6 votes

TV stations are launching multicast networks as an opportunity to reach cord cutters

5 comments

  1. moocow1452
    Link
    Couple this with Locast being ordered to shut down because it was using it's funding as a non-profit to serve new areas and pay it's employees, and it's a little depressing that this content...

    Couple this with Locast being ordered to shut down because it was using it's funding as a non-profit to serve new areas and pay it's employees, and it's a little depressing that this content that's supposed to be available to everyone in that area for free has a point of access being shut down because the right people aren't getting theirs.

    6 votes
  2. [4]
    joplin
    Link
    As someone who has and uses an antenna on their TV, broadcast TV outside of public television is largely a wasteland. These broadcasters often take what were originally 24-26 minute shows, cut...

    As someone who has and uses an antenna on their TV, broadcast TV outside of public television is largely a wasteland. These broadcasters often take what were originally 24-26 minute shows, cut them down to 21 minutes and show more ads. (And they’re showing more 15 second ads now so they can sell more ads per hour.)

    3 votes
    1. teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      I begrudgingly tolerate the 15 seconds of ads I’m forced to watch per YouTube video. I don’t understand how legacy entertainment can get away with their old ad model. I recently quit using Reddit...

      I begrudgingly tolerate the 15 seconds of ads I’m forced to watch per YouTube video. I don’t understand how legacy entertainment can get away with their old ad model.

      I recently quit using Reddit and replaced it with YouTube. I’m mostly subscribed to channels like Smarter Every Day. After a few months of this my opinion is that the big science education YouTube channels are higher quality content than most of what’s on Netflix and almost everything that’s on TV.

      5 votes
    2. Akir
      Link Parent
      It was bad 15 years ago; I can't imagine what it's like now. Local TV is pretty much dead outside of PBS, replaced with network television where the only difference in their programming is the...

      It was bad 15 years ago; I can't imagine what it's like now. Local TV is pretty much dead outside of PBS, replaced with network television where the only difference in their programming is the advertisements and news programs. But local TV news is terrible. They are produced very cheaply and there is nothing even close to investigative journalism in most places, which means that most stories are "this is what's happening in sports" and "I obviously heard about this story on the internet; let's see what the locals have to say". But that's not to say their bread and butter is death, violence, and crime - which, of course, never gets followed up on so you never have the full story and are just scared every day. Do I even need to bring up Sinclair Broadcasting at this point?

      I had some hopes when we switched to digital broadcasting. Where I live, broadcasters made tons of deals with local groups to add new broadcast streams in their subchannels. For a while, we had the Funimation Channel! We also had a cabal of religious groups create an entire station of religious programming. And of course, the shining stars were the PBS stations. They transmitted HD to people before most people even had access to HD content, and they filled their subchannels with their niche and local-related programming so you had greater access to the nation's PBS shows and the station operators were no longer so limited by the hours in a day.

      4 votes
    3. HotPants
      Link Parent
      It's an expanding wasteland. I made the mistake of scrolling through all the channels, trying to find last nights 20/20. It was mind boggling. AON. Bay watch. Ryans world. There was a 70s movie...

      It's an expanding wasteland.

      40% of all U.S. TV viewers above the age of 18 have a digital antenna,

      The average audience of top-tier multicast networks are now comparable to many ad supported cable networks

      ATSC 3.0 comes with many upgrades including more bandwidth which will allow for more multicast networks

      I made the mistake of scrolling through all the channels, trying to find last nights 20/20. It was mind boggling. AON. Bay watch. Ryans world.

      There was a 70s movie channel with a 70s movie that looked interesting, until I realized I didn't want to wait until the appointed hour to watch a movie filled with advertisements.

      I still love US digital TV for presidential debates (no ads) and super bowl (where I actually enjoy watching the ads I likely won't ever see again.)

      4 votes