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The Nation's Pulse
Cable Copycats
Basic cable’s basic problem is that it’s afraid to walk on a tightrope.
(Page 2 of 2)
Walking at night in the mist and wind for 600 yards 200 feet above the Niagara River is expensive, imaginative, and daring — everything that cable television isn’t.
When there were but a handful of stations the late Shel Silverstein rhapsodized in “Channels” about the tedium of television, concluding that it might be more interesting to talk than watch. Bruce Springsteen, writing in a post-cable world, lamented “57 Channels and Nothin’ On.” The Boss shows the idiot box who is boss by blasting it. Mike Judge certainly got a bead on the future in Idiocracy when he foresaw the popularity of a program called “Ow! My Balls!” If he had prophesied a dozen such shows instead of one he might now be considered a modern-day Nostradamus.
ABC took a walk on the wire to great success. Highwire may not be highbrow (neither is television). But it is different. Or perhaps it was different — here come the cable copycats.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The War on Football: Saving America’s Game, blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
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Appleby| 6.22.12 @ 7:10AM
I watched Nik Wallenda walk across the Falls --which ABC put on five second delay and made him wear a safety harness which caused a million people to tune out ... Niagara Falls jacked up their prices higher than the Ukraine did for Euro Cup so lots of us enjoyed it on TV.
Eurocup 2012, a soccer tournament played in the interval between World Cups and much better because the teams that never ought to be playing are not in Europe (and Canada doesn't have to explain why it can't qualify for international play -- because all the talented players who live here are playing for their country of origin). We just had the 24 Hours of Le Mans (with two breaks for NA$CAR qualifying and to watch NA$CAR test tires -- or go out and run errands) and will soon have the Tour de France. These are things that Cable TV does best. These are things that keep me paying for cable. Oh, and let's not forget the Queen's Jubilee! BBC Canada was a delight to behold on that joyous occasion.
And finally, my own two personal Must Watch TV: Holmes Inspection/Holmes on Homes, and the British iteration of Top Gear. (An American version of this show died a quick and merciful death last year.)
You have to look at the schedule and listen to your friends sometimes, but there's plenty to watch that has nothing to do with obscene, profane and blasphemous "stars" (not to mention filthy cartoon shows) down at the bottom of the dial.
Bob Grant| 6.22.12 @ 9:29AM
But what if I don't want to pay for all of the crap just to watch a small handful of remotely watchable programs?
Not.Worth.it!!!
The cable industry will have no choice but to go 100% ala carte or will find themselves out of business.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 10:13AM
This will probably eventually happen since cable and dish providers now have such tight control over every channel you watch via your "box". In the old days, boxes were manually set by servicemen (remember when it was possible to bribe one of them or buy a "fixed" box to get all the channels?) Now, it's all done from the central office.
Here's something to keep in mind: The cable or dish providers are often middlemen who transfer funds from the subscribers to the channels. So, kind of like communism, everyone puts money into a central pool which goes to the provider (like amazon.com) and from there the fund go to the channels. And it maybe works like communism with A&E having a few good shows you love but the rest is reruns and junk. But it's hard to debundle.
So perhaps when ala carte does come into play, the channels will get more competitive, cut back on the reruns, and try to grab more of that dollar. I notice that AMC and IFC are freaking out over dish possibly dropping them. I suspect that these two networks are trying to raise their rates or dish is trying to cut back on less watched channels. So subscribers are flooding the call centers of the two providers with requests to keep "mad men" around.
Bob Grant| 6.22.12 @ 10:45AM
Several good points, and yes, Madmen is an excellent show but the rest of the A&E lineup is horrific.
I believe The Cable Television industry is running scared because of the internet and their only selling point is Instant Gratification, especially where "must see" live events occur like sports.
If more subscribers would embrace Delayed Gratification, WE would have more bargaining power.
After all, my public library offers ALL Madmen episodes from last year and beyond, and rarely are you on a waiting list to check them out.
There's no such thing as Instant Gratification, nor Must See TV, nor Must See NOW TV in my vocabulary.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 11:47AM
I like to watch Russian channel 1's "good day" program which is set up similar to the Today show (but it's a lot more fun and clever and weird) but somehow, if it was ondemand, I don't know if I'd watch it because it's a "morning" show I watch while getting ready for work. Weird, eh?
