2026 prediction thread.

[michael hagerty]

NBC uses that tagline on MTP because it's not only true, it's kinda cool to say.

First airdates for the big three networks' Sunday news/politics talk shows:
Meet The Press: November 6, 1947
Face The Nation: November 7, 1954
This Week: November 15, 1981 (originally "with David Brinkley" until his retirement in 1996, "with George Stephanopoulos" since 2012). Its predecessor, Issues And Answers, began November 27, 1960.

It should also be noted that in the early days of network television, these programs ran on Sunday afternoon, not mornings.

They were moved to make room for sports.

And hey, taglines are nearly a lost art.

"This program is a production of NBC News, which is solely responsible for its content."

"More Americans get their news from ABC than from any other source." (they counted radio to get there, but, hey...)

 

[mnradiofan]

@mnradiofan: Good overview on the overall decline of both cable and broadcast television, but your predictions on some of the details fell flat. Specifically, I don't see Disney shutting anything down that they can use as leverage for future carriage negotiations (as we saw with the recent blackout).

Thanks for digging this up! I was so certain they would shutter some networks like Freeform or FXX based on the charter agreement that dropped some of those networks. Instead, we saw a reduction in original programming but the networks live on for the very reason you state. If they can run a bunch of repeats, I suppose they'll keep cashing the dwindling checks from the cable co's!

 

[nickp]

Brian Kelly on Dancing with the Stars Paramount shutting VH1 and MTV arena football one on AMC

 

[radiofan2023]

Brian Kelly on Dancing with the Stars Paramount shutting VH1 and MTV arena football one on AMC

What?

 

[CTListener]

What?

Looks like mgomrjsurf (or whatever his name was) has found his way back in after being banned. I'd recognize that "style" anywhere.

 

[Joey1986]

Looks like mgomrjsurf (or whatever his name was) has found his way back in after being banned. I'd recognize that "style" anywhere.

From what I gather, @nickp was listing his predictions. Maybe some commas would’ve helped. Or pressing “Enter” between each one so that they’d be on separate lines to improve legibility. A little punctuation goes a long way.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Maybe some commas would’ve helped. Or pressing “Enter” between each one so that they’d be on separate lines to improve legibility. A little punctuation goes a long way.

Or maybe he doesn't care that no one is going to read his posts if they are formatted that way.

 

[Megatron]

The return of Saturday Morning Cartoons and ditching the E/I & nature crap shows on The Big 4 broadcasters.

FOX will make Big Noon Kickoff pregame show into 3 hours during football season,

Byron Allen sells The Weather Channel and Hedge found company buys his 18 TV stations he had no business in buying, Byron is a wannabe media mogul,

Gray buys Scripps and is the knight and shining armor from Sinclair,

Skydance Paramount buys all of WBD in all cash for $108 Billion.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

The return of Saturday Morning Cartoons and ditching the E/I & nature crap shows on The Big 4 broadcasters.

but will kids even notice?

 

[michael hagerty]

Or maybe he doesn't care that no one is going to read his posts if they are formatted that way.

The spirit of @fybush nags at my conscience. I've learned that certain of what we consider errors in formatting text (lack of punctuation, haphazard capitalization, etc.) are signs of cognitive disabilities and/or neurodivergence.

As someone who has edited copy for a living, who has had to read what others write live on radio and television, a misplaced comma makes me want to throw a brick through a window. But I choke that back when I see posts like that now, because of what I've learned. Let's cut these folks some slack.

 

[michael hagerty]

duplicate post

 

[michael hagerty]

triplicate post

 

[Mediafrog+]

duplicate post

triplicate post

XenForo hiccups.

I have found that if a post appears to hang up after hitting “post reply” I will see an orange streak moving across the top of the webpage along with three pulsing bars in the upper right. This will go on for about a minute, then stops without the post apparently loading. However it has actually gone through, and reloading/refreshing the page will reveal that.

If you hit the “post reply” button multiple times while the page is (supposedly) hung up, you will get duplicate posts as all those clicks actually went through, even though you don’t see that.

I originally thought this had something to do with the vintage iPad I use for ~95% of my posts, but I’ve also seen it happen on other devices, and a number of people here have reported the same thing. Lance Venta is aware of the problem.

 

[michael hagerty]

XenForo hiccups.

I have found that if a post appears to hang up after hitting “post reply” I will see an orange streak moving across the top of the webpage along with three pulsing bars in the upper right. This will go on for about a minute, then stops without the post apparently loading. However it has actually gone through, and reloading/refreshing the page will reveal that.

If you hit the “post reply” button multiple times while the page is (supposedly) hung up, you will get duplicate posts as all those clicks actually went through, even though you don’t see that.

