TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES NEWS

[dianedebuda]

Our TV has the various connectors, but the cable box and Blu-ray are only HDMI.

Oh my TVs are all hdmi - it's just capturing where I'm still in the component world. Had a really great cable box with 5 tuners and a big drive for dvr too, but it died and the new cable boxes are like you said: all hdmi. Had to settle for a tired 2 tuner one about a year ago. Not capturing much these days and there just hasn't been much of interest on tv, so hasn't been much of a problem.

And yeah, I'm an old coot, so I remember those antenna days.

[jimimac71]

Well Diane, you don't look like an old coot. <smiles>
I love the old-time days.
I live with my mother. I'm pushing 66. She will be 89.
I would love to ditch cable for streaming.
I can hear her now, where are the buttons for channels?
Years ago, Lorna from the TCM forum said Hulu TV had East/West feeds for TCM.
Still think I'd rather have YouTube TV. It seems to rate highest.
I've never used Watch TCM. I only remember people complaining about it years ago.

[ziggy6708a]

".....Not only is this man a terrible CEO, but he’s also an imperious coward who’s more than willing to swat down anyone who dares question his authority. Our worst kind of rich person.

Maybe Zaslav was able to get Welch to back down from public criticism, but my bosses here at SFGATE won’t be similarly cowed. So, for the permanent record, let me state all of this again flatly: David Zaslav is an eel who sucks at his job. He’s destroying HBO. He’s destroyed what bare credibility the DC Universe had left with moviegoers. He’s forced GQ to willingly debase itself. He’s destroyed TCM. And while he couldn’t get Licht to destroy CNN, he’ll find some other pair of docksiders to finish the job. .....
David Zaslav has distinguished himself not only by being unable to run ANY part of one but also by being such a brazen coward about that fact. I shouldn’t know who this man is. But here he is, and now he should deal, in full, with what he’s wrought. He’s a parasite: a terrible CEO, an enemy to artists, and a lousy, horrible graduation speaker to boot. I hope he’s strapped to a chair and forced to watch “The Flash” on repeat for the rest of his pathetic little existence. ...."

[dianedebuda]

"David Zaslav is

So I guess this means he wouldn't be on your guest list for dinner then.

[jamesjazzguitar]

".....Not only is this man a terrible CEO, but he’s also an imperious coward who’s more than willing to swat down anyone who dares question his authority. Our worst kind of rich person.

Maybe Zaslav was able to get Welch to back down from public criticism, but my bosses here at SFGATE won’t be similarly cowed. So, for the permanent record, let me state all of this again flatly: David Zaslav is an eel who sucks at his job. He’s destroying HBO. He’s destroyed what bare credibility the DC Universe had left with moviegoers. He’s forced GQ to willingly debase itself. He’s destroyed TCM. And while he couldn’t get Licht to destroy CNN, he’ll find some other pair of docksiders to finish the job. .....
David Zaslav has distinguished himself not only by being unable to run ANY part of one but also by being such a brazen coward about that fact. I shouldn’t know who this man is. But here he is, and now he should deal, in full, with what he’s wrought. He’s a parasite: a terrible CEO, an enemy to artists, and a lousy, horrible graduation speaker to boot. I hope he’s strapped to a chair and forced to watch “The Flash” on repeat for the rest of his pathetic little existence. ...."

So the Board of Directors and major stockholders selected Zaslav, for what reason?

The writer appears to know much more about how to run such a business than all those that have an actual stake in said business.

[txfilmfan]

".....Not only is this man a terrible CEO, but he’s also an imperious coward who’s more than willing to swat down anyone who dares question his authority. Our worst kind of rich person.

Maybe Zaslav was able to get Welch to back down from public criticism, but my bosses here at SFGATE won’t be similarly cowed. So, for the permanent record, let me state all of this again flatly: David Zaslav is an eel who sucks at his job. He’s destroying HBO. He’s destroyed what bare credibility the DC Universe had left with moviegoers. He’s forced GQ to willingly debase itself. He’s destroyed TCM. And while he couldn’t get Licht to destroy CNN, he’ll find some other pair of docksiders to finish the job. .....
David Zaslav has distinguished himself not only by being unable to run ANY part of one but also by being such a brazen coward about that fact. I shouldn’t know who this man is. But here he is, and now he should deal, in full, with what he’s wrought. He’s a parasite: a terrible CEO, an enemy to artists, and a lousy, horrible graduation speaker to boot. I hope he’s strapped to a chair and forced to watch “The Flash” on repeat for the rest of his pathetic little existence. ...."

