[ale] [OT] Cable TV Gripes

[Joe Knapka]

Synco Gibraldter <synco at xodarap.net> writes:

> >Trading Spaces, Junkyard Wars, home improvement shows on DIY and Discovery:
> >Home and Garden, West Wing, Scrubs, Dead Like Me, Daily Show, Tough Crowd,
> >X-Play, Samurai Jack, Daria, Nova, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and
> >Adult Swim on Cartoon Network are all reasons to have TV
> 
> i don't like any of those shows except the daily show, which is
> replayed like 5 times a day.  the rest of them are the ones getting in
> the way of my 'good' shows -- i suppose that's one of the major
> reasons there's so much crap on tv.  for everything we think is crap,
> there's somebody who loves it.  and everything you hate is loved by
> somebody else.  too bad we can't order shows instead of ordering
> networks from the cable company.

Seems to me that if a company offered such a package (just the
channels/shows you want), even at a substantially higher profit margin
(say, I don't know, $.25/viewed hour/month, or about $1/month for a
regular weekly show, on top of a small constant charge for
infrastructural expenses), they could eat their competition's lunch.
Oh, right, that would be predicated on the notion of "competition"...

This would also have the side-effect of basically turning every home
into a Neilsen household (since the cable supplier would have to track
viewing in order to bill customers), which may or may not be a
terrible thing. I can only imagine the horrid dreck that would
permeate the ether if America's collective taste in entertainment is
really as terminally idiotic as the good people at, say, Fox TV seem
to believe. (Who the f*&k wants to see another freakin' "Survivor"
knockoff?)

On the other hand, maybe those network bigwigs would be surprised
if they could see what people *really* want to watch. (I certainly
hope so.)

Comedy Central, BBC America, Discovery, and anything that had ever
been in the same room with Joss Whedon. That'd about do it for me.

-- Joe Knapka