I also love to channel flip and there's something fun about sitting at 10PM before going to sleep and fighting my wife for the privilege of flipping through our favorite 20 channels. My wife does it this way: click, wait a few seconds to see if the commercial is not a real program, it isn't, ok, click again. Me, click, 1/10th of a second and see if it's a commercial, click.
Once bandwidth is at the point where it's easy to stream at least 5 channels of HD simultaneously to each household then I think on-demand will kick in either via back door as Hulu or from the providers themselves. Keep in mind your existing channels are broadcast shared simultaneously to each home making their network bandwidth more easy to aggregate.
The Big E| 6.22.12 @ 9:48AM
Anyone familiar with Hamster, Jezzer, Captain Slow, and The Stig are cool with me. Best TV show in decades.
Appleby| 6.22.12 @ 3:17PM
Very funny that they had James May do the test to see if the Bugatti Vayron really could do 248 mph!
Jack in Wi| 6.22.12 @ 7:30AM
This essay is all very true. Most of my kids have dropped cable and a lot of my friends have as well. It isn't all about money, Now we have 200 stations and nothing is on. That said. I am hooked on Storage Wars. I consider it one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. Maybe because I used to by huge quanties of stuff for my own business at auctions. I used to love them, and was very well known at many auctions. I still go once in a while to kibbitz and look around at prices. All these shows like Storage Wars and Pawn Stars are popular in these depression times, as desperate people look for ways to raise cash.
DaveD| 6.22.12 @ 7:50AM
It has been more than a year since I dropped cable TV. $600 richer, I don't miss it.
The article misses some alternatives. There are ways to stream in the internet to your TV set that yield current TV shows when you have time for them, and a wide variety of movies, documentaries and specials. NETFLIX, AMAZON Prime and HULU.COM come lots cheaper and are better deals by far than the drivel that is cable TV.
TrueBlue | 6.22.12 @ 4:50PM
Exactly, all three of those services COMBINED still costs less than basic cable. I haven't paid for cable in over 10 years, not missing anything.
c. j. acworth| 6.22.12 @ 8:08AM
I gave up on TV years ago. My antenna got hit by lightning or something, and I just never bothered to replace it. (I never had cable or a dish.) The only show I can honestly say I miss is NOVA on PBS, which, by the way, is probably the only thing on PBS worth watching.
Bob Grant| 6.22.12 @ 9:45AM
Actually,
Aside from their news/political shows, PBS offers the best programming on television. And there's a wide gap between PBS and the second best.
And get this, they actually offer cooking shows where the host teaches you how to cook dishes!!! No food game shows or personality-based shows, just personable, knowledgeable people who teach you how to cook. What a concept!!!!
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 10:16AM
I agree with this caveat: A lot of what's on PBS are reruns which the author above complained about. I love Sherlock Holmes and Antiques Roadshow, but it's been rerun for 20 years!!! I can get all of it from netflix.
PBS does great coverage of events compared to most networks that chop them up with commercials.
JP| 6.22.12 @ 8:51AM
I dropped Cable 4 years ago and never missed it. I kept my DSL, and earlier this year I purchased a Roku box that streams internet content to my TV. Most new DVD-Blue Ray and HD TVs now come preloaded with apps that stream internet content. If you already subscribe to Netflix or Amazon, there is no fee.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 9:06AM
Cable does have some good programing but the problem is you have to get the whole package. I watch everything I want to on Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. I have a free subscription to Hulu and I pay just $7 a month for the online portion of Netflix. Amazon I just pay for what I want to see and with a prime membership I get free shipping plus a lot of free programs. Not that I do this but what isnt offered through some sort of paid subscription can be illegally downloaded. Its pointless to have a cable subscription now unless you want to watch sports.
Jack of Spades| 6.22.12 @ 9:19AM
My cable provider has been dropping networks to dedicate more channels to on-demand streaming of recent movies. And if I want to watch them, naturally I have to pay extra.
I wonder if the cable companies are losing viewers because people aren't as stupid as their business model assumes?
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 10:08AM
I believe that to be the case. Unless the cable companies change their business model to more of an ala carte type of an arrangement they will continue to see losses. The ironic thing is that there are some very good shows out there right now. Game of Thrones comes to mind instantly. There are cable produced shows which I like much better than anything that is being played in the movies. I just dont want to pay for all the other drek that comes with it.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 10:17AM
Guys, isn't on-demand "ala carte?"
