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Media Companies Are Ready to Sell. Does Anyone Want to Buy?

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vchimpanzee said:
but these days I don't think any of the machines work.
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I have 5 new Panasonic VHS VCRs (and a bunch of used ones from thrift shops) - VHS on a CRT TV looks great!

I've got my PC -> VHS set up so all I have to do is move 1 HDMI cable and I can time shift max & Hulu content w/VHS.


Suggestions for 4 time zone based regional TV "control center" locations:
ET: New York, NY
CT: Chicago, IL
MT: Albin, WY
PT: Los Angeles, CA


Kirk Bayne
 
kfbkfb said:
Suggestions for 4 time zone based regional TV "control center" locations:
ET: New York, NY
CT: Chicago, IL
MT: Albin, WY
PT: Los Angeles, CA
Click to expand...
As has already been mentioned, what you're claiming could be done is called CentralCasting. It's where Master Control, Traffic (scheduling) graphics, and certain national sales tasks are centralized to a single location controlling stations either regionally, or nationally. How do I know? I invented it back in 2000.
All the NBC O&O's are controlled from a suburb of Denver, CO, Dry Creek. NBC networks, including NBC Sports, MSNBC, CNBC, etc., are all controlled out of New Jersey.
The Fox O&O's are all controlled out of Tennessee, along with Fox News and Fox Business.
Discovery moved master control a couple years ago to the cloud. They have people watching the streams in Silver Spring MD., but content is all streamed to cable and satellite from the cloud.
 
Certainly, current USA Gov rules limit ownership (AFAIK, one company wouldn't be allowed to own all of the commercial TV station transmitters in the USA), but, IMHO, a case could be made that allowing single company to own of some OTA TV assets could allow OTA DTV to survive a little longer.


Kirk Bayne
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
I'm with Mr. Hagerty on this one. Maybe in the past there was brand loyalty to a network, but nowadays people watch shows, not networks. I also started with Netflix back when they were just DVD delivery, but dropped them a few years ago because they just didn't have any shows I wanted to watch. When I get done watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the promotional discount ends, Paramount Plus goes bye bye, too.

Now, are there brands that I've stuck with? Sure. But it isn't always out of a sense of loyalty to the company. I have had Cox internet for a long time, but that's not out of a love of the company but rather that the only other option is even worse. I just got my car insurance renewal from USAA and while they have been very good, one thing that keeps me from shopping around is the rather hefty discount I get from being a customer for over 20 years.

Which gets me to thinking...

When I was home for the holidays (Detroit area) watching local TV and being bombarded with commercials, I was reminded that if you are an employee or family member and have that returning customer discount, you can get a pretty smoking lease deal on a new GM or Ford vehicle. Would I have ditched Netflix if they sent me a nice email saying "you've been with us since the old days, so don't you worry about that price increase."? Would I be so eager to ditch Cox if they didn't raise my rate every 6 months to a year because I've been a loyal customer? Hmm...

As a consumer, I get nothing for being loyal to Paramount. There's no reward for sticking it out with Time Warner. It's all about the content, or in the words of Janet Jackson, "what have you done for me lately?"
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All good points. I'm with USAA too (first wife's dad was career Navy). Service has been exemplary when I've needed it and on the few occasions I've checked, the rates and length-of-membership discounts (36 years next week for me) can't be beat.

I had Cox cable/internet in Phoenix and Comcast/Xfinity here in Sacramento, and I've found that if I call every three years when they raise the rate on my package, I'll usually get the "in honor of your being with us for ____ years" speech, they find a similar or even slightly better package and my rate ends up either where it had been for the past three years or even five to ten bucks below.

The difference with streaming to me is: It doesn't matter if they offer me a discount for loyalty. If the show I want to watch on a streamer is gone, paying less and then trying to find something I want to watch there isn't as valuable to me as leaving, paying them zero, and watching what I want to watch on another streamer.

To me, it's like a movie theater. Let's say I've just seen "Ferrari". Maybe the next movie I want to see is "Argyle" (I have no idea if I do or not, but Bryan Cranston's in it). It comes out February 2.

If my local cinema offers to take the $13.00 ticket price and cut it to $6.50 if I'll come back every weekend and watch movies I don't want to see until “Argyle” comes out ("Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom", "Godzilla Minus One", "Trolls Band Together" and "Migration") is that a deal?

I'll be back when they have something I want to see.
 
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Mark Roberts said:
Thanks for the insights. We've managed to avoid Prime to this point; most of the time, we don't need next-day delivery.
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The upside to Amazon Prime is free delivery. I never pay extra and usually my stuff arrives in 3-5 days. But sometimes, it's next day and sometimes it's same day. I've ordered something I just realized I was out of at noon and had it on my doorstep by 4:00 p.m. at no extra cost and without asking for special service. For people who want that no matter what, there's an extra charge (usually $2.99).

Many items on Amazon also have a Prime discount on top of that. Right now, I'm looking at handheld gimbals for my iPhone, in case I expand to video with the car reviews. Some have no price break, but others are showing Prime discounts of between 6% and 27%.

I renew on an annual basis ($139), which works out to $11.58 a month. So you're either getting a (frequently) discounted shopping site with free delivery and free video streaming, or a streaming platform that's about four bucks a month less than Netflix that also includes (frequently) discounted shopping and free delivery.

Mark Roberts said:
John Oliver might be the gateway drug for us in the wild west of streaming.
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It's a great show.
 
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kfbkfb said:
I have 5 new Panasonic VHS VCRs (and a bunch of used ones from thrift shops) - VHS on a CRT TV looks great!
Click to expand...

