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"Wow, that was a real moment. That's weird for MTV." Joel McHale: Hey, ya know what else is weird for MTV? Showing a music video.
"It's unbelievable! The Cartoon Network is running live-action sitcoms now! They're the Cartoon Network! They're supposed to run cartoons! How can they get away with this?! It'd be like a news network running stuff besides news!"
Many cable channels are created to fulfill a specific programming niche. The Golf Channel shows golf, The History Channel shows history programs, and so on. Some channels, however, are not as wedded to their original concept as others. Meddling Executives look at the Demographics to whom their channel appeals, and decide that, hey, since the people watching their Speculative Fiction channel are mostly 18- to 31-year-old males, and Professional Wrestling is hot among that demographic, surely no one would mind if we started showing Professional Wrestling!
The fans of the original programming will mind, of course, but the channel tends to keep going regardless. This may show up with only a couple of odd programs in the schedule, but far too often, given enough time, a channel will have pretty much abandoned its original concept. Whether or not the former invariably leads to the latter is a subject for debate.
Part of the cause seems to be the fact that the channel is originally created to air shows that are "in the vault" of the company that creates the channels, but soon, the channel's own executives discover that original programming nets them more money, and the new stuff slowly displaces the old. Reality Shows, as a genre where the cost to produce is especially low, are common here. This may result in a new "vault" channel, which slowly undergoes the same process. (Boomerang from Cartoon Network, for instance.)
Note that one way to tell if this is happening is if the name of the network is hidden behind an acronym. For example, The Nashville Network referred to itself more and more as TNN (it eventually even changed what it stood for to "The National Network") before becoming Spike TV; similarly, you'd hardly know that TLC was ever called The Learning Channel.
Some changes can be chalked up to the changing landscape of TV. As the number of channels goes up, networks re-align themselves to try and hold some of their market. That, or the parent companies who might own seven or more cable channels each shuffle stuff for "synergy" or to reduce redundancy. But mostly it's just good old-fashioned selling out for ratings -- whether it works or not. Competition with new media is prevalent as well, as classic reruns give way to DVD boxsets, and info-dumping all-text channels give way to the data display in a digital cable box or some new-fangled webernet site.
See Magazine Decay for the print equivalent.
Examples:
- The most infamous example is MTV, which will maybe show a music video at 3 AM. If you're lucky. The rest of the time is devoted to reality shows that have nothing to do with music. Music fans are once again left without a channel to call their own. Ironically, this decay arguably began with the early-1990s addition to MTV's schedule of The Real World and Beavis And Butthead, two of the most popular programs in the network's history.
- In certain European markets, MTV still primarily shows music videos. American reality TV isn't nearly as popular outside America.
- This troper would say that the decay began with Remote Control in 1987.
- The channel FUSE was created in response to MTV's decay, aimed at a slightly more "hardcore" crowd than MTV's original target audience. Soon enough, however, it too began expanding, and now there's maybe two or three hours of music-based programming in any given day. It may be the fastest case of Network Decay ever.
- Similarly, MTV2 started out as an actual music channel and, for a while after buying out the competing Box music network, became a true haven for music fans. But its descent, especially since changing its logo to the awful "two-headed dog", can best be described as, well, "MTV 2" (MTV3, by the way, is merely a renamed MTV S, a Spanish MTV channel.)
- MTV's subscription channels have followed a similar pattern, with the original-MTV-but-without-commercials MTVX being replaced by the rap-centric MTV Jams. MTV Hits, another channel which is still pretty good about music videos, is still going... for now.
- Also similarly, MTV's sister channel, VH-1, turned into a channel celebrating pop culture by getting D-list celebrities to comment on it.
- As if anticipating its decay, VH1 launched VH1 Classic, a station devoted purely to music and music videos. Even the occasional movie shown is music-related (Footloose and The Wall being two examples).
- Animax, a 24 hour Anime channel, has started to show this, as they started to replace some programs with shows that are only remotely related to Anime, like fashion shows(!), Japanese Music shows and gameshows. It's demographic has also started to change. You'd be lucky to find any anime that isn't aimed mostly to girls, what with the copious Bishonen series they're showing nowadays. Couple the commercials of these shows with rap music and you've got a different channel. Also, because of evil censors, they even went as far as to censor women showing their cleavage/thighs, as well as women in their underwear! This Troper doesn't even want to start on the terrible channel-wide dubbing they've done...