I originally thought this had something to do with the vintage iPad I use for ~95% of my posts, but I’ve also seen it happen on other devices, and a number of people here have reported the same thing. Lance Venta is aware of the problem.

Yeah---that's exactly what happened.

 

[K.M. Richards]

The return of Saturday Morning Cartoons and ditching the E/I & nature crap shows on The Big 4 broadcasters.

Absent the FCC removing the E/I requirements, not going to happen. The possibility of that happening is low because if Carr even hinted at it, certain members of Congress would put up a phony baloney roadblock about "educating the children".

Byron Allen sells The Weather Channel and Hedge found company buys his 18 TV stations he had no business in buying, Byron is a wannabe media mogul,

There, I agree with you. He doesn't even answer correspondence sent to him by viewers at his corporate offices in Century City, even when it's positive.

P.S.: it's "hedge fund" and not capitalized, unless you are referring to the fund's capitalization itself. (See what I did there?)

Gray buys Scripps and is the knight and shining armor from Sinclair,

The phrase is "knight in shining armor" ... and I hope you are correct, although I can't see Gray having the financial resources to do so.

Skydance Paramount buys all of WBD in all cash for $108 Billion.

And will raise streaming subscription prices to make it all back ...

 

[thenetwork]

Absent the FCC removing the E/I requirements, not going to happen. The possibility of that happening is low because if Carr even hinted at it, certain members of Congress would put up a phony baloney roadblock about "educating the children".

Even if they dropped the e/i requirements, Saturday or Sunday Morning Cartoons ‐‐ violent or not ‐‐ on the networks or local channels will not come back. Only the FAST streaming channels (MeTV Toons) and other children's cable channels will replace the odd e/i required programming with their regular progamming.

The networks would likely fill the bill with more news and sports programming, while the local stations would likely add more infomercials, preachers, or syndicated programming.

Non-PBS Local and independent stations barely air children's programming at all anymore during the weekday mornings or afternoons if it's not e/i required content.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Disney pulls plug on ESPN 3, shifts content to ESPN Unlimited

Disney has shut down ESPN 3 as it shifts its distribution strategy toward ESPN Unlimited, which carries all programming from ESPN’s cable networks and ESPN Plus.

thedesk.net

Disney Announces Shutdown of Popular ESPN Streaming Channel

Disney and YouTube reached a new deal after a temporary channel removal in October.

sports.yahoo.com

Woah one of the predictions about Disney shutting down one of their channels happened much sooner than expected. In this case it revolves around ESPN3 shutting down.

 

[IM42A]

Absent the FCC removing the E/I requirements, not going to happen. The possibility of that happening is low because if Carr even hinted at it, certain members of Congress would put up a phony baloney roadblock about "educating the children".

Back in the days, cartoons such as Fat Albert, Tennessee Tuxedo, and some of the segments within the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, such as Peabody and Sherman and Fractured Fairy Tales, had a considerable educational element. Children's shows can be entertaining and educational at the same time.

 

[tall_guy1]

Disney pulls plug on ESPN 3, shifts content to ESPN Unlimited

Disney has shut down ESPN 3 as it shifts its distribution strategy toward ESPN Unlimited, which carries all programming from ESPN’s cable networks and ESPN Plus.

thedesk.net

Disney Announces Shutdown of Popular ESPN Streaming Channel

Disney and YouTube reached a new deal after a temporary channel removal in October.

sports.yahoo.com

Woah one of the predictions about Disney shutting down one of their channels happened much sooner than expected. In this case it revolves around ESPN3 shutting down.

There was an ESPN 3? (And yes, know about ESPN Ocho from Dodgeball.)

 

[fybush]

The spirit of @fybush nags at my conscience. I've learned that certain of what we consider errors in formatting text (lack of punctuation, haphazard capitalization, etc.) are signs of cognitive disabilities and/or neurodivergence.

As someone who has edited copy for a living, who has had to read what others write live on radio and television, a misplaced comma makes me want to throw a brick through a window. But I choke that back when I see posts like that now, because of what I've learned. Let's cut these folks some slack.

Very basic rule for staying happy on these boards, and I am getting tired of repeating it to certain problem users:

Are you responding to the CONTENT of a post from another user? Great. That's what we're all about here.

Are you responding to the STYLE of another user's posts or behavior here? Not great. That's not what we're here for. If another user gets on your nerves, the "ignore user" function is designed for that purpose. If you still have a problem with something they're doing or posting, "report post" is also an option.

I don't know why that is so difficult for some people. We have a very diverse community here of people with all sorts of writing and communication skills, and unless a user is contributing nothing of value and/or being disruptive, we are likely to err on the side of letting them stick around.

Thank you for your attention to this matter...