FOX is bragging that their ratings are up,

[PatSeg]

while MSNBC's and CNN's are down. Then yesterday Congressman Culberson kept bringing up to Laurence O'Donnell that MSNBC's viewership is "in the tank" in his lame rebuttal to O'Donnell's relentless questions about health care reform - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDNw4EFUy4Q

Today someone sent me an article about Comcast's highly discriminatory new practice regarding cable news, effective 8/12/09:


<A fellow progressive alerted me today about a highly discriminatory new practice being implemented by Comcast. I told him I would post something on Kos since he is not currently active here. From what I can tell, this applies to all Comcast customers, not just those in my (quite red) area of Jacksonville, Florida.

As of 8.12.09, Comcast has moved MSNBC from its Digital Starter Package to its Digital Classic Lineup while leaving Fox News on the Starter package. What this means is that one now has to pay an additional $17 per month ($204 per year) to view anything progressive enough to even remotely balance out FNC's right wing extremism (although, let's be honest, MSNBC could install Castro himself in Tweety's time slot and still not provide sufficient balance for the far-right insanity that is Beck/Billo/Hannity).

So they are calling this a "channel realignment," which I guess is like the broadcasting equivalent of gerrymandering. Apparently it's done with electronic switching from the Comcast HQ. The neighbor who alerted me to the situation is an attorney, and he thinks this appears to be to be an FCC/Fairness Doctrine violation. He has suggested to our Senator, Bill Nelson, that congress should enforce a "Menu Based" or "Cafeteria Style" subscription contract on the cable industry since it costs them nothing to make the switches.>

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Comcast-favors-Fox-News-c-by-Daily-kos-090812-139.html


___________________________________________________________

I apologize if someone has posted this already, but I didn't see it and wanted to make sure everyone is aware of it. After hearing Culberson repeat the ratings issue numerous times, I did a Google search and it appears MSNBC's ratings ARE down, but I have to wonder if something like this has a measurable effect.

[Mythsaje]

1. MSNBC requires more per subscriber than FOX does...

The move was effectively done at MSNBC's request.

Chew on that.

[PatSeg]

8. Interesting

Do you know why they did that?

[PatSeg]

9. Never mind

I've been checking around and I think it is more that FOX charges LESS than other cable news channels, as they appeal to lower income viewers, their target audience. Such viewers often rely totally on FOX for their news, whereas more liberal viewers get their news from a variety of sources and are able to read.

[KittyWampus]

12. I'm also curious if it's true that Fox gives public venues free tv's in exchange for said tv's

being tuned into to Fox.

[michreject]

23. I asked the receptionist at my Dentists office that

She said they didn't. It was strictly her choice.

[johnfunk]

32. Yes they do -- at Grand Central Station...

where the four HDTVs inside Hudson News are tuned to FARCE News Channel.

[valerief]

2. Great reason to dump Comcast and get DirectTV. nt

[tabasco]

5. DirectTV is Rupert Murdoch.

No thanks.

[valerief]

6. Yeah. Is there a good satellite TV instead?

[tabasco]

10. I think Dish is blue.

But not entirely sure.

[valerief]

13. Thanks.

[itsrobert]

24. Murdoch sold Directv to Liberty Media

And Directv is great.

[tabasco]

25. Not much of an improvement. Maybe worse than Murdoch.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/darth-vader-and-the-sun-king-700114.html

The owner of Liberty Media enabled Murdoch's takeover of DirectTV in the first place.

I've had both and much prefer Dish TV.

[L0oniX]

3. Down is up in bizarro world.

[krispos42]

4. Train wrecks always draw attention n/t

[Lex]

7. Fox News fiddling while the Republican Party burns.

Seems the more popular Fox News, the more the Republican Party drops in overall popularity.

Are they marginalizing themselves by preaching to the very white choir?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[valerief]

14. Do they only count viewership in residences or do they include places like Dunkin Donuts

and dentist offices?

[PatSeg]

15. And gas stations

I used to go to a gas stations that played FOX News at the pumps. Haven't been there in years, so don't know if they still do it.

[valerief]

16. Yeah, those, too. I'll bet half of Fox News shows broadcast to a business locale

and not a home.

[PatSeg]

18. I've heard plenty of examples of that

right here at DU. MSNBC is a selective, conscious choice, not background noise.

[kevinbgoode]

17. Dish TV's "welcome pack" doesn't have CNN or Faux News

. . .but it does have MSNBC and Comedy Central.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Heh. And they're the ones clamoring for an "even playing field" in health care.

:rofl:

[Kievan Rus]

20. Good thing I've got FiOS

[rocktivity]

21. Train wrecks always have higher viewerships.

If their viewership is going up, it's due to the comic relief they're offering.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[PatSeg]

22. I miss Jerry Springer

That is what these viewers used to watch, but Springer never pretended to be serious.

[tavalon]

26. It's human nature to want to watch a train wreck in progress

[DCKit]

27. Then Faux is a bargain - all the trainwreck you can stand for the price of basic cable.

On Edit:

They're lying. Just the people I've personally begged to stop watching Fox has got to be a full percentage point from their former audience.

[tavalon]

28. Oh. I'm not paying to watch them

I see the best of the trainwreck on YouTube.

[PatSeg]

30. Even the clips are painful to watch

The other night I recorded Glen Beck only so I could check out his current sponsors. I figured I could fast-forward through the show very quickly, but so far, haven't had the guts to do even that.

[lib_wit_it]

29. Glad I switched to Verizon. a couple of years ago.

[MzNov]

31. yes yes they're rising so high Beck is losing all his sponsors

way to go you crazy freaks.

[GreenTea]

33. Corporate Comcast! - Just look at the pathetic corporate Sirius "Left" channel

purposely diluting the left of great informative voices, cutting Thom Hartmanns show each day by two hours, for someone who is nuts and NOT liberal what-so ever....Then all the tape delayed broadcasts also a not very well informed boring guy in the afternoon (Pacific Time)

Except for the great Mike Malloy's show not being untouched on Sirius Left, the rest just plain sucks - purposely by Sirius' republican CEO .

Sirius has a channel called "Patriot Radio" with all republican right-wingers....what does that mean is Sirius implying only republicans are patriotic....of course that's what they are saying....

Corporate media is not the least bit fair it fucks over, dilutes and spurns all progressive & liberal media!!

[MrScorpio]

34. Everybody loves watching a trainwreck nt

[quiller4]

35. I don't know about other areas but it doesn't apply in Washington State

I have the cheapest Comcast digital package sold in this area to individuals and it includes MSNBC and CNN as well as Fox. So does the cheapest package sold to apartment complexes.

I suspect the change you write about is local because cable and satellite offerings are regionally regulated.

[quiller4]

36. From Daily KOS MSNBC restored in Jacksonville:

"Thank you for the email. First and foremost, I wanted to let you know that today we restored access to MSNBC for all of our digital cable customers in the Jacksonville, Florida area.

Please know that this week's disruption was not at all targeted at MSNBC - it was due to some changes to our digital channel security system. This system ensures customers receive the channels that are part of the video package to which they subscribe. This issue was isolated to the Jacksonville area, and we have no reason to believe that Comcast customers in any other areas experienced any interruptions of MSNBC.

Also, moving forward, we will be notifying customers that MSNBC will become part of the Digital Starter service in the Jacksonville area. Digital Starter is our most widely available level of digital service. Customers who have our full basic video service can contact us to receive Digital Starter, which is priced the same as our full basic video service and includes one digital set-top box at no additional cost.

Thank you again for bringing this issue to our attention."

[PatSeg]

37. That's great

Thanks for posting.