TV’s Dead Zone: How the Cable Sector Is Killing Off Struggling Networks

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SamCdbs said:
The niche sports channels. Golf, tennis, NFL, all the single sport channels. Sounds good, until you realize that the more general sports channels have all the actual games, or at least enough for 99% of people.
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I was thinking about this the other day. Back when ABC's Wide World of Sports was how most of us got our general sports content, they used to show all sorts of stuff. From Joey Chitwood's stunt cars, sailing regattas, destruction derbies, horse jumping to land speed record attempts on the Bonneville Salt Flats. MAV TV (for the lucky ones that still get it) and Bein sports show a great variety of motorsports but there's room for a whole lot more. Motorsports is more than just NASCAR and NHRA. Coming up soon, Bein is going to be carrying some Formula E racing (electric-powered open wheel race cars).

I'm not convinced that fishing shows are reality TV. If you pay attention, you can actually learn something useful; if not to improve your angling skills, to better appreciate some of the places they visit.
 
long_time_DNC said:
Heard on the local news this morning that cities in CA are considering a "Netflix tax" to compensate for lost revenue from cord cutters...looks like no matter how you get your programming, it's all going to cost more eventually...
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Some states already have it.


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harshness said:
I'm not convinced that fishing shows are reality TV. If you pay attention, you can actually learn something useful; if not to improve your angling skills, to better appreciate some of the places they visit.
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I was thinking of the faux-realtiy of "Deadliest Catch" not Bill Dance and his ilk. Actually that type of fishing show is pretty interesting.
 
harshness said:
Thus far, you're the only one I've heard say that and even you had a couple of "it would be nice" channels that they don't carry.
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Nope, I don't believe I have ever written it would be nice to have a certain channel that I do not already get with Core Slim-
ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, FX, FXX, AMC, FOOD Network, TNT ( wife demands this channel) Big Ten ( need for College Football), local Fox RSN ( son wants it), ESPN ( Football), SYFY, USA, CNN, FOX NEWS, BBC America, Disney XD ( Star Wars Rebels is the only reason I need this), Cartoon Network/Adult Swim (only for Rick and Morty).

As far as The CW goes, there is a free Roku channel with it, no log in needed.

The rest of the channels could go away, as far as Premium Channels go, I only need them once or twice a year to binge watch GOT and Westworld after their Seasons are done on HBO and Homeland on Showtime, just did it for Homeland, subscribed for a month, binged it over 3 days, canceled it via Hulu.


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Claude Greiner said:
A whole bunch of channels just need to go away.

The problem is with a la carte, the content providers bundle a whole bunch of crap channels with the channels people want to watch which leads to higher rates for everyone.

The whole pay Television model is about to change.

There are too many people out there Turing to online services as a primary way to get television and the numbers are hurting everyone in the industry.

The very first victim is going to be ESPN.

The fact of the matter is that ESPN serves a purpose in sports bars as that's the most popular channel, followed by hotel rooms.

Other than that, when you really break the costs down and give people a choice, most will opt to remove ESPN from their homes and take the savings towards channels they really watch.

ESPN is only turned on in my house if they happen to steal a home team game from our regional sports network. Otherwise it's never turned on.

Now once you get ESPN out of people's homes as a basic channel, the next thing to go is the regional sports networks. You either watch it or you don't. There is no middle road here.

Once the sports networks become less popular, then it trickles down to the sports teams who have caused the problem to begin with. First thing you start seeing to go is the crazy high sports salaries.

The whole concept of a 200 million dollar pay roll for a Major League Baseball team is insane.

Cut the salaries to a few hundred thousand dollars per player (they don't even deserve that), lower ticket prices, lower concession prices, and lower the fee charged to ESPN and the sports networks and everyone would quit complaining about their cable bill.
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Baseball as a sport needs to learn a lot from soccer and how the UEFA league manage their show, it doesn't matter how many times the Real Madrid team faces Barcelona the entire world goes nuts, but how often MLB have given us the opportunity to see a world series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, never and will never happen, the same goes with the NBA, both sports haven been suffering a lot from rating drops and now more the MLB trying to reduce the duration of an entire game because youth are not watching it
 
