rip-network-tv

With the networks still hemorrhaging money in the recession and the purchase of NBC by Comcast, pundits are predicting that the era of free TV channels is coming to an end. As cable channels siphon off viewers and ad dollars dwindle, the growing theory is that the hoary old networks will require viewers to subscribe with a cable or satellite service.

And while this may not play well with the handful of old-timers watching TV on their newfangled digital antennae, I for one welcome our Comcast overlords. In an economic landscape where the most valuable viewers (in advertising terms) have cable, networks have been forced onto an uneven playing field. The quality of cable shows like “Mad Men” and “Sons of Anarchy” (among many, many others) — which should have forced the networks to create better original programming — instead led them to scramble for cheap reality show solutions that slowed the bleeding. Hence two-hour blocks of “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars” and one-hour results shows the following day — anything to save them from the cost of writers, of actors, of new ideas, of risk. Anything that might result in, for lack of a better word, art.

I’d happily pay a few more dollars a month to have the option of more original programming and less reality trash, and those who disagree can get in line behind the people talking about how much they love the feel of the morning newspaper in their hands. I believe that line starts behind you. In the 20th century.