- TNN, or The Nashville Network, a country station, eventually morphed into Spike TV, an unabashed attempt to appeal to every stereotypical male interest possible. This is somewhat understandable, due to Viacom owning both TNN and CMT, causing one of the networks to be retooled to avoid redundancy, but…
- CMT, or Country Music Television, has in recent years begun adding programming that has little if any connection to country music. In fact, music videos are played almost exclusively on weekdays during the morning and early afternoon hours, with the primetime and weekend slots being filled with reality shows and random movies, only with a "rural lifestyle" theme. In something of a double Network Decay, CMT has in 2007 even begun moving away from this, showing reruns of shows such as Hogan Knows Best and Nanny 911 along with movies like The Negotiator. One wonders if the channel has a theme anymore. In any case, this seems to be quite the trend among Viacom-owned music stations.
- G4, a video game network, bought out Tech TV, a computer enthusiast network, and went the same route as Spike, becoming a men's general interest channel. Currently, G4's lineup includes reruns of Star Trek, Totally Outragious Behavior, Ninja Warrior and COPS (titled "COPS 2.0"). Apparently, based on Star Trek and the "2.0" bit, it would seem that the executives' reasoning is that if it sounds geeky or slackers are sure to watch it, it is therefore relevant to the channel. The only shows left on the network that appear relevant to either channel's former demographics are X-Play and Code Monkeys.
- To add insult to injury, after buying out Tech TV, G4 cancelled all of the network's original programming save for X Play and The Screen Savers (which got heavily retooled into Attack of the Show) -- but only after the cast and crew of all the shows had moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
- Further insult: The one G4 show that appealed directly to the Tech TV audience (reruns of Starcade) was among the first programming to get dropped.
- Notably, G4 has recently begun airing a weekday-morning "G4 Rewind" block consisting of several-years-old reruns of shows from their video game-oriented days, such as Filter and Arena.
- As implied above, Sci Fi Channel recently added Professional Wrestling to the schedule, and well before this, it began abandoning actual "sci fi" (even in the looser sense of horror and fantasy) for cheaper-to-produce (you guessed it) reality shows. And, of course, said horror and fantasy only came in over time.
- This editor remembers a particularly egregious example of decay on Sci-Fi's part: in the run-up to showing American Psycho one night (which in and of itself has little to do with sci-fi), Sci-Fi preceded the movie with four episodes of Law And Order Special Victims Unit. The only explanations for it are that NBC owns Sci-Fi, and Bonnie Hammer does vast quantities of drugs.
- And let's not even get into the vaguely-sci-fi-themed porn movies. The Sex Files indeed...
- This troper watched Apollo 13 on the Sci-Fi Channel. If that doesn't seem to belong on this page, ask yourself what the "fi" in "sci-fi" means.
- To be fair, Apollo 13 was nominated for a Hugo award (usually given to the best works of science fiction each year) for best dramatic presentation. However, it certainly would not qualify as science fiction, since it was based on a real event; it'd be more like historical fiction (as it isn't exactly a straight recap of the original event).
- This troper recalls that World Wrestling Entertainment went to NBC/Universal with ECW, and they looked at all the various options as it pertained to where to place ECW -- USA was out because it already had RAW, NBC didn't need it, and almost every other channel they owned was considered a "poor fit" for ECW; Sci-Fi was the only network they had left to put it on. (Apparently, being an entirely different genre doesn't qualify you as "poor fit".)
- Similarly, Toon Disney shows Power Rangers and the odd live-action movie. And many Disney fans find the Jetix block detrimental to the channel, as it forced many classic Disney Afternoon shows such as Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck off its lineup to make room for shows such as the aformentioned Power Rangers, Digimon, The Tick and Jackie Chan Adventures (none of which was originally produced by Disney).
- In fact, in some other countries, Jetix is its own channel. For whatever reason, Disney decided that it would be better to append it onto a network it has nothing to do with as a programming block taking up roughly half the day in the US.
- None of this would have happened if the Fox network hadn't sold its successful "Fox Kids" lineup (which aired Gargoyles, Power Rangers, Spider Man The Animated Series, Digimon, and others) to Disney/ABC via the Fox Family network. They then retooled their Saturday morning lineup into "The Fox Box", which consisted almost entirely of 4Kids Macekres.
- Much like Toon Disney, Nicktoons Network dumped showing of older or cancelled Nicktoons such as Angry Beavers, Doug, Ren And Stimpy, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, etc., in favor of showing reruns of the exact same shows playing on Nickelodeon, just a few channels away. As of 2006, the channel also abandoned its "commercial-free" notion. What was once its mascot, the Too Good To Last Invader Zim, has been pushed back to 5 AM. This also means the end of slime shows like Super Sloppy Double Dare and the like.