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 10:21AM
Yes but you have to subscribe to the basic cable package to get those options. Thats like going to a resturant and paying a hefty cover charge to walk in the door and still have to pay for your food.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 11:36AM
Although you don't "have to" pay it, most of us tip at restaurants. When my wife and I go out for a simple drink at happy hour, I usually tip $6 bucks or more even if the bar tab was about that if only because I value the working class guy (and gal's) time. Yes?
There's an infrastructure cost in dragging out the high speed connection to make multiple channels possible. A Hulu over DSL connection doesn't allow for channel "flipping" at an affordable cost because you're maxing out your bandwidth and ultimately, the providers will want to throttle it. At least in the long run. As the author points out, we (most us men) LOVE to channel flip. In the future, we'll be weaned off of that along with the providers as they realize that ala carte will be as profitable and satisfying for both sides. You watch the show you like when you like without waiting for a rerun but this introduces a problem: many shows I love now I "found" during flipping. So maybe there will be a technique of showing a 5 minute preview of each show on demand, for free, and then deciding to pay for it (if this isn't done already.)
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 11:54AM
I pay about $50 per month for cable internet. I would have this anyhow. Ive been doing this for about 5 years now and my bill has gone up from $34 per month to roughly $48. I use netflix more than anything so thats $7 a month and then whatever rental fee there is for Amazon. Theres a larger and better offering online than what is available on cable because you arent limited to what they are showing at any point in time. Ive found a lot of great shows mostly from Great Britian. Its not channel surfing perse but rather going through the lists. the only reason you channel surf is that you think there might be something better on another channel. Well this way you arent missing anything its available when you want it.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 11:58AM
I tip well, also so maybe so its not a perfect allagory, but you get my drift. We are moving towards more personalized and individual services. The cable model needs to keep up just like the music business had to do.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 12:11PM
My cable bill is about $80 a month. That includes cable internet, DVR service, HD service, and box rentals. So that's about $30 more than a decent cable internet. What do I get? Three TV's with one of them HD. I get the fun of channel flipping in bed and a simple user interface. The cat we just adopted loves to sit on me during the morning when I'm flipping channels before I go to work. (It's her way of saying goodbye for the day). So we'd miss that ritual.
Nearly all of the shows I watch regularly I DVR in HD. Of course, in the future as third party DVR's and streaming gets better, that will mean that most of my shows will be easily bundled off of cable leaving those channel flipping moments when I'm bored and going to work and sleep.
What makes channel flipping still great is that you get instant previews with no commitment. Yes, I can do this on youtube and hulu but there's some delay. Plus, there's the psychological factor of "paid" tv in that when you flip, you're not on the meter while flipping with ondemand requires you to make a "buy" decision each time.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 12:54PM
You know I hadnt even considered that I dont channel flip anymore or even really thought about it. Although since I watch on a computer I tend to have a show playing on one page while Im surfing the web on another and since Im a Civilization addict I usually have Civ 2 up as well. LOL so I guess I do channel flip. I go from screen to screen rather than channel to channel. I live alone and I dont have anything else for entertainment besides reading which I do online as well. It wouldnt work for most people. I dont have any furniture except for a chair and a table. I sleep on a foam matress on the floor.
You are right though. I do tend to stay committed to a show that I have purchased. I dont have a way of finding a new program to watch except for descriptions and recommendations provided by the content provider.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 1:46PM
My cable carrier recently required everyone to go on boxes, period. They killed all analog channels. My wife who views a cable box as about as easy to get as the space shuttle operating manual freaked out. I had to teach her the simple concept of turning on the cable box AND the tv and making sure the tv was switched to composite.
She still doesn't use the online menu and prefers to either channel flip or memorize the channel number. I have no idea how I'll wean her onto a 3rd party DVR switcher. And she's not an old woman (35) Imagine what it will be like with seniors! Many of them were still renting their old rotary dial phones until AT&T just gave them over as presents (they had paid a thousand dollars over their lifetimes for those phones!!!)
My wife is addicted to the local news channel in the morning, in the kitchen, and nothing will get her off of it. I think it's still broadcast over the air though but sometimes she likes to watch other channels on it. There's no way she'd live in the manner you describe.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.12 @ 7:07PM
Local News Channel would be available on internet; choose the speakers for your computer.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.12 @ 7:09PM
PK: you could get a Kindle Fire and flip through shows on NetFlix while your cat sits on you. That's what Pepper does to Cindy.
