"THE WAR MOVIE CHANNEL " Topic

Is it just me or are there enough war movies out there to have it's own channel? What a focused demographic it would offer to advertisers and sponsors.
If I had a few million bucks…..

I'm with you there.

Some really good ones, many okay ones, and lots of marginal/bad ones, just for WWII.

Add in the documentaries and instructional videos from time to time, from the USA, UK, and other countries, and you've got a winner, even just if you restrict it to WWII.

Add in movies from other periods, and you've really got a lot of content.

Can't be any worse than some, like the History, and/or SyFy channels, right?

A good idea, that within two years will begin offering reality programming like spin offs from Honey Boo-Boo or the Kardashians to get better ratings.

But, sure, I agree there are enough movies, plus old series like Rat Patrol or Combat, or even MASH, plus documentaries as diverse as Ken Burns through those Vikings shows on History, that you could easily fill a channel.

You could even have theme nights--Monday is ancient and medieval movies, Tuesday black powder, Wednesday ACW, Thursday WW2, Friday post-WW2.

An excellent idea.

I sell cable tv and am a student of its programming too.
The title of a cable tv channel is a tenuous guide at best.

Almost every cable tv channel is part of a stable of channels.
Here is a brief history.
Arts and Entertainment years ago had a mini reputation as the "All Hitler, all the Time" channel. It bought or already owned a lot of WWII "documentaries".
The company that owned A&E then spun off the History (sic) Channel. This also had a minor reputation as the JFK Conspiracy Theory Channel.
For some reason it started showing crab fishing, pawn shops, logging etc.
Obviously there was still an audience for, well, our stuff.
So History begat the Military Channel. Bear in mind that the same channel also owned OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. A strange cross fertilization of commercials ensued until MIlitary Channel got on its feet.
Then MC changed its name to American Heroes and begat Military History. In the cable I sell, you have to purchase the Sporrs Entertainment Package to receive Military History.

As for SyFy, it's part of NBC's stable, and is considered to be a dumping ground for programming that doesn't fit anywhere else. Thus WWE.

I would love to see a War Movie Channel, but going by past history, it would probably stoop start to have Reality TV programming because Viacom or NBC needed a place to park some programming.

Ww2 is a popular period. I think you could do a mix of documentaries and films.
You could even make a wargame series did analysis of real battles and then step by step games. The nearest i've seen is that one with non gamers and video game software.

Pretty much agree with Winston, though A&E had a period in the 80s of being pretty cool (Banacek at 4pm! and my first exposure to Police Squad), then it became the biography channel, all the time. Not sure if that was before it became the Hitler Channel and then digressed further, to the point where I haven't bothered with it in years.

Discovery channel uses to the Shark/Nazi Channel

The History Channel should change it's name to "The Sometimes Shows History Channel". Save for rare occasions they should be embarrassed to mention "history" in their title.

The same goes for the Sy-Fi Channel … At least they changed their name to not to be confused with what most consider "real" "Sci-fi" … Again save for a few "bright shining" programs. Like those shows or not … they are clearly "Sci-fi" …

< Rant mode terminated >

I'd just like to see old shows like COMBAT or RAT PATROL or BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON back on the air…

I'd give up all those golf channels for a war movie channel.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

The thing I don't understand is why each channel starts one way and then gets watered down, then another channel is created for a more "pure" content, only to in turn be watered down again. And as Winston reveals, the process keeps repeating. Its bizarre.

Round up the usual suspects, and corporate greed stands out in the line-up. Couple that with the stupid idea that the public will never notice what a bunch of crap they are trying to feed us. Since I'm not a sports junkie, I don't even subscribe to cable or satellite TV.

Nah,most of these offering are fairly cheap on dvd. control your own programming.While I appreciate ME tv's Sci fi Saturday night,I have enough of the potential series that I can construct an evening of viewing episodes of my own choosing.

Well, a big budget network could secure rights to the wealth of foreign films we rarely if ever get in the west.

Not that it'd ever happen.

Bad idea, I would never get anything done

The problem is that ALL of those shows end up on one or another of the channels. People get tired of watching the same old thing and the channels have to change there formats to attract viewers. Perhaps a virtual channel tying up the various shows as they appear on the channels would be best.

The biggest problem any such channel has to overcome is to make money to stay on the air!! The channel has to pay cable providers to carry the channel, which in turn the cable company charges a fee to air the channel splitting some of that income with the channel. So on and so forth in a never ending cycle!

Remember when the American Movie Channel (AMC) first came to being? Showing commercial free, uncut, full length movies 24 – 7 with a little commentary to open and close each film! After a couple of years they then went off the air about 2 am till 6 or 7 in the morning, and that time was filled with Infomercials like No Money Down Real Estate, Magic Pills for weight loss, erectile dysfunction etc.!

Finally they broke down and just started showing regular commercials every ten minutes. All just so they could stay on the air! Even now the movies are rarely uncut, or full length! When the History Channel first began commercials were only aired between shows. Now you get 18 minutes of programming and 12 minutes of commercials every half hour along with the infomercials from 4 am to 8 am every day!

In order to stay on the air any such channel has to make pretty substantial amounts of money every hour just to stay on the air! If a channel has a small following advertisers will not spend their money for ads that reach a small segment of the population! That's the main reason the History Channel has gone in the direction it has the last several years! The largest part of the general viewing public simply isn't interested in history! They want to watch Swamp People, Ice Road Truckers, and moronic Pawn Stars!

The Military History Channel and occasionally the History Channel focuses too much on American military history and oddly enough Ancients.

No Napoleonics, no SYW, No TYW, no European. I mean absolutely none with the exception of Ancient Europe. Why only Ancient Europe, I don't know. Just weird. Lots of WWII too which is nice. A channel with just military movies of all kinds would be great.

I think this is the part where Early Morning Writer chimes in and schools us on Nielsen ratings.

You're kidding, right?
You're complaining that the Military History Channel had nothing on the Thirty Years War? Seriously?
Who would watch it?
The sole purpose of a tv show is to make a profit for the channel showing it. There is no way that a show on the TYW would attract any kind of audience who would buy enough boat leak repair kits.

I should link to this thread every time someone on Twitter complains about paying their licence fee for The BBC.

Just FYI … since it is such a rarity for the H/Chan … Today 15 Mar 2017, 14:00hrs EST, a Sun Tzu, Art of War documentary. On the H/Chan … Yes … the H/Chan !?!?!!

Very well done, IMO. Hope the Military shows this in some of it's schools and courses. Would have liked to have seen this when I was in the Inf Ofc Adv Crs or CAS3. Worth a look. IMO … of course.

I know with all the experts here. Some may not find it as good a program as I did. But I will make it a point to watch again. If you have the time. Check it out … humor me !

I dumped cable TV years ago. I buy blu-ray and used DVD. Go to the swap meet and buy a used DVD for $1. USD Cable TV was $30 USD a month or more. Buy even 20 movies in a month on DVD and you have a massive collection in only a few years. I have Combat! and Rat Patrol series, and loads of movies that I can watch 24/7 whenever I feel like it, without commercials or editing.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

The key is not a focused demographic, but which demographic.

The channel needs to make money by selling advertising based on viewership. Military Channel, History Channel, War Movie Channel has very poor demographics in the advertising world.

It's all about numbers.

Tekawiz nailed it.
We love to proclaim how we would … whatever and therefore "they" should run right out and make or show or whatever.
Face it. We are a tiny minuscule demographic.

As always with almost all things … it's all about the Benjamins . E.g. "No Bucks … No Buck Rogers !"

Bunkermeister, I do the same with a DVR.