[opendtv] Re: Will Digital Passthru Effect Digital Tier Subscription?

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2007 09:44:01 -0400

At 12:28 PM -0700 8/3/07, johnwillkie wrote:
And, they produce those thousands of programs at a fraction of the quality
of "This Olde House."

That's YOUR opinion.

This Old House was a good program, but the quality is no better than most of the other home improvement shows on HGTV today. You can make an argument for Norm as a very good host.

As with any programming, you need a good story, good talent and good production values. ALL OF THIS is quite possible with the budget numbers i mentioned.

So, you're in favor of low quality programming over high-quality
programming?

No I am in favor of programming that is interesting and useful to me. IMHO, so of the LOWEST quality programming on the air today is coming from the broadcast networks. The technical quality may be excellent, but that can't make up for the lack of a decent script, and the social engineering that has come to dominate many programs.

Has ER declined in quality over the years?

I couldn't tell you. I've only watched it a few times in all the years it has been on.


And, with network revenues flat or declining, and internal costs increasing,
and their market share declining, did you expect them to INCREASE the price
they pay for programming?

Yes.

They have little control over the cost of talent. And the talent knows when they have the conglomerates by the short hairs, sucking out millions up front when they are milking a program that can still draw an audience.

As a result, the networks are airing only a fraction of the dramas and sitcoms that once dominated their schedules. They have filled in the holes with a bunch of junk, most of which is produced in-house to control costs. Look at the number of hours filled with news magazines and cheap reality shows. It seems that you may still be living in the "Golden Age of Television," John.Unfortunately those days are long gone.

If you took ALL of the good shows that are offered by the networks today you would still not have enough stuff to program one network.

Regards
Craig


----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts: