Re: Big purple digit

Kip Williams <kiptw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> When I was a kid, the big selling point of pay TV was freedom from
>> commercials.  That it's caught on so widely *with* commercials is
>> proof of P.T. Barnum's dictum.

> Proven in spades with the popularity of shopping networks.  I once
> fancifully predicted an all-ad cable station, but in my wildest
> dreams, it was never so horrible.

Here in the DC area, there are (or were last time I checked) one or
two shopping channels in the backwater of the UHF band.  It always
struck me as a strange concept.  It's like being taken on a very slow
tour of a shopping mall, by being shown low resolution images of items
one at a time.  I never understood why anyone would shop via TV when
then can just go to a real mall and see tens of thousands of items up
close in full resolution -- and buy them then and there, rather than
waiting six to eight weeks for delivery, then making sure someone is
home when the delivery person shows up.

Even catalogs allow you browse much faster than a TV channel, and get
a better view of what's being offered for sale.

You're saying there are shopping channels that people *pay* to watch?
-- 
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html
before emailing me.