Sure.

kfbkfb said:
I've got my PC -> VHS set up so all I have to do is move 1 HDMI cable and I can time shift max & Hulu content w/VHS.
Click to expand...

That's all, huh?

kfbkfb said:
Suggestions for 4 time zone based regional TV "control center" locations:
ET: New York, NY
CT: Chicago, IL
MT: Albin, WY
PT: Los Angeles, CA


Kirk Bayne
Click to expand...

"With regional control centers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Albin, Wyoming, this is the Zookmeister Broadcasting System."
 
michael hagerty said:
If my local cinema offers to take the $13.00 ticket price and cut it to $6.50 if I'll come back every weekend and watch movies I don't want to see ("Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom", "Godzilla Minus One", "Trolls Band Together" and "Migration" is that a deal?

I'll be back when they have something I want to see.
Click to expand...
On the topic of movies, my favorite theater (and I've been meaning to get back there) is Michael Pollack's Tempe Cinemas. Prior to the pandemic, I used to go there all the time to get my movie fix. Just wait a month or two for a film to hit the "discount theater" level, because "wealthy real estate developer who loves film and just wants to own a movie house" is a great thing. It wasn't a bottom of the barrel venue, either. He really went out of his way to make it nice. I could see a movie, have a drink and a bucket of popcorn for about what Dan Harkins charged for a single ticket around the corner.
 
kfbkfb said:
Certainly, current USA Gov rules limit ownership (AFAIK, one company wouldn't be allowed to own all of the commercial TV station transmitters in the USA), but, IMHO, a case could be made that allowing single company to own of some OTA TV assets could allow OTA DTV to survive a little longer.
Click to expand...
What benefit would there be to single ownership of a bunch of TV transmission sites? I sure can't think of any.
 
michael hagerty said:
"With regional control centers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Albin, Wyoming, this is the Zookmeister Broadcasting System."
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I had to look it up. I could drive there in less than half a day, at least if Front Range traffic isn't bad. (Edit: Google Maps says under 2 1/2 hours. Quicker than going from San Francisco to Sacramento during most parts of the day now.)

In that spirit, I propose that the California control center be in Denair. The one for the Midwest can be in Maquoketa, Iowa. Or maybe Peculiar, Mo. "This is PBS: the Peculiar Broadcasting System".
 
Mark Roberts said:
I had to look it up. I could drive there in less than half a day, at least if Front Range traffic isn't bad. (Edit: Google Maps says under 2 1/2 hours. Quicker than going from San Francisco to Sacramento during most parts of the day now.)
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Yes, except once you do that.......

You're in Albin, f-ing Wyoming, not San Francisco.

Mark Roberts said:
In that spirit, I propose that the California control center be in Denair.
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Why not? We already have a kick-ass Country station in Banta (paging @BossRadioDJ ).

Mark Roberts said:
The one for the Midwest can be in Maquoketa, Iowa. Or maybe Peculiar, Mo. "This is PBS: the Peculiar Broadcasting System".
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:LOL:
 
michael hagerty said:
The upside to Amazon Prime is free delivery. I never pay extra and usually my stuff arrives in 3-5 days. But sometimes, it's next day and sometimes it's same day. I've ordered something I just realized I was out of at noon and had it on my doorstep by 4:00 p.m. at no extra cost and without asking for special service. For people who want that no matter what, there's an extra charge (usually $2.99).

Many items on Amazon also have a Prime discount on top of that. Right now, I'm looking at handheld gimbals for my iPhone, in case I expand to video with the car reviews. Some have no price break, but others are showing Prime discounts of between 6% and 27%.

I renew on an annual basis ($139), which works out to $11.58 a month. So you're either getting a (frequently) discounted shopping site with free delivery and free video streaming, or a streaming platform that's about four bucks a month less than Netflix that also includes (frequently) discounted shopping and free delivery.



It's a great show.
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Do that many watch Prime Video or just have it because of Amazon Prime?
 
TheBigA said:
It doesn't matter. It's all the same thing. That's the genus of it, and why it's hard to compete against it.
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Although if the Nielsens came in and it turned out that most of those Prime account holders were only in it for the free shipping, that might dissuade advertisers from putting more dollars toward the programming on Prime Video. Apparently, the NFL numbers are satisfactory, but what about other shows?
 
TheBigA said:
You're comparing two very different things. I went into a car dealer with cash thinking that would get me a better price, and was told that financing is where the wiggle room is. So paying the full amount doesn't give the cable company any room for discount.
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I had a conversation about this when I bought my new car last February. Of the non-lease buyers, 85% to 90% were cash. I'd imagine that the current high interest rates make financing even less desirable.
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
Yeah you never, ever tell them up front that you're paying in cash. And financing is not where the "wiggle room" is. The finance office is where the real money is made.
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It's all in the "special paint protection coating" and gem-studded floor mats. Fortunately, the car I got last year had none of those options and the "finance office" was an accountant bringing some papers for me to sign in the little coffee and pastry shop the dealer has.

The worst experience was when we had a second home and wanted a less expensive "second car" there and got a Kia Soul. First, the salesperson could not talk about anything except "monthly payments" and "how much is your monthly budget for your car?".

Then, they wanted to convince me to finance "so I would not dry up my savings account". Convincing them that I wanted to pay cash was actually challenging. But the "Twilight Zone" was the finance office. Glass breakage ("most insurance does not cover that") and sealants and window tinting and upholstery protection and... and... and...

I look at the "finance office" the same way I look at the skunk that wanders through our back yard occasionally.
 
Kelly A said:
That, and I don't drink coffee.
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Too bad. I could have sent you some of my direct contact Puerto Rican stuff that is beyond world-class.
 
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