Don't let Local TV Go the way of the Dinosaur.....
By drknlvly6781
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
United States
September 9, 2009 12:15pm CST
I knew there was a catch to all this digital television mess. When the United States made the switch from analog to digital, many people ended up getting either Cable or Satellite television to be able to view television. But this huge increase in subscribers isn't enough for these companies.
Now, Cable and Satellite television are trying to garner the rest of the population as subscribers, by getting legislation passed stating they don't have to carry local programming. This means that even though you will still be able to see your shows on Fox or NBC, you won't get to see any local news, or other special events that your local station will put on. If this passes, many things will happen negatively in US society.
With most people subscribing to Cable or Satellite, if this legislation passes, eventually these stations will shut down altogether, due to low viewership. Then there will be no way that we can keep up with local weather or news, because there will be no one to report it.
Also, Cable and Satellite aren't regulated by the FCC, which means they can show anything they want. They don't have to adhere to any education standards for their children's programming, nor do they have to censor things if they don't feel like it. Is this the television that you would want your children to view?
There are many more negative aspects to this legislation, you can read them on my local FOX station's website here:
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=10781660
I know that you will agree with me that this is a bad decision after you read what is there. Find out what your local station is doing, so you can become a part of the movement to keep local television on the air. If they don't have anything, contact them and give them this link!
1 person likes this
3 responses
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
10 Sep 09
Television in general is highly overrated. Whether it is local channels, cable, or satellite there is very little on worth watching. Now don't get me wrong, I watch my share of TV and probably someone else's share too. I just realize that I could probably use this time more wisely. Cable and Satellite sells their programming in packages. I have the 100 channel package but I only watch about two. Most of the channels that they put in these packages would never get subscribed to if they weren't bundled with the few that people really want to watch.
1 person likes this
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
25 Sep 09
I can see you have put a lot of thought into this. I also agree that news should come from the local area. While we may be interested in what is going on in the rest of the world we are directly impacted by what is going on in our "own neck of the woods" as one national weather man always says. So for that reason I too would hate to see the local stations go. I do not know why the cable and satellite people want to dump the local channels. Does it cause them more money to broadcast them than those stupid sell-you-something channels that take up about 25% of the stations offered in their packages. There are a lot of channels that could be axed as far as I'm concerned without any uproar from me (and probably most everyone else), in fact I think a lot of them are included just so they can say we give you over a 100 channels for x amount of dollars when in reality there are probably less than 10 that anyone watches. So I say keep the local channels and ditch the cable.
1 person likes this
@killersss (638)
• India
14 Sep 09
i think dth is the way to go now a days because of the quality you get and also the digital dolby sound and the dvd like picture quality is superb and i think everyone should have the dth at their places and should watch with that only. that's that best of all.
1 person likes this
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
25 Sep 09
It is not about the picture Killersss. Yes the picture and sound is much better. But what about the quality of what we watch, and what things we are able to see? I know that the quality of television overall isn't so great, but why would we want to see it decline? Why would we want to give up being able to get our weather locally, and hearing about local events? This legislation will put a stop to all that.
@momoftwingirls (859)
• United States
10 Sep 09
Well, I have been reading and hearing that these very digital tv's we are now forced to watch will be watching us. Now, we get the pleasure, or is it the other way around, of being watched by our government.
Talk about a Big Brother society....welcome to 1984 folks, whether you want to be in 1984 or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TiKjjyQqbA
