04-12-2019, 02:14 PM
(04-12-2019, 11:59 AM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: If television survives as a distinct medium, I expect mergers that will leave just a few channels. I expect them to survive due to sports....lots of sports. The most expensive thing that will be produced will be the news. Most everything else will be cheap to produce, such as cooking shows, talk shows, so called "Reality" shows, etc.
And tons of reruns of very old programs.
Cable television is already obsolescent as a means of distributing programming. The digital subchannels are well suited to delivering programming -- mostly reruns of 'classic' television, but I would not be surprised to see old cable material appearing on them. The only advantage that cable TV has is in its ability to absorb costs that suppliers can impose, as with sports programming. If you wonder how major league sports teams can afford the astronomical salaries that they pay, then it is because of television and not the gate.
Cable news is mostly talk shows. Think of MSNBC or (ahem!) FoX Newspeak Channel.
Don't forget infomercials and shopping -- very low uses of television, but they don't need high ratings. Likewise religion due to the missionary desires of many sects. These might not be what people want, but they are readily available.
C-SPAN is attractive, and it seems to be inexpensively produced. Nobody has to pay Congress to broadcast its sessions.
We need remember that most people have competition for cable in their existing video collections. A great movie from the past or recent bilge? I'll take the former, thank you.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.