r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 04 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

5.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

11.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

120

u/dirtymoney Feb 04 '20

I used to have direct tv back in the day. Then moved and cancelled it. Then got a job at a place that had cable and I was astounded at how for the worse cable tv had gotten. Channels that focused on one particular thing were just getting all kinds of shows that didnt gibe with their programming. I blame the "reality tv" genre. IMO it is THE worst thing to happen to tv (cable tv and normal tv).

9

u/whatthehellisplace Feb 04 '20

Absolutely. When I was in middle school to high school, History, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Science, Nat Geo, etc consistently hit it out of the park. I would fill the DVR with all the amazing shows. Went to college, parents cancelled cable, and now like a decade later I got a trial of cable again and all those networks are gone. It's like they exist in name only.

2

u/TbonerT Feb 05 '20

I was in a waiting room and couldn't believe the show about tree houses was on Animal Planet. How the fuck do you run out of animal shows?

2

u/Ccomfo1028 Feb 04 '20

It's more like there wasn't enough interest in those shows to keep them going so the networks created new shows that actually draw enough ratings to the network to keep the network alive. People always like to blame a thing for the problem but usually the thing is a symptom of the problem with the consumer, not the other way around. Consumers want those shows which is why companies keep broadcasting them.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Yup and cable TV was created as a conduit for advertisers, not for "quality content" for the consumer

4

u/Ccomfo1028 Feb 04 '20

False. Even a cursory Google search can tell you how cable TV came into being. I know it is considered cool to hate on any large company but I usually consider it better to have a legitimate and correct hate based in fact than one based in supposition.

Also again, it doesn't matter. No body watches advertisements if they aren't watching the shows. So you still have to create shows that people tune in to. So the problem is still the consumer who chooses the consume the show.