PrvtN00b said:
Baseball as a sport needs to learn a lot from soccer and how the UEFA league manage their show, it doesn't matter how many times the Real Madrid team faces Barcelona the entire world goes nuts, but how often MLB have given us the opportunity to see a world series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, never and will never happen, the same goes with the NBA, both sports haven been suffering a lot from rating drops and now more the MLB trying to reduce the duration of an entire game because youth are not watching it
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Put baseball back on free tv a d ratings will come back

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PrvtN00b said:
Baseball as a sport needs to learn a lot from soccer and how the UEFA league manage their show, it doesn't matter how many times the Real Madrid team faces Barcelona the entire world goes nuts, but how often MLB have given us the opportunity to see a world series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, never and will never happen, the same goes with the NBA, both sports haven been suffering a lot from rating drops and now more the MLB trying to reduce the duration of an entire game because youth are not watching it
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I can't speak to what the rest of the world does but here in the USA soccer is an afterthought. Only a single soccer event appeared in the top 50 viewed sporting events in 2015 and that was USA vs Japan in the women's FIFA Cup championship game. Even at that it appears more than halfway down the list. No American sport has anything to learn from soccer. Here's a link to the 2015 statictics.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/311949/number-tv-viewers-sporting-events-usa/
 
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PrvtN00b said:
Baseball as a sport needs to learn a lot from soccer and how the UEFA league manage their show, it doesn't matter how many times the Real Madrid team faces Barcelona the entire world goes nuts, but how often MLB have given us the opportunity to see a world series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, never and will never happen, the same goes with the NBA, both sports haven been suffering a lot from rating drops and now more the MLB trying to reduce the duration of an entire game because youth are not watching it
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Aside from reorganizing the leagues, the Yankees would have to put up a season worthy of getting into the World Series and that may be too much to ask. This year looks somewhat more promising, but so have most of the last few years early in the season.

I don't think the absence of a Yankees .vs. Reds World Series what is wrong with MLB.

I think the problem is that MLB has become too much like the NFL with so much time between pitches (longer and longer batting rituals). MLB has long been known for many minutes going by between major plays so they don't need to learn that from UEFA.
 
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The idea that baseball has anything to learn for eurosoccer is laughable.

The "whole world" does not "go nuts". Some of the minority of the world that follows eurosoccer will watch the game. In North America (and the rest of the soccer ignoring world, which is vast) 99.9% will go on about their business. And in the half the world that lives on less than $1/day, the daily struggle to have enough to eat will continue.

The fool's errand of globalizing every form of entertainment is a dead end.

Baseball is in a better financial shape today than ever in its history. Without worrying if people in Austria or Indonesia or Pakistan think about it.
 
Claude Greiner said:
A whole bunch of channels just need to go away.

The problem is with a la carte, the content providers bundle a whole bunch of crap channels with the channels people want to watch which leads to higher rates for everyone.

The whole pay Television model is about to change.

There are too many people out there Turing to online services as a primary way to get television and the numbers are hurting everyone in the industry.

The very first victim is going to be ESPN.

The fact of the matter is that ESPN serves a purpose in sports bars as that's the most popular channel, followed by hotel rooms.

Other than that, when you really break the costs down and give people a choice, most will opt to remove ESPN from their homes and take the savings towards channels they really watch.

ESPN is only turned on in my house if they happen to steal a home team game from our regional sports network. Otherwise it's never turned on.

Now once you get ESPN out of people's homes as a basic channel, the next thing to go is the regional sports networks. You either watch it or you don't. There is no middle road here.

Once the sports networks become less popular, then it trickles down to the sports teams who have caused the problem to begin with. First thing you start seeing to go is the crazy high sports salaries.

The whole concept of a 200 million dollar pay roll for a Major League Baseball team is insane.

Cut the salaries to a few hundred thousand dollars per player (they don't even deserve that), lower ticket prices, lower concession prices, and lower the fee charged to ESPN and the sports networks and everyone would quit complaining about their cable bill.
Click to expand...

If these MLB PLAYERS salaries got cut to $200 k per year, you'd have far more competitive games. Players would be playing harder and games would be closer because players would actually show their talent. Look at college sports for example . I've watched far more competitive college basketball or football games than I've watched professional sports.

