>>>You and Charles both mentioned syndication. Is that a TV term or just US TV term, cos I've no idea what it means? I've heard it before, mind.
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>>Well, you see, in non-socialist countries where there are more than 2 government controlled TV stations <bg> there are a lot of stations that fill most of their day with content previously run on the big networks. To buy the rights to a show for running re-runs ( Friends each night at 6 pm for example ) they by the program in syndication at which point they pay a fee every time they run the show, but are assured others in their market can't buy those rights as long as their contract is in effect.
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>If you refer to the BBC - it's not govt run and there are at least 6 BBC TV channels now.
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Ah yes, forget we are post Maggie <g> ) ( kidding about the socialized television - BBC of course could never be confused with favoring socialism <s> )
No, I realize BBC is its own world. ( rather like London's city government <s> ) and subject to a lot more competition as well.
My point was simply the way broadcast licenses are done here there is a lot of marketing and packaging of programming with different commercial arrangements. ( though it could be argued what we actually have is 4 BBCs and then 400 channel 4s. ) In fact, of course, the major networks all own networks in the higher channel numbers where they get more mileage from products originally developed for the major network so the syndication game is very much in flux as well. So while it looks like there are a lot of channels there aren't a lot of owners of channels.
And the wild thing is in the next ten years it will all be across broadband and anybody who can have a web page now can have a TV station and the whole game will change again.
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>>Right now I get roughly 300 channels ( and there is nothing on ... <s> ) if you don't count all-musics channels ( get about 100 of those ) or foreign language or weird sports channels to which I don't subscribe.
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>I can pick up loads on free digital - far more than I care to even peruse.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
