Why don't we get more networks broadcast over the air?

Question

Why are we limited to local networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS... when it come to broadcasting over the air. Is there some sort of regulation or is there more to it... frequency channels, cost to broadcast, etc.? It would be nice to get more than 5 or 6 channels over the air. I'm tired of paying for cable... please enlighten me.

Answer 1

Network television is entirely paid for by commercial advertising

since any local businesses are going to put their advertising on local channels that are going to be WATCHED its very hard for other channels to get started.  Cable has so many channels because the cable companies pay them on top of national advertising

Answer 2

There are several reasons.

The biggest reason is cost.  It costs a lot of money to have broadcast towers across the nation to reach enough of an audience so you can sell enough advertising to recoup the costs of not only making the shows, but also all the technology needed to actually send the signals to our houses.

This may work fine for the larger networks, but you'd never see something like a Food Network, or even Discovery Channel on network broadcast TV.  It'd just be too expensive.

With Cable and Satellite, part of your subscription fee goes back to these networks for these shows.

Another reason has to do with broadcast standards.  There are quite strict rules about what you can say or show on broadcast TV.  If you wanted to show an R-rated movie on broadcast TV, you could never do it uncut, which is why movies on the broadcast stations bleep or drop out expletives, or delete scenes of violence and nudity.

While many cable/satellite channels stick to these standards for the most part, you also have things like HBO, not to mention the Playboy Channel.

The final reason is a bit more technical.  The frequencies set aside for TV broadcasts can only support so many stations.  The planned switchover from the current analog system to an all digital one will help alleviate this problem somewhat, and we'll see a few additional channels appear. However, cable and satellite have become so ubiquitous, we probably won't see a whole lot of new channels appear beyond just the HD versions of what we have now.