Future of Commercial TV

July 18th, 2013 at 10:23:58 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
This year's Emmy nominations as usual pretty much ignore broadcast TV in favor of cable (and now Netflix). With 30 Rock cancelled, NBC will be stuck with SNL & Parks and Recreation. ABC had 5 out of the 6 adult stars nominated for Modern Family. CBS had three nominations for TBBT, and Downtown Abbey is still the biggest thing on PBS. Reality Shows still dominate broadcast TV nominations.

30 Rock, NBC
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock, NBC
Tiny Fey, 30 Rock, NBC
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock, NBC
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation, NBC
Saturday Night Live, NBC
Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live, NBC
Betty White, Betty White's Off Their Rockers, NBC

Modern Family, ABC
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family, ABC
Julie Bowen, Modern Family, ABC
Ty Burrell, Modern Family, ABC
Ed O'Neill, Modern Family, ABC
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family, ABC
Connie Britton, Nashville, ABC
Kerry Washington, Scandal, ABC
Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC

Downton Abbey, PBS
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey, PBS
Michele Dockery, Downton Abbey, PBS

The Big Bang Theory, CBS
Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory, CBS
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory, CBS
Jane Lynch, Glee, Fox
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife, CBS


OUTSTANDING HOST FOR A REALITY OR REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM:
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol, Fox
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With The Stars, ABC
Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance, Fox
Anthony Bourdain, The Taste, ABC
Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Project Runway, Bravo

OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM:
The Amazing Race, CBS
Dancing With The Stars, ABC
So You Think You Can Dance, Fox
The Voice, NBC
Project Runway, Lifetime
Top Chef, Bravo
July 19th, 2013 at 4:03:14 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
The second biggest cable company (TimeWarner) and the biggest Network (CBS) are in an contract dispute over re-transmission fees.

This kind of dispute may hasten the end of Cable TV. It is one thing for Viacom to go into transmission fee disputes so that stations like BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Palladia, Spike, TeenNick, Tr3s, TV Land, VH1 are cancelled, but to take a major network off the air is unprecedented.
August 1st, 2013 at 1:54:04 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
flareWatch is an internet based television service. What is particularly interesting about this service is that a cable company (COX) is offering it without requiring that you purchase traditional cable as well.

FlareWatch is $34.99 per month, with access to 97 live channels and 30 hours of network DVR storage and is only availble in Orange County right now,

The service uses Fanhattan’s Fan TV set-top, which provides iPad-like navigation via a touch-sensitive remote control that has no buttons. Subscribers can connect up to three Fan TV boxes, which cost $99 each, to the service.

It delivers a healthy mix of popular programming but at a lower price than traditional cable TV packages.
Beta version of flareWatch provides local broadcast TV and cable nets such as ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Fox Sports West, TWC SportsNet, CNN, CNBC, Nickelodeon, A&E, Discovery, Bravo, USA, TLC, MTV, Fox News Channel, FX, Food Network and Syfy.

Ordinarily, to get most of those channels, subscribers must purchase Cox Advanced TV service with 300-plus channels, regularly priced at $63.99 per month.

August 5th, 2013 at 8:13:59 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
For a long time specialty channels seem to have survived by being bundled and crammed down on subscribers.

This "Cable TV Lite" version probably meets alot of peoples needs.

I mean Animal Channel is fine... but who wants it 24 hours a day and how can it be anything but a good many repeat shows.

Cartoon channel is fine but it can sell adds only for its top selling cartoons.

So its how to market shows without cramming the whole channel down a subscriber's throat

Maybe the YouTube advantage is that channels are not bundled at all.
August 5th, 2013 at 9:04:04 PM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Quote: Pacomartin
Ordinarily, to get most of those channels, subscribers must purchase Cox Advanced TV service with 300-plus channels, regularly priced at $63.99 per month.


I'm confused. How does this help Cox? They're cannibalizing their own business, undercutting their own prices. Does this allow Cox to enter cable markets they don't already serve? Does Cox already provide cable service to Orange County?
August 5th, 2013 at 9:08:42 PM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Quote: Pacomartin
The second biggest cable company (TimeWarner) and the biggest Network (CBS) are in an contract dispute over re-transmission fees.

This kind of dispute may hasten the end of Cable TV. It is one thing for Viacom to go into transmission fee disputes so that stations like BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Palladia, Spike, TeenNick, Tr3s, TV Land, VH1 are cancelled, but to take a major network off the air is unprecedented.


Yeah but at least there's a loophole for CBS: TimeWarner customers can buy a $20 pair of rabbit ears to watch CBS. No such luck for viewers of Comedy Central or MTV.

Have there been any reports of TimeWarner customers cancelling their cable contract due to this insane dispute?
August 6th, 2013 at 4:39:25 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Fleastiff


Maybe the YouTube advantage is that channels are not bundled at all.


YouTube seems to be picking up lots of re-runs from these channels, openly branded. If it will last for free is anyone's guess, though I am enjoying it for now. Some kind of eventual micro-payment could be an answer. Let me pay $.05 to watch "The Next Food Network Star" or "Pawn Stars." Perhaps a metering system, but best yet the Netflix all-you-can-eat model.

I can easily see it going to 4-5 Netflix/Hulu type models with old and new content then the niche-channels dying off.
The President is a fink.
August 6th, 2013 at 7:02:57 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: reno
I'm confused. How does this help Cox? They're cannibalizing their own business, undercutting their own prices. Does this allow Cox to enter cable markets they don't already serve? Does Cox already provide cable service to Orange County?


First of all it is an experimental program. They will certainly cannibalize some of their own business, but there is always some percentage of that happening. They feel it is more important to capture the market that would leave them anyway.

The cold hard reality is that if you ask people, the majority will tell you that cable TV is a waste of money because it is too expensive for the few shows they watch. But most of those people still subscribe to cable TV anyway because they are want FoxNews or ESPN anyway. Most people can't run internet TV through their big screens anyway. Chromecast will change that to some extent, but it is not going to be mainstream for a while.

The internet could not handle the transmit load if all consumers abandoned broadcast altogether. I know that the House of Lords in Britain is calling for a national campaign to end broadcast so that the spectrum can be sold to cellular services. But there is a lot of data that comes through RF coaxial.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:31:28 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: AZDuffman
YouTube seems to be picking up lots of re-runs from these channels, openly branded.
I think that is dying out.

Look at "The Bill" a very long-running and therefore successful TV series from the BBC about some mythical London Metropolitan Police Relief in some ill-defined East London area. It had some characters who spent their entire acting career doing that one role. One actor spent so long playing a socially inept cop that when they fired him he attempted suicide right there in the studio and the stupid fools didn't film it.

All those shows were available on youtube about two years ago many having been uploaded years ago but now its all Video Deleted/Account Deleted messages showing that Hulu's lawyers have probably been hard at work

ON-EDIT: I think there may be a result for programs similar to what has been proposed for decades for software but has not happened. Everything will migrate to The Mosquito Channel that gives you the program for a small subscription fee that is annoying and constantly drains your wallet but is not ever enough to quibble over. So TV shows will be five dollars a month or something. Makes you want to swat at it when you think about it but never enough to really do anything but pay the darned bill automatically each month.
August 13th, 2013 at 7:49:08 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Fleastiff
Everything will migrate to The Mosquito Channel that gives you the program for a small subscription fee that is annoying and constantly drains your wallet but is not ever enough to quibble over.
So TV shows will be five dollars a month or something. Makes you want to swat at it when you think about it but never enough to really do anything but pay the darned bill automatically each month.


CBS provides 1200 hours of prime time programming in a year plus late night, morning and daytime TV. Time Warner gives them roughly $12.00 per year in retransmission fees per TV household (1 penny per hour on average). CBS is trying to get that doubled.

What would people pay to watch a new episode of The Big Bang Theory? A dime, a quarter, a dollar? What would they pay with or without commercials. Would people pay to watch "The biggest loser"? What would a football game cost?