It's such a wonderful resource. I'm sure we all appreciate TCM. Two questions:
1. What is their business model? How do they make money? Surely the income from selling printed schedules and a few souvenirs does not support an entire national television station. How does it work?
2. I was about to ask when they will get around to high-definition telecasting. But, lo! There there it was, unannounced, on our Cablevision/Optimum HD channel just the other day. Maybe it was a beta version. There did appear to be some audio and video glitches in the transmission. But this is a very good sign.
Cable companies pay them an access fee to get the station. That, plus their web presence, gives them their income.
I also hope they come to high-def soon, but a majority of their films will only be presented in upconverted standard def for quite a long time even if they're on a high def signal.
I'm also pretty sure that, because Ted Turner owns a lot of the films on TCM outright, royalties aren't a huge issue.
Does Turner still own the station?
Ah, no. Looks like it's now owned by Time Warner.
There was some article a few weeks back, during their fifteenth anniversary about their business model. Wish I could find it. Probably NYT.
Yes, I'm holding off on purchasing an HDTV until TCM goes HD. Not interested in their widescreen broadcasts being messed up because of the lack of 16:9 format (4:3 movies excepted).
Thanks for those links. And God bless TCM -- really the only reason I pay for cable TV. As I said, they do seem to be broadcasting in HD in the Cablevision system that covers Long Island and coastal Connecticut: channel 734. There were some glitches the first couple of times I tuned in, but now the images always look great.
Thanks for those links. And God bless TCM -- really the only reason I pay for cable TV. As I said, they do seem to be broadcasting in HD in the Cablevision system that covers Long Island and coastal Connecticut: channel 734. There were some glitches the first couple of times I tuned in, but now the images always look great.
