Word: channell
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...answer is that, remarkable as it may seem, the cable dial is full. The much hyped 500-channel future is years away, and for now the average cable system has only about 40 slots for programming. Take away the dial positions that must be given to over-the-air stations and public-access channels, and there aren't nearly enough spaces for the more than 70 basic-cable services vying for an audience -- and for the advertising revenue they need in order to survive...
These network-owned channels have been guaranteed carriage in major markets; the fate of other cable newcomers has been much different. In April, Ted Turner launched Turner Classic Movies, which offers many vintage, long-unseen films from Turner's MGM and Warner Bros. archives. Cable systems serving only 250,000 homes were persuaded to sign up. Horizons Cable Network, a pbs-backed channel that plans to cover lectures, panel discussions and other educational and cultural events, had hoped to debut later this year, but it was forced to ! delay the launch after cable systems representing 6 million homes, citing rate...
Established cable services are suffering as well. Officials at C-SPAN, chronicler of Congress and government activity, say the channel has been booted off or cut back in systems representing 4.2 million homes. "The regulatory environment is making our life miserable," says C-SPAN president Brian Lamb...
...chairman Reed Hundt has promised that the agency will listen to the cable industry's complaints and consider refining the rules. Consumer advocates, though, scoff at cable's cries of pain. "When I hear a cable operator say he can't add a new channel," says Bradley Stillman, legislative counsel to the Consumer Federation of America, "I wonder how many shopping channels he's got on the air, or how many channels in which he has a financial interest. Channel decisions are driven by many factors -- and the industry is trying to blame...
Increasingly, the theme is homegrown, back-to-basics TV. Spurred by the need to look different and to do it cheaply, new channels proudly let the seams show -- a throwback to the earliest days of TV -- and stress spontaneity and viewer participation -- an attempt to achieve the intimacy of talk radio. Anne Sweeney, chairman of fX, says her channel's goal is to create "a national network based on a local feel." America's Talking will use interactive | technology to get viewers involved. "This is a place where Americans can come, pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee...