Is This Really Worth $190 A Month?

I am not making this up.

We are spending about half our time now in Nashville.

We have a condo.

The condo has DirecTV

Cable.. satellite.  Who can tell?  It’s all the same. (Yeah, I have seen the ads).

Our cable bill in NY runs to $190 a month.

And what are our choices?

How many times have you flipped through the guide and said ‘there is nothing to watch’?

Last night, I was so astonished at the range of options that I took a photo of some of them to share.

Here they are:

Brazil Butt Lift
Zumba Fitness
Best Vacuum Ever!
Portable Cooktop
Best Pillows Ever! (note exclamation point)
[The exclamation point did not even have its own typewriter key until the 1970’s. Now it is everywhere!!!)
Best Sex Ever!

This is it?

This is what I am paying for?

Does anyone even watch these things? (Depressing enough that these are the offerings. Even more depressing to think that there are people who are tuning in to ‘Best Vacuum Ever’.

Is this an ongoing series?
Are there judges?
“Hoover.. you’re out!”
“No!!”
Is it an elimination show?
Do you have to go through a series of eliminations with increasingly harder to vacuum up things?  (Is that even English?)
Do you vote from home?

The weird thing is that this comes at the same time as Time/Warner has decided to drop Ovation, the cultural Channel.

“Other channels Time Warner Cable identified as being under review include Encore, Music Choice, News 12, NHL Network, ShopNBC, Smithsonian HD, and Style Network.”

Ovation, of course, is (or was) a culture and arts channel.

Apparently there is not much appetite in this country for Arts, Music, Culture, Opera, Symphony, Great Movies or Documentaries.
There is, however, a big appetite for pillows, vacuum cleaners, and zumba.

Not to mention how to get a Brazilian Butt Lift, (which is probably a spin off of Best Sex Ever! (exclamation point).

Tags : Cable , Time , 47 , Warner , DirecTV
Category : Television

Copyright 2013 Michael Rosenblum

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.