Unbound Edition - Cable TV, Mass Appeal, Evolution and the Internet

Cable TV in the eighties offered niche programming not available on regular network television. It has evolved since then, catering to larger audiences as it competes with ABC, NBC and CBS.

NPR’s All Things Considered recently did a report on the changing face of cable TV as it moves to a wider audience. It draws attention to Bravo, a basic cable channel dedicated to arts programming, and AMC, which airs series that appeal to broader audiences like “Mad Men” (make sure to read Kristin Ament’s Attention Deficit Theatre posts for fantastic and humorous “Mad Men” episode synopses).

Citing statistics that three-fifths of U.S. homes now have basic cable, NPR reporter Neda Ulaby explains how basic cable is now competing with network television. As a result, there are now History Channel shows following the lives of ice road truckers and loggers, and The Learning Channel is teaching us “What Not to Wear.”

Where do people go for niche programming these days? The Internet. And it’s no longer programming, but content – text, audio, images, and video – and social media that allows ordinary people to produce and share that content and network easily and inexpensively.

Ulaby concludes her report with a pitch for a cable knitting channel. No good for cable TV, but perfectly suited for the “Internet” or “video-on-demand.” Go online and already millions of pages result from a Google search of “knitting.” There you can also find 90 podcasts from PodcastAlley.com, 25,100 videos on YouTube and eight social networks listed on FindaSocialNetwork.com.

Like kite surfing? Try KiteGurus.com. What if you’re a fan or participant of rodeos? Join RodeoSpace.com. Take the social networking element, sprinkle the capabilities of YouTube here, a dash of PodcastAlley.com there, top it with the ability to comment, share and respond, and the recipe for rich, niche programming is complete.

If you’re not getting your arts programming fill from Bravo series like “Top Chef” and “Real Housewives of Orange County,” the Internet can not only help you tune-in to more than just channels, but also rich and interactive content.

Yes, but...
written by I'll stick to Cable... for now., September 10, 2008 04:03 PM

I wonder where production value comes from when we're talking about these niche "channels" online. I'd love to watch niche programming online that I can't find through traditional media, but the quality is always so crappy, if not completely unwatchable. Youtube is great, but even my 8mbps DSL hiccups every 10 seconds on most clips. Media players take forever to buffer. Where's the revenue for sites willing to spend the extra money to create something worth watching that you can actually watch?

Interactive Immersion
written by John, September 10, 2008 04:41 PM

I think he's talking about more than just online video. Podcasts, social networks, photos, articles, etc. Right? Complete immersion in a topic. Not to mention, online video has come a long way in terms of quality!

I find myself turning to the Internet while I'm watching cable. Going to stlcardinals.com to see that instant replay one more time...finding out when the next episode of Man vs. Wild will be on...figuring out if this is the first episode of Sons of Anarchy and what the series is about. I know that's not exactly what Paul's talking about here, but it just made me think about how interactive the Internet is and how one-way the TV is. When will it change??

...
written by Paul K. Jonas, September 11, 2008 08:05 AM

I'll Stick to Cable...:
You're right about quality. An amateur video on YouTube will never replace a full, professionally produced piece. And revenue online has been in the news a lot lately, and it's fleeting. A result, perhaps, of the reasons you named - quality, wait times and bandwidth issues.

As John brings up, and the point I'm trying to make is: While niche programming continues disappearing online content is taking its place. The quality of production definitely isn't there, but if you love knitting, you choose between nothing on cable, and low production quality, though more varied and interactive content, online.

It has been changing as bandwidth and technology in people's homes change and as programming producers get more used to content being online. As the quality and instantaneousness of online video improves, I wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, Bravo keeps its current cable programming, but offers the niche content it once did online.

duh
written by JerkyBoy, September 12, 2008 08:08 AM

Yeh. Sure. We get it. This is assumed by almost everyone in the media world. Internet, just like cable. The interesting issue here isn't the simple observation. It is the issue of net neutrality. If the Net is just like cable, you can expect your "premium channels" or favorite sites to come with a higher cost. Not all content is created equal (clearly) and some should and will be free (like this). Do some research into the massive fight between Google (on one side of the lobbying aisle) and AT T (on the other) and you will see who wants freedom of information to keep data flowing (Google) and who wants to charge tariffs and tolls (AT T) to keep pushing heavy and popular content through their pipes.

Dear JerkyBoy...
written by Sam, September 12, 2008 09:28 AM

Enter "net neutrality" in the search box above and you'll find plenty of original UE and aggregated content on the topic. Obviously it is a huge topic that the author chose not to touch in this post.

slap me silly
written by LadyHumps, September 13, 2008 04:42 PM

The lady will not hump if the telecoms win.

re: duh
written by Paul K. Jonas, September 15, 2008 08:56 AM

My primary assumption is that some of the content and activity on the Internet replaces programming that once could have only existed on cable. Net neutrality is a major issue and a major division between the business models of Google, AT&T and companies like them.

And don’t get me wrong, the Internet is nothing like cable. What they share is the ability to deliver informative content (ads, info and entertainment) to an end-user, but the comparison ends there. Currently, what the Internet provides is much, much richer – largely because of net neutrality, and the absolute leveling of the field of content creation and sharing – even as it becomes more difficult to be heard among the increasing number of voices online.