- Hell, let's just throw Nickelodeon itself in here, as the network has over the years severely narrowed its demographic by increments; originally, the network prided itself as being essentially a family network, with an emphasis on programming for children and teens from sunup to sundown. Now, however, most if not all of the teen and adult programming (S'Nick, Nick At Nite, and the last vestiges of children's game shows, to name a few) have been dumped in favor for cartoon-y cartoons and tween and preteen "hip" live action series. The worst and most obvious example of this is the recent live action show on the so-called "TeeNick" lineup (which retains only one or two shows about/directed towards actual teenagers), The Naked Brothers Band, which essentially is a show about two 9-year-old boys. Really.
- And just to add insult to injury, Nick GAS (Games and Sports), a dumping ground for Nick's aforementioned children's game shows and game/sports-themed shows (along with original segments dealing with kids and their games and sports), have been slowly losing programs until only six shows are currently being aired, all recent game shows. Not even the original segments survived. GAS has now been replaced with the teen-oriented "N", formerly part of the now just-for-preschoolers Noggin.
- Naturally, "The N" seems to be in the beginning stages of a decay itself, with a mass-canceling of many of their teen/young adult oriented programming (such as South of Nowhere), and devoting an increasing amount of airtime to old Nickelodeon shows and other Disney Channel-esque preteen fare.
- Also, Nick At Nite in general. It started out as the after-dark portion of Nickelodeon, where they showed decades-old TV shows (The Munsters, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and so on). But as time went on, it began adding shows that were ten years old or less (Roseanne, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, and most damningly, The George Lopez Show), and eventually, they changed their motto to "The Place for Modern TV Hits".
- TV Land started out as, basically, Nick At Nite 2, focusing on old TV shows not even Nick At Nite showed anymore; Gilligan's Island, Mister Ed, Father Knows Best, etc. Lately, though, it's been following a similar track, airing shows that are either incredibly recent (Extreme Makeover?!) or original reality series that don't have anything to do with classic TV. (One can respect what they're doing with She's Got The Look, but it doesn't belong there.)
- The same could be said for The Disney Channel, which lost Vault Disney, The Ink and Paint Club, and most other broadcasts of classic Disney cartoons, to turn into a preppy, suburban tween-oriented Nickelodeon wannabe.
- Note that, before this period, the Disney Channel was arguably worse, interspersing about three hours of cartoons at 1AM with hours and hours of Shopping Channel-type hawking of Disney merchandise (Minnie Mouse tea set, only three payments of $11.95!). And then there were the Guns'n'Roses concerts.
- In 2006, the History Channel abandoned pretty much all of its actual history-related programming and began to air conspiracy theory "documentaries" about UFOs, Jesus's hidden Bible codes, and ghosts. Lately, they seem to have reverted to their usual fare, but still show JAG and CSI New York.
- This other editor is more frightened by the appearance, on the History Channel, of the (original) Planet Of The Apes. What do they know that the rest of us don't?
- Another fixture is an overabundance of programs related to World War II and the Nazis (the latter often tied to the paranormal shows), leading to the network being derisively referred to as the "Hitler Channel".
- This troper has often referred to the History Channel as the "Hitler & Atlantis Channel," and actually remembers a program that had both Hitler and Atlantis in it.
- The Daily Show did a spoof on this a few years back, with Ed Helms producing a History Channel-style piece where everything was inevitably compared to the American Civil War or Hitler.
- The WWII fixation stretches back to the salad days of A&E, from which History Channel was spun off. In the 1991 Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode The Amazing Colossal Man, A&E is referenced, and Tom says, "The all-Hitler channel, you mean?"
- A frightening trend this editor has noticed is History Channel's surge in programing dealing with the end of the world. From 'Life After People' to 'Last Days on Earth' to Nostradamus and shows about the Antichrist and the End Times, the people behind History Channel seem to have a disturbing preoccupation with the subject. And what does hypothetical events in the future have to do with history anyway?
- The History Channel's "show about the history of everything," The Universe, seems particularly preoccupied about the end of the universe (or just the end of the world) and seems compelled to incorporate it into every. Single. Episode, as if a contractual obligation to do so exists.
- They must be moving into future history. Or possible future history. I await the day they rename it the "Historical Pre-enactment Channel"
- The network has also created a number of reality series, including "Axe Men" and "Ice Road Truckers." They may or may not be wonderful programs, but it's hard to see what a reality series chronicling the day-to-day activities of lumberjacks in the year 2008 has to do with history.
- The A&E channel used to show artsy films and documentaries for the over-30 audience. Now you're lucky if you find a single Columbo episode or film amid the morass of reality shows. Its executive even joked at one point that the channel experienced the fastest drop in average demographic age ever.
- Its Biography Channel spin-off hasn't fared much better; about half the programming now consists of true-crime shows and repeats of shows like Airline.
- Its successor American Movie Classics, which originally showed commercial-free screenings of films from the black-and-white era, now consists of commercial-laden broadcasts of films (such as There's Something About Mary) which are hardly deserving of the adjective "classic". One can argue that AMC had already starting breaking its rules when it aired its original series Remember WENN, but at least that show was made to sort of fit in with its movies (premise: life at a 1930s-40s radio station).
- It's been suggested, at least to this troper, that American Modern Classics is the network's expanded name now.
- This troper's heard it as just "All Movie Channel", which makes more sense.
- As of now, Turner Classic Movies is still showing old films with intelligent commentary, with occasional 80s and 90s movies.
- In fact (perhaps as a response to the dearth of older films on television these days), TCM seems intent on fighting Network Decay to the death, wearing their name and intent as a badge of honor and pride. Movies from 1980 onward are usually shown to fit a theme block with older movies; i.e. the 31 Days of Oscar promotion in February, where any movie that had at least an Oscar nomination can qualify, and when they're most likely to truck out newer titles (then stuff most of 'em in a vault until next year). They take old movies seriously, to the point they now have films abandoned by other movie networks: live-action Disney films from the 1950s through the 70s, and all kinds of cult titles for its TCM Underground block.
- Pay cable movie channels are extremely frustrating. Channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz that schedule a variety of shows are understandable, and they often bundle movie-only (Cinemax, The Movie Channel, Encore) and genre-specific channels with them. However, using the Starz/Encore channels as an example, there's a decided focus on movies from 1980 onward, and from month to month the genre-specific channels are just rotating the same titles amongst themselves even if they don't fit the ostensible themes well. (Van Helsing ran on Encore, Mystery, Action, and Wam [teen-oriented].) The notable exception is the Westerns channel, since that genre has yielded little new material in the past 30 years.
- In a slightly different vein, CNX began as a channel devoted to shows that appealed to the American equivalent of shonen in the mornings and afternoons, with uncensored anime and kung fu movies later at night. However, its Toonami block, aimed at a younger audience, quickly expanded to take over the entire channel; it has recently mutated into CN Too, which is actually marketed as a second Cartoon Network.
- Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's late night programming block, has also shown signs of decay over the past few years, scheduling an increasing amount of low-budget live-action material of questionable quality. In recent time, the block come to be quite friendly in acknowledging their decay with their sardonic bumps
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- Cartoon Network itself originally began as a showcase for classic (or at least old) Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers cartoons. These were eventually replaced by an increasing number of original productions and Anime, with the Boomerang network taking over Cartoon Network's old role; however, this was largely perceived as a golden age for the network. More recently, however, the network has begun focusing on live-action movies and TV shows; "Cartoon Network's first original live-action series", Out of Jimmy's Head, the Live Action Adaptation Made For TV Movie of Ben 10, reruns of Goosebumps...
- Then there's Boomerang's recent airing of programs that only ended their first runs within the last five years (such as Justice League Unlimited).
- The Latin American version of Boomerang began just as the Spanish version of the American original, but in mid-2006 the channel suddenly changed image, lineup and direction. It's now filled with Argentinian and Australian kid and tween soaps and Sit Coms, which also shows kid-related live-action movies and some of the cartoons that Cartoon Network neither broadcasts nor produces, moving its original vintage production to late nights. It has happened that both Boomerang and CN have broadcast the same cartoons, the same day, within hours of difference.
- The Learning Channel, originally focusing around science and nature documentaries in the style of the Discovery Channel, now features almost nothing but "home makeover"-style reality shows. In a somewhat confusing (in these days of internet porn) play at grabbing the all important 18-30 male demographic, TLC recently acquired the rights to air the Miss America pageant.
- The Discovery Channel still shows plenty of actual documentary material, but is also becoming swamped with "guys building and/or blowing things up" shows in the vein of Mythbusters and Monster Garage. Recently, Discovery has also added a game show that takes place in the back of a cab, leaving one unsure whether it even has a theme beyond "non-fiction".
