Commie poison air networks: Who needs 'em.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/28/2009 9:32:21 PM PST by SmithL
For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.
The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks' programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast TV channels in their lineups. The networks might even ditch free broadcast signals in the next few years. Instead, they could operate as cable channels — a move that could spell the end of free TV as Americans have known it since the 1940s.
"Good programing is expensive," Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns Fox, told a shareholder meeting this fall. "It can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues."
Fox is pursuing its strategy in public, warning that its broadcasts — including college football bowl games — could go dark Friday for subscribers of Time Warner Cable, unless the pay-TV operator gives Fox higher fees. For its part, Time Warner Cable is asking customers whether it should "roll over" or "get tough" in negotiations.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It may not be free for long. Now that the signals are all digital, making them subscriber services only involves adding a set top box to your TV set. When a digital signal is encoded and you don’t have the correct decoding software, you don’t see anything.
The FCC would have to approve the change, but it could happen.
“If the networks think that they are going to survive by going all-Pay TV....they are dead. They cant compete with pay cable now....they will not be able to compete if they challenge pay cable directly”
Makes sense to me. Broadcast TV will just have to cut costs— there’s plenty of room to do so. Make even crappier reality shows. Outsource to non-union labor.
I just love how if you want one movie channel, then you must have all movie channels.
Why do I need the Sundance Channel?
Why does this channel even exist?
In four years of Direct TV, I have never seen a single thing worth watching on this craptastic channel.
Robert Redford sucks.
I don’t get ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, or PBS on my Directv. I don’t really miss them at all. If I got them for free maybe I would watch them some. But back when I had cable I never really watched them anyway.
Yep, I’ll be trying the old rabbit ears in a few days if they don’t come to an agreement; we’ll see how that works.
I do the same on Directv. Sure makes flipping through the channels quicker when you don’t have so many bad channels to go through doesn’t it?
Actually, broadcasting is the cheapest part of the whole thing. The really expensive part is all the massive overhead built into the station, from the variety of managers - and let's be honest, an intern could likely do a better job of most program manager's jobs, all overpaid with high six figure salaries. Ad execs who could easily be replaced by a shared Google calendar to determine ad placements.
The whole creation is bloated and unwieldy, and really representative of the entire dinosaur media culture. As for the programs themselves - most of the prime time high ticket dramas are no longer solely supported by ad revenue, as there just isn't the audience there anymore. They're off watching American Idol or 24, not whatever Grey's Anatomy spinoff or clone is being broadcast. Fox News Channel has beat some of the prime time dramas, and that's a pretty good feat.
And then there's the worst nightmare for a broadcaster - a Tivo. Zip, zip, zip - right past those commercials! They finally get paid to put them on the air after consulting the oracle of the rate card, and the bloody audience isn't watching the 900th repetition of a Viagra advertisement.
If ABC goes dark tomorrow and is only on cable, there'll be another person ready to take up that broadcast license and run with it. All that's happening right now is saber rattling from the powers that don't want things changed. They want that money train to keep on chugging along, and advertisers, and consumers, are ready to get off at the next stop.
And the ads insult us with the word “holiday” substituted for Christmas and repeated endlessly. The heck with them.
Good for you and I got rid of TV about 5 months ago.
Until we kill off TV - the liberals will remain in control. It is totally biased and keeps the libs in power and control. The 2008 election was stark proof of that.
Sports programming keeps them alive. Ball games keep them afloat cause they lose money on news.
Fox? Better but 15 or 20% owned by the Saudis.
NFL is an advertorial for Obama and they punked Rush. Cancel it or we will all be islamo serfs.
Commie poison air networks: Who needs 'em.
I’m very close to doing just that, Frantzie, I have to say. I have no doubt that I can do just fine without the boob tube. I spend most of my TV time online anyway, and can pretty much find all the old movies I love there. As far as new movies go, I do like blu ray a lot, and since there are so few good, new movies, I doubt that I would purchase even 10 discs in the next 5 years.
I hate what the NFL did to Rush. He didn’t deserve that at all. I can live without football. Heck, watching The New Orleans Saints is going to give me aneurysm or a heart attack anywho.
I get 83 channels here in LA over the air....although only about 10 are watchable...maybe I should learn spanish, chinese, armenian, japanese and other languages...about 8 are PBS stations.
I dropped cable years ago...there was some withdrawals for a week or so, but saving the $$$ was a better plan.
Yup - and
for FOX NEWS
http://www.tvpc.com/Channel.php?ChannelID=1520
for “24”
http://www.fox.com/fod/
Discovery
Get all the shows I used to pay satellite for FREE online. Had my satellite put on hold last Jan - liking that money in MY pocket
“Fox News Channel... them ost watched cable TV news channel... oh wait, that’s right- it won’t be anymore come Jan 1”
Wonder what they’ll say when they drop below MSNBC CNN CBS etc when peopel decide to simply get rid of their TV’s or watch crap shows since they can’t afford ‘prime’ news and shows anymore? Their viewership is goign to DRAMATICALLY drop- Advertisers will drop Fox and other stations because of too few viewers, etc
bookmark
Cable TV is an absolute rip off, with 15 percent of the programs in foreign languages, and 65 percent is crap no one ever watches...and they’ve suckered all into to paying to watch their stinking commercials....Cable can KMA.
Got rid of mine a few years back and am saving a nice amount of $$ each year.
I could not agree with your post more, chimera. I have determined that if Direct TV attempts to raise my current bill by even one dollar, then I am done with tv. I will find something else to do.
When I saw the programming on Nat Geo the other night “KKK: American Terrorism”, I was outraged. Having to pay for Planet Green is also chappin’ my hide real good.
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