What Sells
When cable television started in America it was localized service by a horde of individual providers. Americans had instilled in them at the time television was free. These small fragmented cable companies needed a hook to get people to pay for television, especially when cable only had about a dozen channels.
It is generally forgotten now, but the hook was risqué fair. I was playing around with a movie I had recorded from that era. You would never see anything like it on cable today, even though it was benign by the standards of the time (it is a comedy with strong sexual overtones). [I do not know what cable carries today on its restricted risqué channels]
Amazingly, you can not even get to this movie through such large video libraries as Netflex (the movie is still popular and in 5 languages). I suspect Reagan’s election and the Conservative moment caused cable to change its image as the purveyor of the risqué. To change its image cable focused on its other hooks. Such as, movies and no commercials for some content. This made HBO become a large highly successful company.
In these economic times the biggest fear of the three big cable companies, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner, is losing subscribers. They have enjoyed a license to print money through constantly raising rates. Cable and Satellite have an Achilles Heel. It is “Content” [programming]. There are only a few major players that dominate content. They are Disney, Viacom, CBS, and NBC. They are conglomerates that have gobbled up the likes of Showtime and the major movie studios. Now these big players are using alternative channels like the internet, as well as cable and satellite, for their media. This additional distribution leverage has created some fights with satellite and cable over rates. The most recent dust up was Time Warner and Viacom. Did you happen to see the full page advertisements with Dora the Explorer crying?
As the vise tightens on cable and satellite revenue look for a return to their roots, more risqué fair. There is one axiom that does not seem to ever change, “sex sells”.
When cable television started in America it was localized service by a horde of individual providers. Americans had instilled in them at the time television was free. These small fragmented cable companies needed a hook to get people to pay for television, especially when cable only had about a dozen channels.
It is generally forgotten now, but the hook was risqué fair. I was playing around with a movie I had recorded from that era. You would never see anything like it on cable today, even though it was benign by the standards of the time (it is a comedy with strong sexual overtones). [I do not know what cable carries today on its restricted risqué channels]
Amazingly, you can not even get to this movie through such large video libraries as Netflex (the movie is still popular and in 5 languages). I suspect Reagan’s election and the Conservative moment caused cable to change its image as the purveyor of the risqué. To change its image cable focused on its other hooks. Such as, movies and no commercials for some content. This made HBO become a large highly successful company.
In these economic times the biggest fear of the three big cable companies, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner, is losing subscribers. They have enjoyed a license to print money through constantly raising rates. Cable and Satellite have an Achilles Heel. It is “Content” [programming]. There are only a few major players that dominate content. They are Disney, Viacom, CBS, and NBC. They are conglomerates that have gobbled up the likes of Showtime and the major movie studios. Now these big players are using alternative channels like the internet, as well as cable and satellite, for their media. This additional distribution leverage has created some fights with satellite and cable over rates. The most recent dust up was Time Warner and Viacom. Did you happen to see the full page advertisements with Dora the Explorer crying?
As the vise tightens on cable and satellite revenue look for a return to their roots, more risqué fair. There is one axiom that does not seem to ever change, “sex sells”.
posted by CartoonsTE | 2:01 PM
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