• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Cloo/Sleuth & Chiller

C

carolinaradio

How did NBCU let these channels jump the shark and go downhill so quickly? They hardly ever received any time or chance to grow before becoming dumping grounds, especially the former. I believe they signed on in 2006 and 2007, respectively, and have been in somewhat of a downhill mode for quite a while.

Chiller isn't really as bad as Cloo, but it's slowly becoming home to a lot of leftover Sci...er, SyFy-type material. They are airing the '80s Twilight Zone episodes and the '00s Twilight Zone pretty soon, and air The Outer Limits regularly. Those belong on "SyFy" IMO. They air some horror series that are acquired, but they're just about all short-lived series.

Cloo, formerly Sleuth, is a different story. It has become USA network #2 but with no original shows. Since crime programming is primarily what USA shows, I'm not quite sure what NBCU was thinking when they launched Sleuth in 2006. They had some good 80s shows on back then like Miami Vice and Knight Rider. The only thing they're good for is that occasionally they will run themed marathons of some classic sitcoms and dramas. DirecTV moved it to almost a top-tier last year (which is usually done, I believe, when a channel is unpopular).

I wonder what will happen with these channels eventually. Chiller seems like a good concept, but Sleuth is essentially what quite a few other channels are doing, but just not as well.
 
Another channel which looks more like a Retro TV channel than anything else (When cheap sports isn't dumped onto it that is) is Universal HD. I imagine (And HOPE??) this will change when the new Universal Sports Network is launched next year though

Cheers & 73 :D
 
Too many channels and not enough programming. That's the problem with all these networks. They throw them on the air to collect carriage fees from the cable operators.
 
ansky212 said:
Too many channels and not enough programming. That's the problem with all these networks. They throw them on the air to collect carriage fees from the cable operators.
Click to expand...
IMO, these two channels are classic examples of this. Same goes for Nickelodeon starting pointless channels like TeenNick and Nick Jr. I wonder how those are working out for them?

As I kinda mentioned in another thread -- hopefully more providers will do like DirecTV has been doing...like with G4, instead of making subscribers pay for a channel only a very small minority watches, just drop it, or do like they've done with Chiller and Cloo - move them to very high-tier packages.
 
While I agree that most of these channels are pure crap and nothing but a dumping ground for repurposed programming, I guess I'd rather have the option to watch reruns of various shows at different times then return to a world of 3, 4 or even 40 channels when you watched what was on and didn't really have any options.
 
Comcast/NBC/Universal must not care too much about Cloo or Chiller because they do not even offer then on the Comcast cable system in Houston. Surprising that they are not even offering their own product on a system in one of the largest metros.
 
^ That's quite telling.

I predict that these channels will eventually become like Lifetime Real Women - it's still there, but most significant providers dropped it a while ago. The majority of the programming is Lifetime leftovers. Talk about a failure of a channel.
 
When Comcast bought out NBC Universal, it then inherited some any channels that now it likely doesn't know what to do with long term. But, it makes more money keeping them up than closing them or consolidating them, and the carriage agreements it has with it have value as well also.

LRW is less clear on why it's still around. Technically it was owned by Lifetime that was bought out by A&E, but LRW's ownership has been Disney and Hearst throughout. Likely it sticks because it's profitable and the carriage agreements albeit in a minor way.

Even SoapNet was supposed to cease, but Disney still keeps it running. Fios still carries it.
 
ding12 said:
When Comcast bought out NBC Universal, it then inherited some any channels that now it likely doesn't know what to do with long term. But, it makes more money keeping them up than closing them or consolidating them, and the carriage agreements it has with it have value as well also.
Click to expand...

Right...Comcast/NBCU now has four cable networks that pretty much cater to the same demographics--Bravo, Oxygen (the first two carryovers from NBCU), E!, and Style (Comcast carryovers). I believe eventually one of these four may merge its programming with another; since Bravo and E! are the most established and profitable of the four, it wouldn't surprise me in the future that Oxygen and Style merge, or maybe sell-off one of the two.
 
Some of the providers promote continuation of these channels simply for tiering. Tier twenty or so channels in a higher package, so subs think they can get something by upgrading. I was checking my Verizon Fios lineup and it does carry LRW but it's at a higher package than I get. The channel owner (e.g. A&E/Lifetime) might reduce/eliminate original programming to keep costs bare low, to make Verizon content, but it's just garbage being passed on. What I hate is the set box doesn't allow one to remove unsubscribed channels from the EPG.
 
Both good points about the NBCU/Comcast channels that are now combined. Of the 4 mentioned above (Bravo, Oxygen, Style, and E!), I'd say Style is definitely the weakest, then Oxygen. DirecTV has it in a very high tier (the same one Cloo and Chiller are on), higher than most other "specialty" channels. Style could be combined in to E! rather easily, IMO.
If these providers are going to carry a lot of these pointless channels, I'm all for putting them on the highest possible tier.

I don't know what LRW is showing these days, but most of it was just hand-me-downs from Lifetime, thus no overhead. Most of Cloo's programming is at no extra cost to them, I wouldn't think, since it's basically stuff shared with USA or from the Universal library. Same with Chiller who shares so much with SyFy. I'd think NBCU will keep them around on auto-pilot; but eventually I think a lot of the providers will bail as they remain pressured to keep costs as low as they can.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom