[BC] Changes in the Channels

[Robert Orban]

At 10:25 AM 1/10/2006, you wrote:
>From: Rich Wood <richwood at pobox.com>
>Subject: Re: [BC] Changes in the Channels
>To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <7.0.0.16.2.20060110102717.089fd440 at yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>------ At 09:51 AM 1/10/2006, WFIFeng at aol.com wrote: -------
>
> > > Even Discovery HD is
> > >  turning more and more to chopper shows.
> >
> >Yeah... what's with that, anyway? I would think that such shows would fit
> >better on the "Spike" network. Bring back the more scientific,
> >educational shows
> >to Discovery. (Like Mythbusters) Put all that over-testosterone-pumped stuff
> >onto a more appropriate channel. I wanna learn stuff, not hear yelling and
> >arguing about building a bike.
>
>I suspect it brings better ratings. As an HD viewer I'd like to see
>the chopper stuff on the standard def channel and the nature and
>scientific stuff in HD. Selfish of me.

According to The Wall St Journal, Discovery's "dumbed down, tabloid" 
programming changes in fact caused their viewership to fall by something 
like 15%. This is one reason why they hired Ted Koppel very recently; they 
want to bring back some class and intelligence, both of which Koppel has in 
abundance. It's nice to know that occasionally, quality actually does sell.

Bob Orban