After watching an episode of James Burke's Connections 3, which was made for The Learning Channel (TLC), I'm suddenly thinking, what should've happen so that TLC remains an educational channel?
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The Learning Channel (TLC) remains an educational channel
- Thread starter VPrinciples
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sprite
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Unfortunately trash sells and no one really wants to watch educational shows 
TLC (Terrible Life Choices) is just one of many channels that have completely changed while chasing viewers.
From Bravo ("I remember when Bravo used to air operas." - Jack Donaghy) to the History Channel that airs Ancient Aliens and American Pickers. Even the various cooking channels have moved from instructive shows to game show formats.
Truly education TV can work, but it needs to be disconnected from ratings and advertising revenue. Which leaves it in the hands of government and maybe universities.
TLC (Terrible Life Choices) is just one of many channels that have completely changed while chasing viewers.
From Bravo ("I remember when Bravo used to air operas." - Jack Donaghy) to the History Channel that airs Ancient Aliens and American Pickers. Even the various cooking channels have moved from instructive shows to game show formats.
Truly education TV can work, but it needs to be disconnected from ratings and advertising revenue. Which leaves it in the hands of government and maybe universities.
So more stuff in the line of PBS (which still falls prey to the occasional pop "science/history" trope)?
Too badUnfortunately trash sells and no one really wants to watch educational shows
TLC (Terrible Life Choices) is just one of many channels that have completely changed while chasing viewers.
From Bravo ("I remember when Bravo used to air operas." - Jack Donaghy) to the History Channel that airs Ancient Aliens and American Pickers. Even the various cooking channels have moved from instructive shows to game show formats.
Truly education TV can work, but it needs to be disconnected from ratings and advertising revenue. Which leaves it in the hands of government and maybe universities.
. At least the Smithsonian has a TV channel that airs good educational shows, right?Nebuchadnezzar
Banned
Too bad they are not translated into Spanish, as a child there was nothing that I loved more than a good documentary.Too bad
My cable service has the Smithsonian Channel in it. They have Indonesian subtitles.
Simples - have NASA continue to remain involved with TLC's operations (downside: no NASA TV), including in the AESP/ACSN, while keeping it a non-profit or at least transforming it into another public broadcaster.
Why yes, yes I am. IIRC my cable service has TLC in it and the programs are un-educational stuff similar to the American one. The cable service also has the History Channel and it's non-historical stuff.
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It's not a simple matter of it just having higher ratings. There are plenty of people who would rather watch documentaries than reality TV, but reality TV is much cheaper to produce. Making a documentary means paying people to do research. Paying people to travel to libraries (if necessary). Either flying camera crews out to interview scientists/historians or flying scientists/historians to your set. It means having writers to summarize everything and then editors to put it all together. Depending on the subject matter it can involve flying film crews out to remote locations. Reality TV just means you get some people to camp out on whatever film set you choose. Editing is much simpler. Your camera crews don't need to be as skilled as wildlife photographers are, and thus are likely cheaper, and their film equipment definitely doesn't have to be as sophisticated. Shows about nature, history, and technology are expensive to produce unless you want them to just be broadcasting a lecture with power point slides for your visuals. Shows like Real World are cheap.Unfortunately trash sells and no one really wants to watch educational shows
TLC (Terrible Life Choices) is just one of many channels that have completely changed while chasing viewers.
From Bravo ("I remember when Bravo used to air operas." - Jack Donaghy) to the History Channel that airs Ancient Aliens and American Pickers. Even the various cooking channels have moved from instructive shows to game show formats.
Truly education TV can work, but it needs to be disconnected from ratings and advertising revenue. Which leaves it in the hands of government and maybe universities.