Why isnt the CRTC doing something about the history channel?

[hawkeye 2010]

Originally Posted by OTAJuncqui

There very little value to the content on the History channel if you consider the amount of new episodes to re-runs. As an OTA person I laugh when ever I hear of a (fill in the blank) Marathon of a series. It's like the channel is waving a giant finger in the subscribers face. It seems that that the promos for new content run for weeks sometimes longer than the run of new shows in that season. "Pawn Stars" is not history, it's low cost scripted present day reality.

i would have to agree ,and pawn stars is repeated, along with all history programs, so many times, it would qualify as history ha ha.

[Dougofthenorth]

Corporate greed - get as much $ as possible with the barest minimum of expense...

[mrvanwinkles]

An appropriate phrase might be:

Bent all out of shape, until it is no longer recognizable by anyone, anymore.


At which point, the usual Corporate thing to do is to just RENAME it / REBRAND it. Just because it's the easiest / cheapest thing to do now.

or ...

To just Sell it off and "realize the asset".

Or just shut it down / go bankrupt - start all over again with something *new*.

The History Channel may soon be an excellent example of itself.
i.e. " HISTORY "

[PokerFace]

It might have been "History" had it not added Pawn Stars (etc.) to its lineup. It's the #1 show on the channel, and only trails Jersey Shore in the overall cable ratings for "reality" television.

In Canada, Pawn Stars routinely cracks the 600,000 overnight viewers mark.

HBO passed on Pawn Stars, probably because it prefers porn stars.

When it was originally pitched, Pawn Stars was known as Pawning History.

I've never seen an episode of Pawn Stars, but that's probably because I originally thought it was about the game of Chess. Now that I know what it's actually about ... I'll watch more porn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_Stars

http://www.toronto.com/article/72129...stars-in-vegas
[Catching up with the Pawn Stars in Vegas]

The show is so popular the U.S. History channel took the bold step of renewing it [July 2011] for 80 episodes spread over four seasons.

[Viper550]

Originally Posted by PokerFace

It might have been "History" had it not added Pawn Stars (etc.) to its lineup. It's the #1 show on the channel, and only trails Jersey Shore in the overall cable ratings for "reality" television.

To re-literate, I do not feel that Pawn Stars is an inappropriate show. Its pretty much the modern take on such classics as Antiques Roadshow. You're looking at items and memorabilia, and evaluating how much they could be worth based off the history behind them. The idea of "history" does not have to exclusively deal with wars, "history" deals with the notable events that shaped our world, the icons which defined generations, and so-on.

However, I do agree partially with the people who say History airs programming that doesn't fit its remit: "Ice Road Truckers" does not belong on History. It seems more like something that would fit better on Discovery Channel instead; it fits the "science and exploration" niche, not the "history" niche.

But still, at least they're still airing programming which is intelligent. Jersey Shore is not intelligent by any means.

[reidw]

I don't think that many here realize what history really is. The more I watch Ice Road Truckers, Ice Pilots etc. the more I envy the social historians of the future. They will have a huge library of primary sources for their studies of life in then distant early 21st Century. Never mind diaries, letters. These historians will have detailed visual and audio records of how various individuals and groups lived in the "past". Not history? Perhaps by a narrow definition that's true. But these are the materials that create real history. The historians of the future will be grateful for these programs. No previous age has left behind such copious source material.

[doglips]

So rename it: "(in the future this crap will be part of) History Channel" and it'll be accurate then.

[McPatrick]

so the history channel turned into a channel that just makes history instead of showing us anything that already went down in history? heck history channel has a program called "life after people" which is basically theoretical and has nothing to do with history

[mrvanwinkles]

Ha ha ... new name/brand: THE History SPIN CHANNEL

We'll show you how we can apply "SPIN" to whatever programming we have, and call it History.

Apply the correct SPIN, and anything can become History !

Or - THE WEASLE SPIN History CHANNEL

We can Weasle and Spin anything into History !

And the new logo for the specialty channel is a cartoon Weasle character shown spinning at high speed. ( Like that weasle character on Bugs Bunny, with Foghorn Leghorn ) ha ha .

Strange humour ... I know ... but anyway .

http://looneytunes.wikia.com/wiki/The_Weasel

[Viper550]

Originally Posted by reidw

I don't think that many here realize what history really is. The more I watch Ice Road Truckers, Ice Pilots etc. the more I envy the social historians of the future. They will have a huge library of primary sources for their studies of life in then distant early 21st Century. Never mind diaries, letters. These historians will have detailed visual and audio records of how various individuals and groups lived in the "past". Not history? Perhaps by a narrow definition that's true. But these are the materials that create real history. The historians of the future will be grateful for these programs. No previous age has left behind such copious source material.

Actually, now that I think about it, your argument is feasible.

If this channel existed in say, the time of Greek mythology, would they have shown live coverage of Icarus trying to fly with homemade wings, like History did a few years back when they covered Yves Rossy flying over the English Channel on a jetpack?