"LOGO" CABLE TV CHANGING FORMATS

[sdwulfdawg]

I guess that Viacom is dumping the all-gay format for what has been described in the press as a "Cuisinart-blended cocktail of Bravo, Lifetime, and Oxygen, with a pink boa as garnish."

The BS that Viacom is attempting to spin is that with the proliferation of gay themes and gay characters on conventional network television, their all-Gay format was no longer needed in the marketplace.

http://lgbtweekly.com/2012/03/02/logo-network-bails-on-gay-centric-tv-programming/

If I was a cable company owner, I would drop channels which homogenize themselves into something else, just as Discovery's "Planet Green" seems to be now programming shows about the paranormal...everything that isn't about the environment.

 

[nathannah]

This one is especially galling, because in many markets it's included as a premium service with Showtime, like mine.

I don't usually watch it all that much outside of a few films and shows I was interested in during their launch days (though I do pay for Showtime), but if I'm a viewer of that network I'm feeling quite ripped off that I'm getting the same Top Model reruns I get on Bravo and Oxygen instead of unique programming, along with 16 & Pregnant, which is a program with zero interest at all to the LGBT community. It's like there was this small period in the 2000's where 'niche' was fine, but now every channel except RFD-TV is throwing Hail Mary's to get to that magical 7-digit rating number, no matter how stupid the million-earning program might be and how their target audience loathes them.

And depending on RuPaul's Drag Race marathoned insane amounts? It seems Viacom will never learn, seeing as they've ruined VH1 twice in ten years with overdependence on Behind the Music and then Celebreality.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Logo is now a victim of sorry I have to say this Network Decay Curse.

 

[azumanga]

Logo is now a victim of sorry I have to say this Network Decay Curse.

Not quite that, but the fact that they want to be just like TBS and USA, carrying the same general programming as everyone else.

If you're paying extra for Logo, it'll be worth your while to drop it.

 

[justpassingthough]

I think there is something to be said for still catering to a gay or gay friendly audience, without specifically programming 24/7 with programs that only feature gay actors, gay characters, gay storylines, etc.

The gay audience is just as diverse as the straight audience, so its narrow sighted to patronize the gay community by having such a narrow programming focus. Logo, as it is, only airs a few shows and movies and runs them into the ground, much like other cable networks.

Perhaps the shift towards wider programming gives them the opportunity to expand their programming. I'm just playing devil's advocate here, because that doesn't tend to be the case with most network shifts in cable, but you never know.

 

[w00t]

I started seeing shows from other Viacom networks pop up on Logo in the EPG and wondered when this would happen.

Teen Mom/16 And Pregnant was airing on there a week or two ago. I'm not sure how that relates to the gay community.

 

[FreddyE1977]

A bit surprising as the gay community has always seemed a desirable demographic
(above average disposable income, etc.) I am guessing perhaps they don't like it.

 

[nathannah]

A bit surprising as the gay community has always seemed a desirable demographic
(above average disposable income, etc.) I am guessing perhaps they don't like it.

Oh, they really wanted to like it, trust me. But MTV has never programmed the channel well at all. Most of the movies they've picked up over the years have been in the bottom 1,000 of IMDb because of very poor production values and budget (some of them are very good, but the majority are terribly 'gay cliche'-packed projects that are a shame to the LGBT community), and their original programming budget before RuPaul came to the network seemed to be made out of whatever cash MtvU, MTV Jams and VH1 Soul didn't spend; they had to pick up mainly freelance content over fully-produced series. Currently Logo's program direction seems to be to buy anything that had a little lesbian/gay subtext like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and call it done like a local TV station throwing on public affairs shows deep on Sunday morning.

Also, Internet TV devoted to LGBT audiences is leaps and bounds better than most of Logo's content; just look at Anyone But Me. Made on a shoestring (and the series finale was funded by fan contributions), but with a bigger following than anything on Logo except Drag Race, and with actual actors rather than 'waiters who need the work' like some of the stuff on Logo. The 'premium in some markets' strategy didn't help at all, and even outside of those markets it's on the most inaccessible digital tier possible on most providers.

The only good thing about this really is that Logo's AfterElton and AfterEllen sites (good sites devoted to LGBT culture that don't seem to have heavy COI's) don't have to promote their network all that much anymore, though they never really have outside of Logo shows they actually enjoyed.

 

[kilamanjero]

When was the last time I looked at this channel?... oh yeah, about 2 years ago. LOGO has been garbage since Viacome decided they didn't care anymore with this product. Them and HereTV have been in the trash heap since the beginning of this recession because their corporate parents decided that these channels weren't worth their time..

 

[Markxxx]

Well it's hard to lump people together. Even with a black channel, you can't simply throw shows with black actors on it, because they might or might not appeal to the black audience. And on the flip side, you can have shows with white casts appealing to black audiences.

This was seen in the 80s, when white artists started crossing over to the R&B charts. Hall & Oates ("I Can't Go For That,") Sheena Easton ("Sugar Walls," "The Lover In Me,") were having success over there, while black acts like the Pointer Sisters and Whitney Houston, were criticized for being "too white."

Also gay men especially, don't have as much income as people think. A friend of mine works in advertising in NYC and basically till the late 20s, gay males do a bit better than average, but decline very quickly after 30, when compared to other groups of the same age.

 

[Robnoxious]

Merge LOGO and Current and G4 and GSN all together and make a channel devoted to "Tech savvy homosexual COPS that enjoy playing word games with conservative elitists"

It seriously couldn't be any worse than what each of those 4 channels program separately.

 

[DToTheJ]

And if you threw CMT into that equation...

 

[mgsports]

Just combined HDNET with Current. Sipke with Logo.

 

[recto101]

Hey HLN was supposed to be like how Group W did all-news radio with pictures. It was supposed to be like "You give us 22 Minutes we give you the world but in 30 minute cycles. But it was flipped to be more like TruTV and TMZ back in 2005.

MSNBC and Fox News flipped from Tabloid(HLN type) to outright lobbyist propaganda or (NewsTalk) around 200?. CNN its basically if the NY post and San Francisco Chronicle has a kid out of wedlock.

 

[DToTheJ]

HLN.... It was supposed to be like "You give us 22 Minutes we give you the world" but in 30 minute cycles...

I would say that's an accurate calculation... How much do you think you have left when you take away the commercials? :

 

[azumanga]

Hey HLN was supposed to be like how Group W did all-news radio with pictures. It was supposed to be like "You give us 22 Minutes we give you the world but in 30 minute cycles. But it was flipped to be more like TruTV and TMZ back in 2005.

Group W did just that with the help of ABC when it ran the Satellite News Channel in the early-1980s, which folded soon after CNN2 (now HLN) came on the scene.