This sunday sky is killing off a briliant TV channel
Discussion
Sky has decided to remove Current TV (SKY channel 183) from is pay-to-view package meaning that they no longer pay Current TV a share of the revenue from the entertainment package.
Due to the fact they only decided to communicate this to Current at the end of December means that Current TV is no longer viable due to the fact they haven't been able to find any other backers and they don't command high enough viewers for them to survive on adverts alone.
If I had an ability to chose where my licence fee went, I would send it to Current TV, they do programming that the BBC should be doing.
Instead of trying to compete with The X Factor by creating another talent show they should be doing some really good factual programming that attracts a smaller audience but actually educates them!
Sadly it seems that the licence fee is now used as an excuse for the BBC to not show adverts but still create programming that doesn't fulfil it's remit
The channel is owned by Al Gore but that doesn't mean that it's lefty claptrap, it's a truly independent channel.
Sadly their average viewing figures are poor at ~10,000 but some of their best programmes have seen viewing figures of ~100,000, obviously this isn't much, but it's not because of the programming it's downfall has been many things:
A poor location in the listings alongside gospel and open access channels
A complete lack of promotion on other channels (apart from a few adverts on channel 5 last month)
The programmes they featured weren't brain-dead reality rubbish they were programmes that made you sit and think.
One thing that didn't help them was that when they launched over here it had the feel of a moderated TV version of YouTube for TV producers, as such its programming was full of 15 minute segments, occasionally these would be bundled up into a single programme with an on-screen continuity announcer between segments.
There were a few full length programmes but sadly they really didn't help Current reach out to the viewers, mainly because they felt like they were made by university media students to use on a show-reel.
A revamp 18 months ago solved all of their problems and ditched that though, it led them to commissioning some frankly stunning investigative reporting and some brilliant documentaries.
As well as original programming they would also show documentaries by known and unknown producers alike such as, Morgan Spurlock, Michael Moore, Nick Broomfield and many more by people you have never heard of but would recognise their work.
A few recent series/programs have been:
Stephen Fry and friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens, made shortly before his death, he was due to be on it but couldn't make it as he was too ill.
A series called 50 documentaries to see before you die, at the end of the series over the course of the following 2 months they then showed every single documentary at least 4 times.
They had a long running investigative reporting series called Vanguard that produced some of the best investigative journalism I've ever seen, they make dispatches look like reactionary tabloid monkeys.
Despite being produced by Americans, it is aimed at people who realise there is a world outside the states and as such they produce some brilliant programs, anything from Americans going abroad for medical treatment to investigations into children being sold cigarettes in Indonesia, free concerts of American pop stars aimed at children but full of tobacco advertising and the tobacco companies being complicit in this.
Another programme they created led to 2 of their reporters being captured and detained by North Korea, leading to Bill Clinton flying out to secure their release after being detained for 5 months of their 12 years of hard labour.
Between now and Sunday they are showing some of the most popular documentaries that they have previously broadcast so I would suggest you look through their programme listings (CH. 183) and record some of the programmes that take your fancy because from Sunday SKY tv will become a slightly poorer place.
As i understand it, the US channel will continue to run and the website will still be accessible to people in the UK, I do not know for how much longer though as they are only drawing in an average of ~2,000,000 viewers in America.
The only other channel that is like the slightly retarded cousin of Current is PBS (CH. 166) but the programming is all American and it feels that way, they have some good programs but a lot of it is not that great.
They are as close as America gets to the BBC though and if you view it that way quite a lot of it is well worth watching
Due to the fact they only decided to communicate this to Current at the end of December means that Current TV is no longer viable due to the fact they haven't been able to find any other backers and they don't command high enough viewers for them to survive on adverts alone.
If I had an ability to chose where my licence fee went, I would send it to Current TV, they do programming that the BBC should be doing.
Instead of trying to compete with The X Factor by creating another talent show they should be doing some really good factual programming that attracts a smaller audience but actually educates them!
Sadly it seems that the licence fee is now used as an excuse for the BBC to not show adverts but still create programming that doesn't fulfil it's remit
The channel is owned by Al Gore but that doesn't mean that it's lefty claptrap, it's a truly independent channel.
Sadly their average viewing figures are poor at ~10,000 but some of their best programmes have seen viewing figures of ~100,000, obviously this isn't much, but it's not because of the programming it's downfall has been many things:
A poor location in the listings alongside gospel and open access channels
A complete lack of promotion on other channels (apart from a few adverts on channel 5 last month)
The programmes they featured weren't brain-dead reality rubbish they were programmes that made you sit and think.
One thing that didn't help them was that when they launched over here it had the feel of a moderated TV version of YouTube for TV producers, as such its programming was full of 15 minute segments, occasionally these would be bundled up into a single programme with an on-screen continuity announcer between segments.
There were a few full length programmes but sadly they really didn't help Current reach out to the viewers, mainly because they felt like they were made by university media students to use on a show-reel.
A revamp 18 months ago solved all of their problems and ditched that though, it led them to commissioning some frankly stunning investigative reporting and some brilliant documentaries.
As well as original programming they would also show documentaries by known and unknown producers alike such as, Morgan Spurlock, Michael Moore, Nick Broomfield and many more by people you have never heard of but would recognise their work.
A few recent series/programs have been:
Stephen Fry and friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens, made shortly before his death, he was due to be on it but couldn't make it as he was too ill.
A series called 50 documentaries to see before you die, at the end of the series over the course of the following 2 months they then showed every single documentary at least 4 times.
They had a long running investigative reporting series called Vanguard that produced some of the best investigative journalism I've ever seen, they make dispatches look like reactionary tabloid monkeys.
Despite being produced by Americans, it is aimed at people who realise there is a world outside the states and as such they produce some brilliant programs, anything from Americans going abroad for medical treatment to investigations into children being sold cigarettes in Indonesia, free concerts of American pop stars aimed at children but full of tobacco advertising and the tobacco companies being complicit in this.
Another programme they created led to 2 of their reporters being captured and detained by North Korea, leading to Bill Clinton flying out to secure their release after being detained for 5 months of their 12 years of hard labour.
Between now and Sunday they are showing some of the most popular documentaries that they have previously broadcast so I would suggest you look through their programme listings (CH. 183) and record some of the programmes that take your fancy because from Sunday SKY tv will become a slightly poorer place.
As i understand it, the US channel will continue to run and the website will still be accessible to people in the UK, I do not know for how much longer though as they are only drawing in an average of ~2,000,000 viewers in America.
The only other channel that is like the slightly retarded cousin of Current is PBS (CH. 166) but the programming is all American and it feels that way, they have some good programs but a lot of it is not that great.
They are as close as America gets to the BBC though and if you view it that way quite a lot of it is well worth watching
Just a quick bump, you have until 23:59 on sunday night to record stuff, the last 10 minutes is a speech from Al Gore regarding the death of Current TV.
Sadly they seem to have decided that airing What did i do last night? (hosted by Jeff leach) is very important as they only commissioned it a couple of months ago rather than filling it with all 50 of the documentaries in their countdown.
However there are a lot of programs still available to record, below is a synopsis of the ones i've watched before and can remember:
Sadly they seem to have decided that airing What did i do last night? (hosted by Jeff leach) is very important as they only commissioned it a couple of months ago rather than filling it with all 50 of the documentaries in their countdown.
However there are a lot of programs still available to record, below is a synopsis of the ones i've watched before and can remember:
| Documentary | Synopsis |
|---|---|
| Bride Trafficking Unveiled | An interesting film mostly following Thai brides that get shipped to the UK and Ireland |
| The Forced Marriage Unit | A brilliant film following a British police team that rescue forced marriage victims from mostly Pakistan and bangladesh |
| Shoot to Kill | This follows the lead-up to the football world cup in Africa and the police edict that was issued of shoot to kill in any instances of violent crime if the perpetrator was going to escape police capture/custody |
| Bootlegged Booze | Quite an interesting film that follows both trading standards in their operations but also students who think that industrial alcohol is brilliant despite it containing both the potentially blinding methanol but also chorophorm! |
SpeedBash said:
I can't help but wonder if the recent arrival of PBS to the UK has had some effect on Current closing as, in my mind, they share a similar type of programming/viewer.
In a way i think it has, but sadly PBS don't really show any programming outside of what they have created really, so there's not a hope in hell of seeing the amount of documentary feature films that Current have output in the last 12 months, many of the ones they have shown are also pretty hard to obtain either legally or illegally. I think current suffered from what i would call "questionnaire syndrome", people like the idea of it and say they would watch it but for one reason or another they just never do.
It's odd really as the last 12 months have really stood them out as a stunning channel but sadly the fact they were in a pretty poor bit of real estate which resulted in very little in the way of drive-by viewings only added to their downfall.
Maybe they'll come back with some sponsorship, but i think in reality they wont and it's a shame really.
Also it's stuff Discovery should/could be showing but all of their channels seem to be a way to repeat stuff from their main 4 channels 1 year, 2 years, 3 years later and call it 'new' as it's new to the channel.
Eric Mc said:
Of course they did.
Money talks as far as Sky is concerned - but not much else.
like many businesses - it isn't the bbc! Money talks as far as Sky is concerned - but not much else.
i liked the channel but it didn't have enough content and apparently not enough viewers, advertising or funding (can survive without some of them -lots of channels with no content at all! - but not all)
gasland mentioned above and always good to have an excuse for viewing safe fracking again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ4LQSonXA
Well, that's it, gone, forever.
They started before youtube and really had the chance to become the first properly democratic and successful channel, in a way they were 5 years too early, perhaps they'll be back.
One shame was Al Gore's closing speech, he basically said that the channel was being closed as it was a thorn in the side of normal programming and told the truth when they didn't want them to so they got closed down.
Not a single mention of poor viewership figures or sky cutting their funding.
They started before youtube and really had the chance to become the first properly democratic and successful channel, in a way they were 5 years too early, perhaps they'll be back.
One shame was Al Gore's closing speech, he basically said that the channel was being closed as it was a thorn in the side of normal programming and told the truth when they didn't want them to so they got closed down.
Not a single mention of poor viewership figures or sky cutting their funding.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff