Cable television is both a land of excellent programming and a complete and utter mess where sameness across multiple channels reigns supreme. After all, how many different outlets can possibly air virtually indistinguishable crime drama repeats from CBS? What really irks some, though, more than programming is the fact that the same names of these channels from when they were unique and catered to a niche still exist today even though their programming strays very far from that "heritage" name.
MTV becomes TV
MTV once served a purpose. It was the go-to place for music videos but even before the advent of YouTube, Vevo, iTunes and everything else online, the channel began loading up on unscripted "lifestyle" programming catering to a teen and early twenty-something audience. With marathons of "Teen Mom" and "True Life", the channel is ripe for rebranding simply as "TV".
VH-1 becomes 1
VH-1, like MTV, used to show music videos around the clock. I always viewed it as the more mature of the two music video channels. Since that time it has devolved into some sort of bastardized format consisting of shows about mob wives and basketball wives and other dreck nobody would admit to watching.
The Weather Channel becomes Whether
Because the channel is owned by Comcast/Universal which is the proud owner of such blunders as Cloo, SyFy and E!, it is only fitting that they would transition to a cutesy little play on their former name and, in the process, further blur the channel's once clear identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment