General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow TLC Went From The Learning Channel To Home Of Honey Boo Boo
Interesting article from the Business Insider in 2012. It actually tells nothing of the ownership changes and presents nothing really substantive. There are some interesting pictures interspersed with the short comments.
The 40-Year Transformation Of How TLC Went From The Learning Channel To Home Of Honey Boo Boo
The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare along with NASA founded what was meant to be an informative and instructional network in 1972. The channel was to be distributed for free via a NASA satellite.
But, the network started branching out its content for a more mainstream audience in the mid-'90s with reality shows including "Medical Detectives" and "Trauma: Life in the ER" ..
Soon after, in 1998, the channel rebranded itself as TLC and the programming began to drastically change.
.....In an attempt to get back to its roots, the network changed its tagline again to "Live and learn." It strayed from home improvement shows with "Little People Big World" in 2006 and tattoo show "L.A. Ink" the following year.
Family centered shows "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and "17 And Counting" (now "19 and Counting) came front and center in 2008.
Today's shows, while they may be informative (who knew you could get $2000 worth of groceries for nearly $100 with enough coupons) consist of shock value.
I found more about the ownership and the family with major holdings.
Discovery Communications
Discovery Communications, Inc. is an American global mass media and entertainment company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The company started as a single channel in 1985, The Discovery Channel.
Discovery also is a provider of educational products and services to schools, including a series of K-12 digital textbooks, through Discovery Education, and Discovery Digital Networks.[3]
DCI both produces original television programming and acquires content from producers worldwide. This non-fiction programming is offered through DCI's 54 network entertainment brands, including Discovery Channel, American Heroes Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Velocity, Discovery Life and a family of digital channels.
Despite being publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, the Newhouse family exercise the largest stake in the company, 31%, through privately held Advance Publications.[4]
More about Advance Publications.
Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc., is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse, Jr. It is named after the Staten Island Advance, the first newspaper owned by the Newhouse family, and where the mailing address for Advance Publications is listed on paper (although Advance does not have an official headquarters).[2] As of October 2014, it was ranked as the 44th largest private company in the United States according to Forbes.[3] Crain's ranked Advance Publications the 4th largest private company in the NY area in 2012. In addition to holding publishing and communication assets, Advance serves as the holding company for the family's 31% stake in cable entertainment company Discovery Communications.[4]
More about the Newhouse family.
#11 America's Richest Families (2014)
Brothers Samuel ("Si" (pictured) and Donald Newhouse inherited media group Advance Publications from their father, Sam Newhouse (d.1979), who started with the Bayonne Times newspaper in New Jersey and expanded it into the nation's largest privately-held newspaper chain. Donald oversees the newspaper division and Si runs Conde Nast, publisher of magazines including Vogue, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. The brothers also own cable TV and Internet service provider Bright House Networks and a stake in Discovery Communications, the operator of cable and satellite TV networks such as Discovery Channel and TLC.
All of which actually tells me nothing about why in the world a network would want to put on shows that are so outrageous and contribute so much to the dumbing down of this country.
I am not familiar with the Discovery network's foray into educational materials, but I hope they are more substantive than Honey Boo Boo and Little People.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Networks must have eyeballs to be successful and particularly 18-49 year olds because that is where the money is for advertisers. Older people tend to have made up their minds on brands and stick with them. Younger viewers can still be convinced to try another brand. If the Learning Channel was all about educating us with biology and other education, the channel might not survive or definitely wouldn't be discussed as much as it is today. Networks don't mind controversy to a point and another thing is shock sells. Many people became rich on shock... Howard stern, Rush Limbaugh, Perez Hilton, and yes many families on TLC. And that is why TLC rebranded itself or one main reason. How many would watch the "investigation of the ameba?"
TerrapinFlyer
(277 posts)But then take "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. It comes in third - has miserable ratings, yet Morning Scumbag seems to have a leading role at MSNBC.
erronis
(15,303 posts)Can't imagine who (Cough, cough, Moredoch, Addledman.)
Didn't Microsoft own part of MSNBC? Are they still pumping money and programming there?
Response to erronis (Reply #12)
guyton This message was self-deleted by its author.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)It must be that the owners like what they see and don't mind the lower rating. The company is huge and may be able to cover a few "duds". Just my thoughts.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)There is only one channel on cable that consistently gets high enough ratings to be above the margin-of-error in Nielsen ratings: ESPN. Not ESPN 2 or 3.14159. Not even CNN or Fox News get enough viewers to be above the margin-of-error.
As a result, they really don't have a good measure of what does well on every other channel. They have a guess, backed by marginal statistics.
So they all chase around the latest fad, like reality TV and "Shock" TV, because it does good enough to not score a zero and make it look like the executives are doing something.
Reality is Honey Boo Boo scores about as well as the old educational programming. As far as we know.
The big problem they have now is the race-to-the-shithole means people who want better programming are either watching pay networks like HBO, or have abandoned cable TV completely. So they're left wallowing in deeper and deeper shit, competing for the same viewers instead of attracting different viewers.
pscot
(21,024 posts)FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)Republican ties through Family Research Council and its operations.
EDIT: And Huckabee. It feels like Huckabee slime is all over this thing
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)I absolutely don't agree with the Duggar's religious or political views, and I think Josh Duggar should have gone through the juvenile justice system when he was first found out, but I have enjoyed learning about the different people they have shown on TLC. I still watch the Little Couple and My Big Fat Fabulous Life. It's cool that we live in a time when people who would have been shunned a few decades ago are now accepted by society. I think that is great. I have a bisexual atheist daughter with purple hair and an autistic son. Just a few decades ago they too would have been shunned but now they are accepted by their peers and don't have to be ashamed about being different.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)I'm a former crime reporter and have actually seen myself in the courtrooms of some of the cases ID covers. LOL.
I'm also a fan of "River Monsters." There's a marathon going on right now. The fish Jeremy Wade (great name for a fisherman) catches are amazing.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)with mental health issues. She is studying psychology in college. She is particularly interested in schizophrenia and loves watching shows about that mental health issue.
yardwork
(61,650 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)people learn about each other and the majority of people become more tolerant and accepting because of it. The Duggars are intolerant because they refuse to expose themselves to people that are different. So the cure is not to further isolate people. The cure is to keep telling people's stories.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)they seem to do what they do for the money. That apparently people are tuning in to watch Honey Boo Boo and not to watch educational stuff about ants.
I joke about ants because when I had cable TV it seemed like I had some quasi-educational channel that always seemed to have a show going on ants. Every time I went searching for something to watch, there they were - talking about ants.
What can I say, I probably should have watched and learned about ants. I think I usually ended up watching a re-run of Cold Case or Missing Persons or some such.
olddots
(10,237 posts)is it part of the brand ?
To me alot of the cable chanels are media slum lords and I don't like slum lords .
A HERETIC I AM
(24,370 posts)Being a publicly traded company, with shares that trade on a major US exchange, opens the doors of your company to scrutiny.
Some of the largest firms that regularly flout environmental and other regulations are "closely held" or privately owned companies. Think Koch Industries.
It the company referenced in the OP was a publicly traded company, the bad things they do would reach the sunlight a lot faster.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Eventually it will lead to this:
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)three each UHF and VHF, and PBS on a clear day. With all the channels we have now so much of it is the same stuff. Entertainment was more varied with less.