"RoseGarden" - - - - - - - from - nscave

In my location, February is always free preview month for the so called specialty channels. I have written before how they are bundled together to satisfy someone other than the viewer, and that programming is limited. Your area may differ.

Here are my updated views of the specialty channels for 2009.

You will see the same programs on multiple channels that you pay extra for.

It is bad enough that after the free preview you will see the same programs rerun over and over again throughout the year. Now you will see the same programs rerun over and over on different channels.

For example, Everest, The Ultimate Survival, Thirsty Traveller and Valerie Pringle Has Left The Building are shown on multiple channels. Sometimes these channels are in the same bundle or group, other times in differing packages. Point is, you are paying for specialty programming, a package of channels that should provide a variety of programs. Bad enough that you are also paying for advertising that goes along with these channels.

Channels can be shifted from one package to another and you can do little.

I subscribed to a package that included the Men channel. Not great, but it did include a few programs that were worthwhile. This month it was moved to another package and Cosmo was put in my package in its place. Of all the channels I have checked out, Cosmo is the most useless one I have ever seen. Granted it is primarily a women's content type channel, but even so I can't see many women interested in the stuff that is presented on there. For one thing, all of the programs that you are paying extra for are, or have been, available on other regular channels.

Rerun The Reruns.

On regular TV channels most of us get tired at the end of a season when the dozen or less programs have been shown and they run them over again to complete the season.

On the specialty channels they do better than that. They rerun the same programs over and over for several years. Sometimes the clips may be rearranged to make you think at first it is a new program or one that you may have missed.

I have voiced my concerns.

Have I let anyone know about my observations? You bet. I received some lame excuses that their budget is very low and that they cannot afford much new programming yearly. (That came from one of the largest TV networks in our land, who owns many of the specialty channels.)

I was told programs are rerun at different times so everyone, even shift workers have the opportunity to view them. (They must expect only one shift worker at a time to view the program.)

I was promised that new programming would be available at the start of the new season. When does that season start? That comment came two years ago.

I can see why these channels do not succeed very well. In my opinion, they are not worth the expense. I can't understand why they are regulated so much that only the large established networks are allowed to begin and run a new specialty channel.

Thank goodness for DVDs and computers.

-=One Day At A Time=-

This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License