So the Board of Directors and major stockholders selected Zaslav, for what reason?

You appear to know much more about how to run such a business than all those that have an actual stake in said business.

Those aren't ziggy6708a's words. They are quoted from the article in the SF Gate. Ziggy6708a has just copied a portion of the article in-line.

[jamesjazzguitar]

So the Board of Directors and major stockholders selected Zaslav, for what reason?

The writer appears to know much more about how to run such a business than all those that have an actual stake in said business.
[/quote]

Those aren't ziggy6708a's words. They are quoted from the article in the SF Gate. Ziggy6708a has just copied a portion of the article in-line.
[/quote]

Thanks for that reminder. I say reminder, because I should have realized this was mr666 from the TCM site and he mostly post the comments of others instead of his own.

Either way, my point was that the actions taken by Zaslav were not done without support by the Board (likely voted on), as well as major stockholders. The same goes for the actions of the, now former, CNN leader, Chris Licht, or the changes\layoff that occurred at ESPN. I.e., these are NOT companies run by Musk: Someone that is solely responsible for the vast majority of major decisions made for the companies he is the majority shareholder\owner of.

Chris Licht was terminated due to not meeting the demands of the board. The same will happen to Zaslav if he doesn't meet the goals set by the board. But be careful what you wish for: one of them might be the termination of TCM.

[jimimac71]

About time to let go of the ongoing comparisons to people from the old TCM.
That forum is dead, and I for one, am fine with that.
I have opinions of Tim Cook versus Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates versus Steve Ballmer (Microsoft).
Many of us wonder who the idiots were to create some of the worst versions of Windows, like 8/8.1.
I don't know enough about David Zaslav to have an opinion.
There are reasons I don't use social media. You can't trust everything you read.
Of course you can search for "Disney CEO" and get all kinds of interesting reading.
I did a little searching, in a new tab, something that can get me into trouble, and found this:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/11845449 ... vid-zaslav
I elected to listen to the audio playback. I always do.
You can probably put a little more faith in National Public Radio over Twitter..
It politely still makes David Zaslav look bad.

[jamesjazzguitar]

About time to let go of the ongoing comparisons to people from the old TCM.
That forum is dead, and I for one, am fine with that.
I have opinions of Tim Cook versus Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates versus Steve Ballmer (Microsoft).
Many of us wonder who the idiots were to create some of the worst versions of Windows, like 8/8.1.
I don't know enough about David Zaslav to have an opinion.
There are reasons I don't use social media. You can't trust everything you read.
Of course you can search for "Disney CEO" and get all kinds of interesting reading.
I did a little searching, in a new tab, something that can get me into trouble, and found this:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/11845449 ... vid-zaslav
I elected to listen to the audio playback. I always do.
You can probably put a little more faith in National Public Radio over Twitter..
It politely still makes David Zaslav look bad.

I'm sure you're aware of the term hatchet man (or hatchet person): This is a leader (typically a COO or CFO), who is the front person for the company. This helps shields the company from taking the heat when entire divisions of a company are sold off or terminated, or there are major layoffs. The hatchet man gets most of the external blame. Often the company's stock goes up and thus internally this same hatchet man gets the praise from the board and major stockholders. Capitalism 101.

[jimimac71]

I don't know anything about that end of the ladder. I'm just a blue collar kind of guy.
Worked in radio, Radio Shack, and a career in cable television. We are a cable TV family.
Goes back to when Mom worked for Ma Bell. Pacific Telephone and Telegraph.
A PT&T engineer told Mom about this new thing called CATV and away she went.
"Picture it: 1967 in a rural California town. 10 channels if we were lucky for $5/month."
This was before UHF TV came along. You know, channels greater than 13.
I am capable of bad mouthing Xfinity/Comcast, but it is what it is.
In my day, broadcasters were subject to the 7 rule. They could own 7 AM, 7 FM, and 7 TV channels.
Yes, the rule is radio "stations" and TV "channels." Learned that decades ago and stick with it.
AT&T should have stayed a phone company. They messed a lot of things up including owning cable television franchises.
I was employed by Storer Cable Communications and we stood alone from Storer Broadcasting.
Also worked for Viacom Cablevision before they got to where they are now.
Like Ted Turner, "I was cable when cable wasn't cool."
To close this off, at least for now, we've learned nothing from the breakup of the Bell companies.
TCM is an example of "too many cooks spoil the stew." (or broth)
I cannot tell you how many owners TCM has had.

