I’ve been thinking lately about sending Robert Redford a letter about The Sundance Channel to ask "What in the world has been going on with your station?" But I figured I'd actually get an answer if I went online to find out on my own.
Trying to find good movies on the Sundance Channel over the past year or more has become increasingly difficult, especially since they started playing their 6 or 7 reality series’ that have only a handful of episodes each, running them almost exclusively, day and night, in perpetual re-runs. The few movies and documentaries they still show are being re-run over and over again also. Only they don’t show them every day like they do with the reality shows. It’s as if they don’t know what to do with programming so they’ve decided to do nothing. Certainly no money is being spent on it. Are they trying to get rid of viewers like me? Maybe.
After IFC (Independent Film Channel) lost its integrity to commercials and TV show re-runs, the last bastion of good commercial-free Indie movies and thought-provoking documentaries for me was Sundance. Now Sundance has lost its integrity too, only much worse. At least IFC is showing a decent amount of movies in the mix. According to DocumentaryTelevision.com, Robert Redford, Universal Studios and Showtime, who were the launchers of the Sundance Channel back in 1996, have sold it to Rainbow Media which acquired full ownership in 2008. And—is anyone who has watched the decline of Sundance going to be surprised? —they also own IFC.
The article goes on to state that “Under Rainbow’s management, Sundance has turned away from the founders’ vision of ‘superserving’ it’s Indie niche with edgy movies, docs and culturally-forward series.” They are aiming to get a “slice of the mainstream TV audience.”
So much for culturally-forward Television.
Conversely, the new owners say that their programmers seek “programs that add value to the lives of our audience.” Rainbow’s tagline for Sundance is “Live your true life.” And they ask, “Are you living your true life? Dreamers. Individuals. Independents – they all have one thing in common: they chase their passion and are true to themselves. This is the core of our original programming – people that are living their true life or are on the chase for it.” And they apparently think this audience is the mainstream that will watch these insipid, cheaply made reality show reruns. I’m not saying the shows are completely uninteresting, it’s just that anything becomes that way when re-regurgitated daily. From their statements, one could almost think that they would want to be running “culturally-forward TV.” Their ideals are anything but iconoclastic.
I have basic cable that comes with my apartment, but also have a little bit extra that gives me EPIX, IFC, Sundance and Encore, which I will be stopping as soon as my bundle promo expires.
Say what you want about Netflix, but at least they have a wide variety of choices for me to choose from in all sorts of genres, including some of those series’ on Showtime I got hooked on before cancelling my service. At $7.99 a month, that’s less than I paid when I was receiving DVD’s from them and it’s amazing how little it bothers me about not getting the DVD rentals anymore. I am relatively new to Netflix, so maybe that’s why I still think it’s a bargain, especially when compared to paying the price for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and the rest. And with Netflix you can watch what you want when you want it. You don’t have to wait around for it to come on a movie channel or wonder if it ever will again. I know when I had them all it used to upset me to be paying all that money when I would scan through each one on a given day and not find anything new to watch. They seem to be trading each other their re-run movies. Once they’re gone from one movie channel, they pop up in another one. Between Netflix and Basic cable (or even without it) why not just use more of what’s offered online like Hulu, to fill in the gaps. It’s free or very low-cost and it sends a message to the big guys.
Honorable mention: TCM (Turner Classic Movies) on basic cable has not lost its own integrity, so far. It’s still commercial-free and the quality of their programming has improved over the years. Recently Robert Osborn has been on vacation, missing from the line-up for the past several months except for Thursday night’s “The Essentials,” with Alec Baldwin. He is planning to return in December this year.
I appreciated the Original Sundance Channel’s narrowcasted niche reach. I will miss it and its integrity and mourn the demise of yet another thing that worked well but was discarded for more of the same cheap, mindless cookie-cutter programming that’s already out there.
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