be true based on my exposure. But, fun to watch.


24 posted on 12/19/2015 1:42:16 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: sparklite2

The good news is analog cable is dead.

The bad news is there’s nothing compelling about the new high definition picture we get when we rent cable set top boxes.

If only the shows were as good as the improved picture...

1080p rocks... content sucks.


25 posted on 12/19/2015 1:43:28 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

1080p is good. So they rolled out 3D to open up new sales. The demo I saw at Best Buy was like the shooting galleries we used to see at the state fair, with three rows of duckies moving side to side. Three discreet planes of vision, with nothing in between. Yuck.

Now they’re pushing 4K, which at my screen size, 65”, I can’t tell the difference in picture quality. Plus, there is no 4K programming to speak of, and at the time, DirecTV required, in addition to the 4K TV set, an internet connection higher than the 20 mbps available to me.

Guess I’ll hold out for Feel-O-Vision.


26 posted on 12/19/2015 1:50:51 PM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
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To: Jim from C-Town

I hope you are 100 percent now. I hate when I am not “complete”. It just consumes everything.


27 posted on 12/19/2015 1:51:10 PM PST by napscoordinator
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To: sparklite2

1080p will be the standard for the next 25 years.

Broadcasting networks transmit in 720p and 1080i and its cost-prohibitive to upgrade to 4K.

And at 6 to 9 feet viewing distance, most people couldn’t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K.

I would tell people to buy a 1080p TV set. It won’t be obsolete for a long time to come.


28 posted on 12/19/2015 1:59:33 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

Yeah, I expect 4K to suffer the same fate as 3D.
And the curved screens are just laughable. I see
where there are curved screens now for computer
monitors. They’re getting desperate.


29 posted on 12/19/2015 2:04:02 PM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
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To: sparklite2

Yup.

We can make improvements to existing technology and while a true 4K picture is impressive compared to 1080p, if you have to upscale a 1080i picture on a 4K TV set, there’s not much visual benefit.

And TV manufacturers forget the human eye is analog. We can only see so much detail before we give up.

My 1080p HDTV is 8 years old and is still running strong. I have no plans to upgrade to 4K in the foreseeable future.

Its just stupid and is really a gimmick to boost TV sales rather than giving consumers new technology, which lacks both the hardware and content to support it.

In other words, our digital TVs are as good as they’re going to get and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Words to live by.


30 posted on 12/19/2015 2:11:11 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

I agree. The one area where I will follow will be the ‘smart’ vector. Having Netflix, Amazon, etc. on board rather than as plug-ins would be nice. While using my set to play video games just makes me dizzy, having a stronger internet merge would be appealing.


31 posted on 12/19/2015 2:17:42 PM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
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To: sparklite2

My wife and I used to love to watch HGTV in its early days. We had a C-Band which I loved. HGTV was a new and free channel then. They really used to have gardening shows the (the ‘G’ in HGTV). There were also more ‘specials’ about different topics. Every year we watch a show I taped called ‘Celebrating Autumn’ that showed beautiful fall colors in different areas of the country. They never show stuff like that anymore.


32 posted on 12/19/2015 3:07:21 PM PST by Sans-Culotte (''Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small''~ Theodore Dalrym)
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To: sparklite2

FOX is happily adding in the boost from the debates.

Actually, except for Hannity, I have watched very little of FOX since then, especially O’Reilly, Kelly, and anything with Geraldo on it.


33 posted on 12/19/2015 3:30:58 PM PST by FrankR (You're only enslaved to the extent of the charity that you receive!)
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