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Your 2018 general TV predictions (or guesses)

There will be a shake-out in diginets, with some merging and/or going away.
Of the ones I suspect won't be with us next year:

- Stadium (a pale shadow of the former ASN with lame talk shows and little actual sports coverage)
- Retro TV (with lame Canadian cop shows and Mr. Peepers it was pretty much dead anyway)
- TBD (does it's Millenial target audience know it exists? If so they would feel insulted by it)
- Escape (just how many back-to-back episodes of Cold Case Files can one take?)

Retro TV used to be one of the top diginets about 10 years ago and now it's only on small stations
 
There will be a shake-out in diginets, with some merging and/or going away.
Of the ones I suspect won't be with us next year:

- Stadium (a pale shadow of the former ASN with lame talk shows and little actual sports coverage)
- Retro TV (with lame Canadian cop shows and Mr. Peepers it was pretty much dead anyway)
- TBD (does it's Millenial target audience know it exists? If so they would feel insulted by it)
- Escape (just how many back-to-back episodes of Cold Case Files can one take?)

My personal feeling is that Sinclair is using TBD as a placeholder for possibly starting an over-the-air Fox News competitor. My other guess (as I mentioned in this thread already) is that thisTV and Charge! will merge once the Sinclair/Tribune deal is done.
 
My personal feeling is that Sinclair is using TBD as a placeholder for possibly starting an over-the-air Fox News competitor. My other guess (as I mentioned in this thread already) is that thisTV and Charge! will merge once the Sinclair/Tribune deal is done.

Well for the past year since the Sinclair/Tribune deal has came into play there's been constant rumors of certain number of pundits leaving Fox News for Sinclair. Also there's been constant rumors of Circa a Sinclair owned news outlet trying to take a page from Scripps newsy playbook and get a cable deal. What has been confirmed is that Fox is going to get 10 divested Sinclair stations and Seattle is the most notable one for now.
 
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/ben-swann-fired-from-cbs46/199782

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news...t-right-based-reports/069ihocOfqVw6iayr96cjK/

Here is Meredith's response to the Ben Swann Fallout


Ben Swann is no longer an employee of WGCL-TV, effective immediately,” said WGCL’s general manager Lyle Banks in a statement. “We thank Ben for his contributions and wish him well.”

Swann was suspended from the Meredith-owned station on Friday. As we reported earlier today, Swann was sidelined after it was revealed he appeared in a promo for the relaunch of his independent investigative platform. Swann had previously overseen something called the Truth in Media platform while also producing Reality Check segments for the CBS affiliate.

CBS46 suspended Swann last January as well, following his report on the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy story. As a condition of his return to the station, the Truth in Media social media platforms went dark.
 

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/little-reality-in-ben-swanns-boston-bombings-reality-check/88514

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/anchor-ben-swann-suspended-from-cbs46-again/199721

TVspy is also reporting that Ben Swann prior to working for the Meredith duopoly in Atlanta was accused of spreading conspiracy theories on the Raycom owned station WXIX in 2013.

Im Surprised Sinclair didn't get Swann earlier. This recent firing of Ben Swann is just going to give Sinclair and Infowars a chance to fight over pundits here given how much these two companies have gotten lots of attention recently.
 
Last-minute prediction regarding tonight's Oscars:

Tonight's Academy Awards broadcast on ABC will be the lowest-rated (or among the lowest-rated) ever in Oscars broadcast history. Even some markets where other network competition beats ABC Oscars coverage in some time periods.
 
There will be a shake-out in diginets, with some merging and/or going away.
Of the ones I suspect won't be with us next year:

- Stadium (a pale shadow of the former ASN with lame talk shows and little actual sports coverage)
- Retro TV (with lame Canadian cop shows and Mr. Peepers it was pretty much dead anyway)
- TBD (does it's Millenial target audience know it exists? If so they would feel insulted by it)
- Escape (just how many back-to-back episodes of Cold Case Files can one take?)

Of those four that you listed, three of them are available in my market:

--Stadium on WBUI-23.3 (Decatur, IL)
--TBD on WICS-20.3 (Springfield, IL) and WICD-15.3 (Champaign, IL)
--Escape on WCIX-49.3 (Springfield)
 
Escape now also airs Without A Trace. I wonder will we have many subchannel launches this year? We already have had Quest which is different for a subchannel. It shows older History/Discovery content. Hope they keep adding new content it will become stale after a while.
Could Sinclair launch Kids Click as a full-time subchannel? Other than PBS Kids there is nothing. There would surely be a market for a full-time commercial kids channel OTA. All other countries have at least one.
 
More local Independent stations will Launch that add lots of Sub Channels. We have lots of Kids channels. Their was PBJ.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I don't understand the point. What is the future in this, when we can increasingly stream everything over the internet? Most people access broadcast stations via cable and satellite, and that industry is losing ground. This is why companies like Comcast are so hungry to kill net neutrality, and gain control over the internet. Their old business model is dying, and they want to control the new business model. Whether or not they win that fight (likely as long as Trump and the GOP are in control), I don't see how lots of broadcast station sub-channels can be commercially viable.

So why should I watch the same few dozen chopped up and sped-up reruns or kids shows on commercial sub-channels when I can stream a greater variety of similar shows on the internet, without commercials?
 
