History channel too man. Educative Cable has cratered into bullshit reality shows or ahistorical crap like "Vikings" or the new Templar show...I remember watching Ancient Mysteries w/ Leonard Nimoy, or Modern Marvels, or documentaries on 24/7 about the Civil War, Custer, WW1, WW2, not it's all "Axe Men" "Ice Road Truckers" and the previously mentioned bullshit.

all the good stuff is now on YouTube, Torrents, and other sources. Cable TV is dead

I still remember exactly where I was when I read the news of his death. His last tweet was absolutely beautiful:

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"

Legend.

imagine how powerful of a tool television would be if it aired content that served an educational purpose

Can't have the Plebs being educated en masse now can we?

Good point. Lets just sexualize everything and give kids access to free porn.

That's a great idea. While the kiddies are busy, the adults can talk about the outrage of Pizzagate. Bread and Circus. :)

No normies are talking about pizzagate, nice try

Maybe there should be a hybrid of the two. Television channels that stream from the internet. In sortof a Youtube-esque way, you build content and get more and more publicity (and revenue). You can either watch it ad-free with a nominal subscription ($1-2/mo), or free with commercials. People/organizations can band together and then put together enough content for a channel.

But another worthwhile subject to bring up is... should people search for specifically what they want to learn, or should they be fed a continuous stream?

We have that, its called PBS, and funded by You!(if your in america)

When I was a kid I thought it was obvious that tv would end up like a Rosetta Stone/college/YouTube resource. Once I realized that Hollywood and music were just rehashing endlessly the same things...realized tv would suffer same fate. Then I started asking why? Down I went into the rabbit hole

Mostly just money. You could make 50-100k a year filming birds, but filming hillbillies talking about their bunions you can make 50 million.

It's visual heroin.

Remember when TLC had shows about engineering and manufacturing, and not fat midgets from the UK? :(

I'd say 'quality' content on television is more or less dead. The internet is the new frontier. Find some good subreddits and Youtube channels, and you'll be back on course (or at least off to a good start).

BBC or other UK channels still run those. One is called Moder Marvels, you can find whole episodes on youtube.

But that's what people are demanding /s

your local PBS channel should have some good stuff!

Last time I watched it; it was always ancient aliens.

America is a joke now.

When I was a kid it was the ww2 channel pretty much.

It definitely is intentional. I work as a translator of History Channel content for an Asian TV network. When it's not mindnumbing flotsam like "Pawn Stars", it's blatant state propaganda like their shows on JFK and 9/11. It turns my stomach to translate lies from one language into another. I believe the History Channel is a contractor for intelligence agencies.

This was a result of the consolidation of the media. Billionaires don't want you to care about the Cheetahs or the natural world. They want you to watch pawn stars.

Dumbed down intentionally. What they did to the "Arts & Entertainment" network is such a disgrace it's almost funny "A&E: The Art of Entertainment." Sick.

History channel at one time had some okay programming.

But remember, it is all programming after all : )

They do not want kids learning at school or at home!

slow motion fall from grace

This

Unfortunately the world doesn't have your appreciation for higher education. Trust me, I'm currently playing the world's smallest violin in your honor.

This is the beautiful thing about capitalism: Your ideas of what should be on TV aren't relevant. What is relevant, is what people watch, what generates ratings, and therefore what puts the most eyes on advertisements. This is a sort of passive democracy that makes capitalism far superior to any kind of social organisation that pretends to know what people want more than they do.

I was saying the same shit to my room mate the other day. Tv nowadays is just horrible.

i loved those documentaries as a kid. Nowadays, theres always elements of clickbait...

Engineer knows how many times we've been put through this[...]

Engineer? Are you a member of the Free and Accepted Designers, a.k.a. Freedesigners?

P.S. Just having a little fun, I like that you picked that word.

The deterioration of American culture has paralleled the dumbing down of the American public.

i remember MTV being the most successful idea ever, but all those rock and roll videos spread love and rebellion so MTV got destroyed.

Dude, it's almost 2018. Cable is in it's death throws. Cable TV has no money left so they can't actually make new, good, content like you're talking about, because they will not make their money back.

What they're doing now is prolonging their demise by padding out their schedule with low budget, easy to film, reality TV and syndication rights of older things.

They are in no way making money at all and are definitely hemorrhaging at an alarming rate. Channels are going to start combining and closing as viewership melts away to on demand alternatives such as YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu.

Those types of shows are still being made and still exist, just not on your television. I'm fucking 43, what's your excuse? Get with it, old man.

YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu

Which are slowly turning into what cable used to be. Netflix is becoming like a channel with only it's own programs similar to HBO, not the huge video library it once was. Every time they make another original they probably drop another hundred licenses of older shows and movies. As for Youtube, I never used to have a problem with ads until they came out with the 10 dollar/month no-ad fee, now its ads are even more obnoxious than cable's ever was. At least hulu's no-ad tax of only $3 is reasonable.

What we know as youtube right now won't even be the you-tube it was, but will be a curated, totally controlled cable channel as well. And I watch on Youtube "those types of shows" you're talking about, the educational, quality ones, but they will disappear from youtube soon enough as well. There's nostalgia for the old days, but then there's realizing there actually is a modern problem.

Uhm, you have conflicting points. Youtube is becoming a paid channel, so the quality of the content is going to..disappear? Because it has 0 competition, and instead is itself a platform for competition between different channels, which they themselves being awarded ad money? Cable is dying because people ARE willing to pay for youtube; because the quality is there, and it's totally on demand and at will.

Netflix has known this day was coming as well, almost certainly before you even realized netflix was part of the future. It takes a lot to get a full blown studio going. They are already set too.

Look, I work in television and have for almost 15 years. I know what I'm talking about here. People I socialize with work at lionshead, miramax, netflix, disney, fox, this stuff isn't a fucking mystery to me. I am not guessing. I think and talk about this stuff constantly every single day. I can see the writing on the wall, and movies and television as we know it have changed.

Movies will die first, and already half-way out the door. Cable TV is next. Premium channels from cable will survive.

Youtube is becoming a paid channel

You've missed my point. Why was it originally called you-tube? It is becoming they-tube, where you cannot upload whatever you want with hopes of getting your own content in front of millions. They'll get rid of the penny ante ads for joe shmo's uploads and get rid of joe shmo altogether. My videos will not be part of their paid service, their TV channel. I won't be able to put my science videos on Youtube just the same as I can't put them on the Discovery Channel (or whatever they call themselves now). The obnoxious ads on youtube at this moment are the same as when they started to take over cable TV. Remember when cable TV was supposed to be paid content, precisely to get rid of the commercials? It's all happening like that again, everything is simply morphing. Cable TV is simply called something else now (Youtube, Netflix, etc).

I work in television.

Don't you think your job is in jeopardy? You should apply for a job in advertising. One way or another that shit ain't going nowhere.

I know what I'm talking about here. This stuff isn't a fucking mystery to me.

I'll only believe you if you can tell me who Max Headroom is: https://youtu.be/tWdgAMYjYSs

You know reddit is partially owned by the same group that destroyed the education channels...

"you and me baby aint nothing but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery channel ..

Storage Wars and Pawn Stars on Outdoor Life Network... Consume, consume, consume...

History channel at one time had some okay programming.

But remember, it is all programming after all : )

They do not want kids learning at school or at home!