Now ticket prices are crazy enough and it used to be affordable to take a family to the game and now it's too expensive by the time you pay for parking , food and tickets. Most venues charge $3 and up for a hotdog , nachos are 7.50, beer is $9-$10 and most will pay it because they're hungry when they're down there . If they'd simply lower prices especially hotdogs to $1.50 they'd sell far more and a lot wouldn't go to waste.


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I am against saying someone can only make x amount of money. This is America, the sky is the limit, there should never be a cap on how much one can earn. What I would like to see is base salary + performance based incentives. The better you play, the more you contribute, the more you make. Plus, I think there should be bonuses based on team play, win a division, win a conference, have the overall best record, everyone makes some extra $$$. I would think that would make players play harder. One of the reasons, in fact the main reason, I think sports at the minor league and collegiate levels can be and often are more exciting is because the athletes have something to play for, the opportunity to go pro.

Now for ticket prices, yes they've gotten insane. I don't go to that many sporting events any more. It's not just because of ticket prices or our teams in Buffalo haven't been competitive in years, it's because of other fans. I don't drink, don't enjoy being around obnoxious drunks who are hollering and screaming and probably don't have a clue where they are until they see themselves acting like asshats on YouTube the next day. I've declined free Bills and Sabres tickets on more then one occasion over the past handful of years. I've been to six NASCAR races since 2010, and have opted for the Family section each time. No drunks, no smoking, reasonable prices.

The only MLB game I've ever been to in my life was a Twins/Yankees game in NY, seven years to the day this Monday. I've got the ticket right in-front of me. $125 + tax for a ticket to Yankees Stadium in May 2010 for the Batters Eye. That's right $125 for some of the seats farthest away from Home Plate, and they were basically fold up lawn chairs with no padding. Stadium food is some of the worst and most expensive I've ever had, and I'm usually not the on paying. Last time I brought food at a Sabres game it was $9 for a dried up chicken sandwich, for $11 I could have got a whole [decent] meal at one of the places two or three blocks away. The only money I typically spend at a Sabres game is $8 for a Coke so I get the souvenir cup to take home.
 
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EarDemon said:
And another one bits the dust.

As of 7/15 Universal HD is gone. This was one of the very first HD channels to launch way back when it was called Bravo+ HD and has been useless for years. Kinda predicted this in the Cloo TV thread a few months ago.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/cable-tv/xfinity-programming-contract-renewals-channel-list/
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NBC is essentially rebranding Universal HD as the Olympic channel. Comcast is putting the Olympic channel on the preferred tier, where as Universal was on starter.

For other providers they may treat it as a full discontinue and new contract, but I doubt it, more likely a rolling change at contract renewals. For Comcast It is likely a rebrand and Comcast is using the opportunity to mask moving a channel to a higher tier, given they are the same parent company.
 
This is perhaps the worst time history to launch a sports-oriented channel or magazine. One that is widely relevant for a few months every couple years is just that much more unthinkable.
 
jcrandall said:
NBC is essentially rebranding Universal HD as the Olympic channel. Comcast is putting the Olympic channel on the preferred tier, where as Universal was on starter.

For other providers they may treat it as a full discontinue and new contract, but I doubt it, more likely a rolling change at contract renewals. For Comcast It is likely a rebrand and Comcast is using the opportunity to mask moving a channel to a higher tier, given they are the same parent company.
Click to expand...


Just curious, where did you see that?

I couldn't finding anything looking around the internet about that, and I don't watch the channel, so I haven't seen any bumpers.
 
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Channe...-and-Olympics-Channel-HD-7-15-17/td-p/2902976

Effective July 15, 2017 we will be launching the Olympics Channel HD on Digital Preferred in every market that currently carries Universal HD.

On that same day, Universal HD will be ceasing operations.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/cable-tv/xfinity-programming-contract-renewals-channel-list/

Additional details on the Olympics Channel HD can be found at the links below:

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/12/15/olympic-channel-nbc-ioc-tv-network/

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-nbc-olympics-20161215-story.html
 
For two weeks every fourth year, a large %age of Americans watch sports (and non-sports judged things) which they do not understand and would not watch any other time if they were held in their front yard. These obscure sports are actually followed by tiny niches of people.

So Comcast is going to show this stuff the other 206 weeks of the cycle. Good luck with that.

In other words, as they used to say when SportsCenter actually covered sports, "the only thing more boring that track, is field."
 

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