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/26/politics/tom-steyer-defends-impeachment-ads/index.html

Tom Steyer will be a national name for producing superpac ads for congressional ads, governors, and mayors in some parts of the country. Tom Steyer will produce superpac ads and this time Steyer will expand his ads outside of Sacramento and Bay Area audiences. The reason its to attack the Koch Brothers directly for political ad spending via ballot initiatives.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...c-reserves-43-million-in-fall-ad-reservations

Update now the Superpac ad spending is now underway so far the DNC Superpac has been mentioned.


The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the House Democrats' campaign arm, has unveiled 101 GOP-held districts it plans to target. The list includes top seats the party thinks it can flip to more reach districts it believes it could win if there was a Democratic wave.

While Republicans are facing strong political headwinds ahead of the fall midterms, they’re feeling more bullish about 2018 after passing the tax overhaul in December. The law has seen its popularity in polls tick up recently.

Here’s a full list of HMP's ad buys in each state with a breakdown of the markets:

California: $5.22 million in Los Angeles, $1.54 million in Sacramento, $1.24 million in San Diego

Texas: $2.2 million in Dallas-Ft. Worth, $1.98 million in Houston, $850,000 in San Antonio

Florida: $1.12 million in Miami, $1.93 million in Orlando, $420,000 in West Palm Beach

Minnesota: $3.52 million in Minneapolis

Pennsylvania: $2.97 million in Philadelphia

Nevada: $2.79 million in Las Vegas

Washington, DC: $1.88 million

Colorado: $1.76 million in Denver

Maine: $616,000 in Bangor, $1.01 million in Portland, $70,000 in Presque Isle

Washington state: $1.69 million in Seattle

Arizona: $1.17 million in Phoenix, $480,000 in Tucson

New York: $210,000 in Albany, $1.32 million in New York City

Michigan: $1.129 million in Detroit, $162,000 in Lansing

Missouri: $660,000 in Kansas City, $530,000 in St. Louis

Iowa: $540,000 in Cedar Rapid, $600,000 in Des Moines

Illinois: $1.04 million in Chicago

Nebraska: $896,250 in Omaha

New Hampshire/Massachusetts: $762,500 in Manchester/Boston

Kentucky: $564,000 in Lexington

Kansas: $240,000 in Topeka
 
Escape now also airs Without A Trace. I wonder will we have many subchannel launches this year? We already have had Quest which is different for a subchannel. It shows older History/Discovery content. Hope they keep adding new content it will become stale after a while.
Could Sinclair launch Kids Click as a full-time subchannel? Other than PBS Kids there is nothing. There would surely be a market for a full-time commercial kids channel OTA. All other countries have at least one.

Um, on most every Ion affiliate, the xx.2 subchannel is Qubo, which during the week or weekend throws 3 hours of its 24/7 programming on Ion so those xx.1 subchannels are E/I compliant.
 
The "Roseanne" revival wins its time slot in its return to ABC March 27, but afterward, despite airing on the original version's treasured Tuesday night time slot, flounders in the ratings and will not come back for a full season in 2018-2019 (maybe a few extra original shows in the summer).

However, I will predict there will be one interesting (and IMO mind-blowing) plot line: One of Becky's kids has a baby--making Roseanne and Dan Connor great-grandparents.

http://tvline.com/2017/12/21/roseanne-season-10-photos-darlene-children/

So far I'm way off on this prediction--"Roseanne" revival debut cleaned up the competition Tuesday night:

http://deadline.com/2018/03/roseann...-hollywood-prompts-soul-searching-1202354973/

But of course the big question is can the high ratings continue? We'll find out Tuesday night (or actually Wednesday when the ratings are announced).

And I'll also predict that Roseanne's success will lead to a slew of additional sitcom revivals. I've heard "Married With Children" rumored for a revival, while the above article is also suggesting that "Home Improvement" return.

And despite how the final episode went, I always have wanted to see a revival of "The Wonder Years." Even though if you base the setting on "Wonder Years time" or exactly 20 years prior to today, we are looking at such a revival taking place in 1998 (WOW!) and leading up to the turn of the millenium and right before 9/11. Which, IMO ca. 1998-2001 (and perhaps later) would be worth an interesting TWY revival considering world/national events at that time (e.g., Clinton/Lewinsky scandal starting to dominate news exactly 20 years ago in TWY time, McGuire-Sosa home run chase, Clinton impeachment, Columbine, death of JFK Jr., Y2K fears, the 2000 election/Florida recount, increased world terrorism, then 9/11).
 
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With all the excessive promotion, I figured "Roseanne" would do really well. The episode was really funny, but can they keep it up? A lot of the jokes were only possible one time.
 
... while the above article is also suggesting that "Home Improvement" return.

Tim Allen acknowledged your rumor recently but said it would be virtually impossible to attain the success of the original. I think he is still very pissed that ABC cancelled "Last Man Standing" which was a bonafide hit and still in production.
 
Tim Allen acknowledged your rumor recently but said it would be virtually impossible to attain the success of the original. I think he is still very pissed that ABC cancelled "Last Man Standing" which was a bonafide hit and still in production.

I have nothing in common with Allen politically, but the cancellation was a stupid move on ABC's part. First, because it was popular. Second, because it gave the appearance of trying to quash views that are opposed by the "Hollywood Liberal Elite."
 
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