What with the hundreds amd hundereds of TV shows avaliable to air,why do networks(cable and local)air paid programming?To me,it's just a waste of air time and space.My question is this:Does anyone watch paid programming.?Answer this one yes or no. For me,my answer is NO.How about the rest of you?Feel free to post.

Heck no!! They are just a waste of time. Give me a good book to read or DVD to watch any day.

There is only one reason networks air paid programming and that reason is :dollar::dollar::dollar::dollar::dollar:!!
So they really don't care if anyone is watching. As long as they got paid to run the show their happy!

Plus it costs them a lot less (if any) dough to run the informercials than it does to buy syndicated packages of classic shows. BOO HISS!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

Plus it costs them a lot less (if any) dough to run the informercials than it does to buy syndicated packages of classic shows. BOO HISS!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
Exactly! All I can say is thank goodness for DVD's!!

Exactly! All I can say is thank goodness for DVD's!!
Yup!!!

Exactly! All I can say is thank goodness for DVD's!!you can say that again

I would watch an infomercial if they were selling dvds of classic tv shows! Otherwise I watch dvds. I am surprised the makers of dvds haven't thought of the idea of imbedding commercials in the tv shows on dvd. Oh no, I think I just gave them an idea! Ugh!!!!

I'll occasionally watch. WWRD 32 here in Dayton, now an RTV affiliate, has it. It's better than 99% of the junk on network television!

you can say that again
Thank goodness for DVD's!!

Heck no!! They are just a waste of time. Give me a good book to read or DVD to watch any day.



I am with you on the book part.


I do have to give a shoutout to certain informericals. Thats only because one company that makes them is owned by Robin Seymour. He is a legendary Detroit DJ from the 50's and 60's who also hosted two 60's teen Detroit rock shows: Teen Town and Swingin' Time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K_EZwiRDCc




Here is Robin Seymour himself. This guy is around 81.

I do watch paid programming depending on the products being sold. I have been getting back into shape over the past year so if I see something about fitness products I watch to get info and see if it something I might want to buy.

I've watched a few, like that oven where you can use leftovers to make new meals. And the one with the leafblower/weed wacker.

Yes, I've watched Infomercials. Especially if they deal with food or home improvement products. I also like the Time Life ones. Never bought anything from them though.

I forgot about the Time Life ones. The music ones were good. At least during the 90's and the cool thing was they had orginal MTV VJ's selling their CD's.

No way!Paid programming are just a bunch of half hour commercials for scam products.I have noticed that paid programming keeps increasing,now I think even stations like ABC etc. have it.

I'll never forget when I first saw one of these :cuss: programs. Back in 1984 when I still had Cable WOR-TV would run vintage Movies at 3:00 AM. The listings never said what the film was, so I'd program my VCR to record the movie, then when I got up I'd check to see what it was. If I liked it I'd keep it, otherwise I'd rewind the tape for the next night's show. It was in the middle of the week when I played the tape, only to discover instead of a movie there was this bimbo selling a weight-loss product, followed by one for an Exercise Machine. :mad: :confused: It would be two weeks before the listing for the movie was replaced by those two words we all see on late-night program listings these days ":angryfire "Paid Programming" :angryfire. Unfortunately they spread across the scene like some infernal cancer. By the end of the decade, IMO Late-Night TV was :rip: DEAD :rip:.

As has been said by other posters before me, thank Heaven for DVDs!

Yeah they replaced good late night television ie: good older movies,television shows etc. with that paid garbage.-- When you think about it, with alot of American commercial television stations now pushing the 50 percent mark in regular television commercials alone,then you add in paid programming that must bring up the amount of advertising to well over 70 percent on alot of stations.

Yeah they replaced good late night television ie: good older movies,television shows etc. with that paid garbage.-- When you think about it, with alot of American commercial television stations now pushing the 50 percent mark in regular television commercials alone,then you add in paid programming that must bring up the amount of advertising to well over 70 percent on alot of stations.

And they wonder why they are losing Viewers. :(

You know I thought I was the only one. I was going to say something but I thought it would sound stupid. I dont know why they have paid programming. I always assumed they had to show paid programming. I will tell you if I had a choice I would eliminate Paid programming altogether. I just thought that paid programming was a part of tv and I didnt think people felt this way.

I do remember that my local PAX station had paid programming 24 hrs. a day back 10, 15 yrs. ago, which aggravated me but eventually they started airing regular tv shows.

mets82,did you know paid programming did not even exist until the 1980s.Matter of fact I never saw an infomercial until the early 1990s --So basically there was hardly any paid programming in the 1980s either.TV stations definitely do NOT have to show that junk.Look at Antenna-TV for example,they do not have it,at least so far.Also paid programming is illegal in many other countries,just like it used to be in the states.It's just another part of un-controlled advertising that has ruined and made a joke out of American television.

I hardly ever watch paid programming.

The first message board posting I ever made was about infomercials of the 70's, where I talked about some of what I'm going to talk about here.

The first instance I remember of what we now call "infomercials" was as a toddler in the early-70's. It was a show sponsored by Andersen Windowalls, hosted by a man and woman. It had Andersen Windowall commercials, and the hosts did things with windows that looked a lot like Andersen Windowalls. I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet they were.

Around 1978, the next one I recall - truly a "one-episode wonder" - was a show sponsored by the ShopSmith Mark V. Channel 19 in our area ran its own announcement at the beginning and end of the show. If I remember right: "This program was paid for in its entirety by the sponsoring organization. This is a paid program." Ergo, the first mention of the words "paid program" relating to a TV show that I ever heard. This show ran a few times over the next couple of years, and folks, this was the only "paid program" running in our area.

This was replaced by a new ShopSmith show, "Hands On", in 1980. This ran over the next 4 years. Again, it wasn't on every week - much-less every day - but about 2-4 times a year.

Then in 1984, there was this show about hair growth, followed in short order by a new ShopSmith show called "Work'n with Wood". The explosion began. There were shows for stun guns and subliminal tapes. There was a neat show called "The Telephone Auction", which I believe was also the same episode running repeatedly, and ran for 2 years. Ch. 19 ran the same "paid program" disclaimer at the beginning and end of these new shows as well, and would keep running it until I think the 90's. The other stations in our area didn't run a disclaimer like this when they showed infomercials.

After quite a bit of dust settled, and as many different kinds of things that could be sold on infomercials were, it has finally gotten down to either household stuff, cooking stuff, fitness stuff, or CD's or DVD's.

I do sometimes, usually at night when I can't sleep. Mostly the ones for kitchen/cooking items. I wouldn't buy anything offered via infomercial though due to the general lack of reliability and overall cheap product usually offered. Obviously, this type of direct-response marketing works or they wouldn't continue to do it.