Ryan| 6.22.12 @ 9:19AM
Pretty much a Hulu/netflix guy here as well.
From someone "in the know" (I'm related to a guy on a reality-tv show), the reason for so much reality tv is simply profit margin. They're CHEAP to produce, and can make a lot of money easily because of the cheap "talent."
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 1:51PM
One of the reality shows my wife and I got strangely addicted to was "Flavor of Love" and later "Charm School" and finally "Megan wants a millionaire". Flavor's show was so amazingly shocking that friends I have who listed to Howard Stern couldn't stomach it.
florin| 6.22.12 @ 9:23AM
June 22nd: the commercials are getting longer and the 'pop ups' are getting more frequent so we are paying high prices to watch commercials and pop up ads. And there are more repeats than new ...and Comcast execs support Obama...worse though are the 10 commercials between each segment...someone should come up with a better option for people but the fat cats have a monopoly and won't make it easy..
Hardcard| 6.22.12 @ 9:31AM
It's the boob tube, run by leftist a-holes. They produce trash and are destroying the moral compass of this nation for their own profit.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 9:45AM
Most of what's in your cable (and dish) bill is the provider paying for the programming. So sure, it's great that Hulu allows you to watch the programming for free, while it lasts. I'm going to show my age here and mention that I remember the original mobile phone: It was called a CB. And then there was all those MP3 players also known as walkmans. And finally, you could get all the free TV you wanted... with a big dish in your backyard.
It was massively popular. Why pay for cable when you can watch TV from free in your backyard? People had switches to rotate the dish to different satellites. Until... the satellite operators scrambled the channels. Then the fun ended.
Essentially, cable and dish providers are subsidizing Hulu and the remaining users are paying a premium as more and more folks flee. Which works, for now, until the content providers either make Hulu viewers start paying for the privilege or playing games with the content (not releasing it to Hulu for at least a week to push the hardcore viewers to pay TV) or even cutting off content altogether.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 10:17AM
They have already done this. You can subscribe to Hulu and that allows you to see some shows earlier than the free subscription. Sometimes I subscribe and sometimes I dont. Theres no long term contracts and I assume this will change as well. The issue is that if I had to pay cable rates I probably wouldnt watch these shows. Ive never had cable except for internet and I dont even own a tv. I watch everything from my computer.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 11:42AM
I remember how things changed when music went from a record/CD model over to MP3's. The same will no doubt happen with TV as people watch channels (albums) less often than they watch shows (singles.) The neat thing about albums, and channels, was that it helped introduce viewers to similar content they enjoyed. I wouldn't have watched The Walking Dead if it wasn't for Mad Men.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 1:20PM
Yeah those are two great shows. I just started watching Mad Men recently but it was only because everyone is always talking about it. You are right, if it wasnt popular I probably wouldnt have bothered with it. Although the recommendations that Amazon, Hulu and Netflix give have turned me on to some shows that werent popular that I would never have watched either. All of them are off the air currently so its probably six of one ,half a dozen of the other.
PolishKnight| 6.22.12 @ 1:57PM
I was just thinking that HBO is the same way. You pay $6 a month for the thing but often the subscribers just want a single show (such as The Sopranos.) Later on, you can netflix them on DVD which brings us back to Must See TV. The Sopranos finale was amazing. I don't know if I saw it "spoiled" but when I did, I thought it was great. If someone hasn't seen the Sopranos yet, they may miss out on that shared "live" experiences of following the series and getting surprised by various turns of events along with millions of other people at the same time.
THKrupp| 6.22.12 @ 3:49PM
I finished watching The series the Tudors. Thats very good as well. Its probably not completely accurate to the smallest detail but it does bring history to life in way.
JimH| 6.22.12 @ 10:44AM
Sturgeon’s Law: Ninety percent of everything is crap.
In the case of TV this figure is optimistic.
Gary B| 6.22.12 @ 3:39PM
In the case of Washington DC, too.
ollie080| 6.22.12 @ 11:16AM
Frank Zappa said it best in "I am the Slime"
I am gross and perverted
Im obsessed n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think Im delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin out
From your tv set
You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't got for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold
That's right, folks..
Don't touch that dial
Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin along on your livinroom floor
I am the slime from your video
Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go
Anthony| 6.22.12 @ 11:50AM
And who is it that does not allow for cable competition? You got it, your legislative whores in your state capitols.
Appleby| 6.22.12 @ 3:21PM
Our cable company has a monopoly in our neighbourhood. Whenever I call for service, which is often, the techie says "Thank you for choosing Rogers" and I say "You are a monopoly in our neighbourhood; I was forced to subscribe to Rogers." They never know what to say.
Since I don't have any "devices" and my laptop is in my office and has a 17 inch screen, I will be fighting with the cable people for many years to come.
wolf| 6.22.12 @ 12:48PM
for the 4 or 5 shows a week that i watch..the $70a month (and going up..again!) does not seem worth it..shows like "justified" come out on disk after the season is over and i can watch it then..sports is on the net and basic tv...i will miss some of the discovery channel..but im sure the net has that covered also..
Tom Kyba| 6.22.12 @ 1:51PM
I agree with the annoyingly endless re-runs. About 4 new episodes per year followed by re-run after re-run. Gag me with the entire cutlery drawer.
Shoey| 6.22.12 @ 2:34PM
the commericals, the reruns, the lack of orginality and creativity, the constant progressive propaganda. don't watch cable anymore, Netflix serves what little is left of my TV habit well enough.
(oh and a regional broadcaster called MeTV, which programs all the old shows, they even have the old "Daniel Boone" show on saturday mornings)
Occam's Tool| 6.22.12 @ 7:05PM
Saving a thousand a year by NOT having Cable. We actually WATCH NEtFlix: it has MST3K, the greatest show in TV history.
I play with my kids, hug them, kiss them, tell them how much I love them, listen to mommy read to them, read my Kindle, study my Continuing Medical Education (about 150 hours each year), eat my dinner, go to sleep with MST3K playing in the background, wake up and see patients all over again, 12 days out of 14.
I don't miss Cable. One can always watch the Germans getting carpet bombed or the Japanese getting slammed in WWII on the internet, when one needs inspiring stories.
Warrior| 6.24.12 @ 11:03AM
There is HULU and Crackle which are a Netflix type of service. Sports fans can subscribe to the NFL, NHL and MLB (I imagine it's the same for the NBA) games which can be viewed using the internet. Most every Blu Ray players come internet ready or the PS3 and XBox have options to acquire programming. Like long distance telephone, cable operators better wake up soon or they will find their service as irrelevant as dial up internet.
Jolizoom| 6.22.12 @ 8:17PM
We dropped satellite TV last September. We watch Netflix. Most of the network shows we enjoyed are on internet TV, with shorter commercials--which, by the way, I willingly watch instead of TIVOing through, since they are short. The one exception is TNT, for which you have to have cable or satellite accounts from specific providers to access their shows online. And from what I've heard, not even people with those providers can consistently access their shows online. I'm willing to wait for DVD.
DTGO| 6.22.12 @ 10:07PM
My MAJOR gripe with cable is that I am getting more ads on TV channels that I have to pay for than I do on "free" TV. The first company that allows me to purchase only the channels that I want and not "PACKAGES" with ten channels devoted to "Brazillian Butt Lift" infomercials will get my business.
Matthew Quigley| 6.24.12 @ 11:22AM
The History channel used to be worth watching, now all it is is "Ice Road Truckers," "American Pickers" and shows about pawn shops. THAT'S NOT HISTORY! Their H2 version is all paranormal garbage and conspiracy theories which would make Art Bell or George Noory seem rational. About all I find worth watching are Encore Westerns, RFD-TV and the Military Channel. Cable is getting close to worthless...but for news and weather in this part of the country, it's almost a necessity (no broadcast channels in this part of New Mexico).
Jeamar| 6.24.12 @ 10:29PM
The dearth of intelligible, even watchable, TV is the lack of enough creative talent to fill the time and number of networks broadcasting. When one thinks of a ninety-minute drama series such as Playhouse 90 with live acting and engaging scripts, it seems obvious there just aren't enough writers above run-of-the mill to meet the demand. That assumes the demand is still there. We are conditioned to 30 second new bites, and 60 minutes of programming broken into 12-15 mins. of material interrupted by 5 minutes of commercials. I wonder how many people would really watch "good" TV (whatever that is or used to be) now. The cost of producing such shows is probably prohibitive.