Monday, April 30, 2012

Mindless Cross-Promotion

I moved a step closer to cutting the cord this weekend.  The introduction of a Roku player into the house has definitely made me more reluctant to watch anything on cable.  The offerings are too weak, the scheduling too rigid.  I'm just not getting much for my money there.  The saving grace had been Comcast Sportsnet.  That's no longer the case.

That station interrupted Saturday's sports highlights with a breakaway to the local NBC affiliate to get a weather forecast.  Ugh.  First of all, CSN's Toyota Sportsnight is so inundated with commercials I don't want to lose any additional minutes to something other than sports.  That is all the more true for a weather forecast that, if I wanted one, I could easily call up on my telephone. 

More importantly, they've entered the same cross-promotional hell that ESPN entered into years ago when I kicked them to the curb.  Congratulations, Comcast, on having acquired NBC.  Boffo for you!  But now are you obligated to juice the ratings for the local NBC station?  Are we now to be treated to advertisements for the latest shows on NBC primetime?  Will there now be crossovers to the Today show? 

Comcast Sportsnet might now have become just another station, just another part of a network that exists only to boost the numbers for the other parts of its corporate entity.  It now stands out less from the other stations, of which there are already way too many. 

Why do we still have it, the digital cable?  There's so much to read online and in print.  There is so much we can watch through Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.  Why bother with a box that brings me channel after channel of sameness? 

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