[jimimac71]

About time to let go of the ongoing comparisons to people from the old TCM.
That forum is dead, and I for one, am fine with that.
I have opinions of Tim Cook versus Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates versus Steve Ballmer (Microsoft).
Many of us wonder who the idiots were to create some of the worst versions of Windows, like 8/8.1.
I don't know enough about David Zaslav to have an opinion.
There are reasons I don't use social media. You can't trust everything you read.
Of course you can search for "Disney CEO" and get all kinds of interesting reading.
I did a little searching, in a new tab, something that can get me into trouble, and found this:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/11845449 ... vid-zaslav
I elected to listen to the audio playback. I always do.
You can probably put a little more faith in National Public Radio over Twitter..
It politely still makes David Zaslav look bad.

I'm sure you're aware of the term hatchet man (or hatchet person): This is a leader (typically a COO or CFO), who is the front person for the company. This helps shields the company from taking the heat when entire divisions of a company are sold off or terminated, or there are major layoffs. The hatchet man gets most of the external blame. Often the company's stock goes up and thus internally this same hatchet man gets the praise from the board and major stockholders. Capitalism 101.

EDIT: I could not figure out the song used at the end of the Fresh Air (NPR) recording. (Above link)
I used the Google Assistant on my Android tablet, because the Internet told me so ... and the answer is:

Yeah, I'm sure many of you already knew that.

[NotAnAnimal!!]

In case anyone needs a long trip down memory lane about the issue as a whole: https://archive.ph/S9Wkw

Surprised to know that ATT still owns the controlling majority of the shares and board seats. While they may have resumed licensing out certain material, the Discovery merger just seems like an extension of their disasterous plan to flood their HBO streaming service with crap in an effort to compete with other streaming services. Be that as it may, I don't get the cutting of TCM, it was self-sustaining and profitable and not the cause of their financial problems. There's plenty of blame to go around, from ATT, Zaslav to the FCC for even making the ATT merger possible in the first place. But it isn't the first time WB have destroyed on of their channels, the Cartoon Network for instance is a shell of its former self. Who would want to go through the aggravation of signing up for cable when all you've got is the same show being played for hours a day?

[jimimac71]

The above link is quite massive. It will take Firefox's voice reader an hour for the whole thing.
But I am interested.
You know, can't blame cable for poor programming or scheduling.
Satellite and streaming are only as good as what's put on the channels as well.
Dropping the name HBO is pretty crazy. Home Box Office was the beginning of Pay TV.
Think of calling Netflix just Flix.
The stupidity continues with WBTV, a FAST streaming service coming from WB.
First thing, it is already the call letters for a television channel.
Why would they create something for free before making a streaming home for TCM?
Discovery+ is only the Discovery channels. CNN Originals, but no CNN.
Don't tell it would cost too much. They own the channels Like CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, and TCM.
Okay, before someone says it, yeah but they don't own the content.
That is over my head, but that's why you charge a fee. It is ridiculously cheap for Discovery+, as if to say it isn't any good.
Nobody charges less than $10/month, right off the top of my head, but they use to.
Would I pay for Discovery+? No. If they had the other channels, namely TCM? What do you think?

[NotAnAnimal!!]

Here's another link, since the previous isn't working for me: https://web.archive.org/web/20230108012 ... -deal.html

Yeah, it is a large bit of journalism and I should warn, not much about TCM itself at all. Probably because TCM was largely left alone afaik. Short version: ATT came in, wanted to buy Warner to make a new streaming service and put a bunch of crap on it, HBO execs were less than enthused with the desire to expand from their niche market. Instead of the money Warner was making licensing shows out, ATT wanted to bring them back in house under the HBO max umbrella, they were told it would lose them money, they didn't listen. They refused to enter into content relationships with other providers, wanting to go it alone and it all blew up in their face until they decided to sell it to Discovery (who took out a big loan to buy it) but remains stacked with an ATT board and still own (at least at the time of the article) 71% of the stock of WBD.

And then there's other stuff in there regarding CNN, and political backroom dealings to get the merger rammed through.

I'd rather have had my $15 go to HBO/TCM to create the content they do, rather than have it stretched further by adding Discovery crap into the mix. Really its to say that both of these mergers have not given me any value added material. I'd have rather had the money go towards a "niche" network that put out a quality product and renewed their slate of good shows.

[jimimac71]

I just looked up The Criterion Channel.
Still a good price. TCM is more my speed.
I would pay the prices Criterion is charging for TCM.
Yes, I'd pay a year in advance.