Cablevision and ABC/Disney are in negotiation about the price of carrying ABC. Not a cable channel -- the basic ABC channel, which has Lost, Modern Family, Cougar Town and tonight (no coincidence) the Academy Awards. And as a negotiating tactic, ABC has shut the signal down.
This happened earlier this year, with the Food Network. It was resolved in a few weeks, but for a little while, we had no access to Good Eats, etc. So we already know that Cablevision are giant douchebags.
I don't know how cable works everywhere, but here? They're the only game in town. We have some choices for Internet, but if we want cable, we've got to go through Cablevision. So our only response as consumers angry at the preemption of some of our favorite shows is to cancel our cable... cutting off all of our favorite shows. (With the preponderance of TV available on the internet and DVD, I'm honestly considering it.)
If there were some alternate provider, who was carrying the Oscars tonight? You can bet Cablevision would be carrying them, too. Because they couldn't risk a mass defection. As it is, they're risking nothing but goodwill -- which they don't need, because they're the only game in town.
Rob
PS. I just couldn't find any suitable Oscar imagery to go with this post. Google Image search terms included: Oscar statue broken, Oscar statue in toilet, Oscar statue in trash, Oscar statue stolen, Oscar statue defaced, Oscar statue satirical, Oscar statue up someone's ass. NOTHING. Who knew Oscar was such a sacred institution? Will Academy members issue death threats to newspapers who print anything but an official image of Hollywood's favorite sex toy? When did Google become a Dutch newspaper?
10 comments:
May I suggest: http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/bgr/lowres/bgrn1080l.jpg
We're lucky enough to have Service Electric (oldest provider in PA) CATV.
Thankfully the tendrils of ComCrap haven't spread this far north... yet.
I suggest you learn about and use bittorrents, if you don't already. Just about anything that is on TV ends up in a torrent within an hour after it's over, with the commercials edited out. I watch half a dozen cable series this way - SGU, Lost, Bill Maher, Burn Notice, V, Caprica, etc., etc.
If you're interested, let me know, and I'll send you an invite from an invite-only tv torrent site. It's very fast and they don't do illegal movie rips.
I wish you and I could just trade places tonight. I have absolutely no interest in watching the Oscars!
speaking of torrents, i just came across this movie: The Lionshare. it's free to share and download around the 'net.
http://www.lionsharemovie.com/
17 minutes into the broadcast, someone knuckled under. So we missed the opener (which I might need to torrent, thanks, Don), but that's about it. I'm letting it build up a little on the Tivo so we can fast-forward the commercials -- particularly the commercials for ABC shows.
It's been al most a year since I dropped my cable (Comcast) and I'm surviving happily.
My "television" viewing, such as it is, has by default become much more intentional. I just depend rather heavily on my Netflix membership. I'm watching several series for the first time (Dexter, Six Feet Under, Spaced), with some movies thrown into the mix. And there are some reruns, just to make it feel like "real" old school TV; I had begun to re-watch Buffy, but I've backburnered that in favor of starting Lost over again from the beginning since I've not seen anything past season two...
The only thing I miss is the pleasure of stumbling upon a fun program on Discovery or such.
I've only recently poked a toe into the torrent.
In the UK you can only get the Oscars if you sign up to Sky Satellite (a murdoch company), not worth it for one night a year.
(today's word verification: dingste)
-- Greg, it must really be strange to watch Dexter and Six Feet Under concurrently. There should be a rule, kinda like not mixing your drinks, or leading cast members.
(verification word: brina)
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