Opinions TV Media
Goodbye 2014, and that means that are are entering a new year and that means a whole new year in anything can happen in world of TV and the media, we are taking a look at things that could possibly happen in the new year.
1. Cable Company Mergers
After the installation of Tom Wheeler as head of the FCC last year, Comcast saw their chance to buy another cable company , Time Warner Cable, (no relation to Time Warner) , the deal was announced early 2014 , but since it's a huge deal , even with a "friend in FCC" it's taking along time. If Comcast is allowed their prize it would be the biggest Cable company in the Untied States. There is also another deal up ... AT&T wants sat caster Direct TV, this deal was announced a few weeks after the Comcast one , this deal is also still be looked at.
AT&T and Direct TV have a better chance of their marriage happening compared to the other , though. If Comcast-TWC is approved it would be a shock if AT&T -Direct TV is denied. If it's the other way around , there's a better chance both would be denied.
2. Stand Alone TV
The Idea of al-a-carte Cable is a hard one ... but that is not stopping CBS from launching a pay version of CBS online where you can watch CBS programs on demand all you want and in areas where they own a TV station you can watch Live. HBO announced they are launching a streaming service for you folks with out the cable wires.
What about the other networks? Well , I don't See ABC doing that yet, but it could , they currently have a deal where you can go to Watch ABC sign in with your cable company (makes sense for a network TV doesn't it?) and watch their programs on demand and in markets where they own a station ,watch live online. While ,they could launch a stand-alone service , that's not been announced yet. NBC , well they are owned by Comcast , would be interesting if NBC launched something like CBS all access , but then again NBC would be getting money . FOX ... is also a network that could possibly launch one too. In speaking of CBS, they are the owners of Showtime so maybe expect a stand-alone Showtime before stand-alone NBC. Wait , a second ... they are.
Interesting , if everyone does it ... you might as well pay for cable.
3. Late Night TV
Apparently after ABC and NBC decided to switch up line ups in late night ,CBS hopped into the fun. David Letterman is leaving the "The Late Show " and being replace by Stephan Colbert. While "The Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson is leaving and being replaced by a man named James Cordon.
So now CBS , which has been the stable of the networks , ( sorry NBC) is in a through of change at late night. Some questions happen will Stephen Colbert ( who be playing himself and not the guy on Comedy Central) be good at a late night talk show format or will viewers leave to watch "Friends" reruns on the local CW /Mynetwork/ FOX/whatever station? It's always gamble to change hosts at late night and hard to predict. (That's our way of weaseling out of a question, also we watch Friends repeats anyway)
4. Cable Fights
Two words , expect more. Cable fights we mean are the ones between a network or company and a cable or sat caster. There have been many for the past few years, I say expect more and the fun blame game. Company A owns TV channels wants more money , even if some of their channel suck Company B is a provider worried about losing you as their money feeders (that's a word) and they fight even if it's a penny. In many cases channel(s) get pulled and it's a wait and see between who will give up first. Company B who keeps getting angry calls , or Company A who is losing viewers. There should be a way to stop this , but apparently nobody is trying hard. Many times in a fight there are multiple channels pulled . Example : Time Warner vs Dish Network : Cartoon Network, CNN, HLN , TCM ,and Tru TV were pulled. If some one hates all these channels they probably didn't mind then as long the they weren't being charged for them . But if someone hates Tru TV but loves TCM (Turner Classic Movies) ,they felt bad. Will these stop? No , unless someone figures out a better system. (Don't shout NetFlix , that's not what we mean)
5. Easy Prediction ... the rest aren't
The Simpsons Won't be canceled... well that got your attention . Will "American Idol" be canceled? The show has been going down on ratings ... but if It makes Fox money , it could go on until the ratings are really bad or it has a red year. Today Show won't be #1 in 2015, the Today Show on NBC probably won't be the #1 morning show (national average) in 2015 either the "Good Morning America" time in the #1 sun for maybe another year. CBS This Morning , on the other hand , could maybe tie 2nd ( this is an outlier , and a maybe a crazy one ).
"ABC World News Tonight " (or the softest of the Evening News on the networks) will either be fighting for 1st with NBC Nightly News or beating by the end of 2015. CBS Evening News will continue to grow though.
Anyway these were some predictions most of them were cop-outs (Cough American Idol) , others were crazy and one was easy.
6. Buying Up less
After a couple years of Big TV deals like Sinclair Broadcast group buying Allbritton in 2013 (took late summer 2014 for the deal to be official) , Granett Buying Belo, and in 2014, Media General merging with Lin and Scripps buying Journal . 2015, could mean a quieter year on that front, there may still be some buyings of stations and smaller groups, unless another big company wants to quit the world of local TV ownership or something. Also in the bigger world ,there is probably not another chance of Murdoch trying to buy Time Warner but anything can surprise. AMC networks did buy a stake in BBC America, hopefully that means BBC World News in the US can expand and maybe the HD channel more available soon.
7. More Internet TV
It's been a good time for Netflix , Hulu and the others as they release programs , in some cases the whole season at one time, to their paying subscribers to watch anytime they want ( Friday at 8:43:22 AM) well , expect more of that , Amazon is even in that game. On the other side, since the Aereo case , don't expect anybody wanting to try the live stream local tv online deal anymore, unless a station group and or the networks make a deal to stream online. ABC and CBS do ... but you have to live in a city where ABC and CBS own that station , hopefully other station groups could and will make a deal.
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