Cable/Satellite vs. The Broadcast Networks

[Mode C]

Who's side are you on?

I'm getting pretty tired of all those stupid commercials on TV and radio trying to tell us how the other side is greedy and wrong. (Heck they even got our beloved "United Breaks Guitars" guy in on it!)

As much as I hate to support companies like Bell and Rogers, who've proven themselves to be greedy, selfish corporations on many previous occasions... I think I have to take their side on this one.
First of all, the broadcast networks make their money by givings us programming that we want to watch, increasing their ratings and selling advertising time. If anything the cable and satellite companies are increasing the exposure and viewership of these networks, which would help them increase their ratings and sell more ad time (if they gave us something we wanted to watch). Regardless, networks like CBC are already getting our money, but now they want more?

If they want to add $10 a month to my cable bill then I should have to option to not have them on my cable package and save myself the $10. After all, these are BROADCAST networks (CBC, CTV, Global etc) they are FREE over the air. Many people don't realize that with a $20 antenna and a little time you can watch all these stations, in HD (uncompressed with better quality) free over the air. For those of you in the GTA, if you aim an antenna towards the south you'll get all the Canadian networks from the CN tower and pretty much all the U.S. networks from Buffalo! This is especially useful when watching U.S. programming, if you don't like the Canadian feeds forced on you over cable with all their commercials (useful during the Superbowl etc) and edits/cuts (for example, the last season of 24 just as they were about to show the preview for next week, Global would cut it off and show you clips for the next episode of HEROES! Heroes is on right after! I don't need a preview of what's on right now, IF I cared, I'll just watch it. I want to know what's coming up next week on 24).

In the end, they're both greedy, but the networks are greedier this time.

P.S. these antennas I'm talking about are not the big masts that you used to see on the roofs of older homes. They're fairly compact and can even be hidden in the attic or flush against an outside wall. If you get a set top antenna at any electronics store you'd at least be able to get the local broadcasts.

[deflux]

Yeah I have one of the BBQ grill style antennas. It cost me $100, and I get CTV, CBC, Sun TV, OMNI 1 and 2 and CHCH all in High Definition from Toronto. I also get Global in standard definition.

From Buffalo I get NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CW all in HD.

Zero dollars a month...

[Louis]

My understanding is that the multiplication of specialty networks in the last decade, combined with the rise of the internet, has significantly decreased the slice of advertising revenue the broadcast networks can hope to get, no matter how good and popular their programming can be. The specialty networks get money charged on the cable/sat bills on top of their ad revenues.

One solution you won't hear the cable/sat companies pushing would simply be to get the broadcast networks in on that funding, as their own specialty networks would get less.

[Guido]

I say let both groups burn. TV is shite.

[rotorhead350]

Why don't you ad an option of neither as I really couldn't give a flying f**k about neither of them. Like Guido said TV is shite. I have much better things to do than sit in front of the idiot box and waste my life................

[. ._]

Here's your TV.

Get some rabbit ears for the local news.



And download the rest.

http://www.mininova.org/

It's all free. Screw the big boys.

-istp

[niss]

On this one I side with the local stations simply because I hate the misdirection tactic used by the cable companies.


STOP THE TV TAX! IF THE STATIONS DEMAND EXTRA MONEY WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO CHARGE YOU!!!

They try to pass it off like a tax or something the crtc will force them to do to the end user. That is what pisses me off.

Networks want their cut and the companies don't want to pay so they will pass the buck, similar to the bullshit crtc mandated fees you see with cell phones.

The cable companies try to look like they are doing us a favor by standing up against the evil greedy networks but all they are doing is preemptively trying to look like the good guy who's hands are going to be tied by the whole deal.

[5x5]

I agree with istp. I cancelled my cable 4 months ago and it's been great. Didn't need the expense and certainly don't miss all the "quality" programming.

Anything I really want to watch or see - I can get on the net mostly at the time I want. Much of it is free and what I want that isn't free, I don't mind paying for. What irked me was paying a set amount each month - $60+ - for a load of trash that only had about 2% content even remotely worth watching. And even more galling - on their schedule.

Same with newspapers. All the news is online and much easier to search for related articles and get expanded info on the items that interest you.

And it's only going to get better and better.

[Guido]

iTunes recently floated the idea of $30 per month for unlimited downloaded shows from the big networks in the US... should be interesting to see what happens if it goes ahead. I think that's something I'd be open to - assuming of course I can convert them all into an open format after download...