Remember the good old days, when school started after Labor Day and ended at Memorial Day? And so did the new television season. These days, I could not tell you when the seasons for the various shows begin and end. Some of the shows that are currently running began their season in February. Some began in April. Some in June.
As a result, some of those shows aired their last new episodes in June, some in July, and some will end this month. I could not tell you when the next batch of shows begins their new season.
I liked it better when all the regular season shows started and ended at the same time. Then, through the summer months, you got to watch reruns of those shows. Or better yet, there was a summer replacement that ran for the summer months, and if that show was good enough, it came back the next year as a regular season show.
Of course, currently, the shows you really love may not be available even if this is their season because of some type of contract dispute.
This is a fairly new phenomenon, a result of cable and satellite television franchises paying to air the various networks. We have satellite, so we currently have no NBC coverage whatsoever. Some cable subscribers have been cut off from CBS and may soon be cut off from that network again. And others have recently been cut off from ABC programming.
Back when all television was over the airwaves and everyone got all the networks for free, this could not happen. The income for those stations came totally from revenue generated by advertisements. Now, syndication seems to be the big moneymaker for the networks, and that has created a unique problem for the viewer. Where once these same networks had to keep us all happy to make money, now they just have to bully their way into a larger contract with a service provider.
I called my provider this past week to see what was being done about getting our NBC programming back. I was told that apparently satellite and cable providers are required to carry only those network stations (NBC, CBS, and ABC) that are considered local according to their zip codes. Which means that even if they do not reach an agreement with the Memphis station, they cannot court another NBC station to provide in this area from somewhere like Little Rock or Springfield, Mo., because those are not considered to be local stations for us. That is, I was told, why the Memphis NBC affiliate is asking four times more than before to renew its contract with the satellite provider we use.
I am not sure who makes these rules or why. It is more than likely something the FCC has mandated. And I am sure it was done to ensure viewers access to coverage of local news, sports and weather, although very little of our local news and sports are covered over any of the Memphis stations. But I really feel the mandates should include a caveat that if you are the only provider of one of the three major networks within a region of the country, as are the Memphis NBC and CBS stations, you MUST provide that service or risk losing your license. Somewhere all the large media companies have lost sight of the fact that their major function is (or should be) free and accurate coverage of the news and other information people must have to live their daily lives. The major networks have become almost totally entertainment, and totally about making a profit.
I really don't care if we ever get the Memphis NBC station back, as long as we get NBC coverage from somewhere. And I think probably this will get resolved in the near future. I cannot imagine that station, or any of the affected stations for that matter, will be able to absorb the lost income from both the syndication fees and the lost advertising dollars when many of their advertisers realize they have been cut off from a huge section of their target markets. But this should not have happened in the first place. I made my call on this issue, and you out there should all do the same. Call the Memphis and Jonesboro stations in question, or the satellite provider or both. If you are one of the cable subscribers affected by the CBS lockout, call the Memphis CBS affiliate, or the cable company to which you subscribe. Let them know we are tired of this silliness, and they need to get their act together before we all bail on the whole lot of them and start watching all our television programs online.
And that they had better do it before the new seasons of "Grimm," "Once Upon A Time" and "NCIS" begin, whenever the heck that is.
plenbooks@live.com