- It gets weird when you realize that they're knocking some of their own shows off, especially Mythbusters into Smash Lab (with a focus on safety measures) and How It's Made into Some Assembly Required. The latter has almost only done products featured in the former (though How It's Made has been on for just about ten years, so it's hard to find something they haven't done).
- The Weather Channel used to be all-weather all-the-time, but in recent years has added documentary programs such as Storm Stories, It Could Happen Tomorrow, and recently When Weather Changed History, the latter two closer to an un-decayed Discovery or History Channel than Weather. Some of these programs actually feature earthquakes and volcanoes and meteor strikes on Earth, not exactly weather material. In the evening, one may be lucky to get up to two hours of current weather news. In this case, it's a survival mechanism, as the simple, graphic display of the weather they used to capitalize on is available at the press of a button on most digital cable services, the internet, cell phones, and even some game consoles -- Wii Forecast Channel, for the block.
- Which makes the Bloodhound Gang's line "record the Weather Channel so I can watch it later" almost pathetically prophetic.
- CNN Headline News was originally 24 hours of just headline news. Recently the channel has been adding talk shows, tabloid material, and Missing White Woman Syndrome coverage.
- Court TV: Originally, the channel aired only actual courtroom trials, which included the proceedings along with anchor's analysis. Then the channel began carrying original and acquired shows. It was recently revamped as TruTV, completely dropping the live court footage that defined it originally.
- E! Entertainment Network is another good example. Originally all about celebrity news and True Hollywood Stories, it's recently begun airing all sorts of non-celebrity-related reality programs. With shows like The Girls Next Door, Paradise City (The Hills with slightly older people), and Sunset Tan (essentially centering on watching blondes in tanning salons), it comes as no surprise that in recent commercials, E! openly acknowledges itself as a Guilty Pleasure channel. And they even have The Soup to make fun of themselves with.
- While Bravo originally focused on independent cinema and the arts, it has switched over to an all-homosexuals-all-the-time reality show format, with occasional stragglers like Inside The Actors Studio still inexplicably present.
- One wonders how long it will be before LOGO, the LGTBQ-oriented channel launched in 2006, starts showing Professional Wrestling and re-runs of I Love Lucy -- though come to think of it, both of those arguably would appeal to certain demographics of the channel (oiled musclemen and mid-50s Camp). Given that it's lineup is already heavy on travelogues, talk shows, and stand-up comedy -- and the rather specific demographic -- this may be one channel that is immune to Network Decay, if it survives.
- Christian Broadcast Network, originally launched by Pat Robertson as the cable TV arm of his ministry, gradually began to add more and more general entertainment and non-religious programming to its lineup throughout the '80s. As the ratio of religious to non-religious programming shifted, it became CBN, then CBN Family, then the Family Channel, before being bought out by Fox and later sold to ABC. When Disney wanted to rename the channel to "XYZ" to remarket it to a different audience, it discovered that the contract with Pat Robertson required that the word "Family" stay in the channel name, making this impossible. Its name may not have changed, but as evidenced by Greek and Slacker Cats, it isn't really that family oriented anymore. Today, The 700 Club is the only thing left on the channel hinting at its former roots (it's another thing that's required in the contract).
- Several networks over the years have gradually dumped their kids-specific blocks for more dramas, reality shows, and soaps; back in the 1980s and 1990s, the Big Five (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and The WB, but not UPN) had the entire 6 a.m. to noon block of Saturdays set aside just for children's shows, with the latter two even going so far as to add in an extra two to three hours every weekday morning and afternoon, as well. Now, only two channels maintain Saturday morning blocks: Fox and The CW. And as the former's is dubbed 4Kids TV, and 4K also took over the latter in summer 2008, that may not be a good thing after all...
- Actually, NBC, CBS, and ABC still maintain Saturday morning kids' blocks of at least 3 hours apiece. However, they are relatively recent, Aesop-heavy shows to fulfill children's educational programming mandates forced on broadcast TV in the early 1990s. Many were not made for the networks specifically; for example, ABC's are all Disney Channel/Toon Disney repeats and NBC reruns Veggie Tales among others. The decay of Saturday morning blocks was in part due to increasing cable competition (particularly Nickelodeon), and partially due to the mandates - since few kids above preschool age watch strictly educational shows, there was little incentive for producers to make them, while entertainment-oriented shows like The Weird Al Show were artistically crippled by constant Executive Meddling to fit the mandates.
- TG 4 (originally T na G/Teleifís na Gaeilge) began as a channel devoted to Irish-language shows. Though it still shows many series in Irish, increasing amounts of time are given to American series such as Cold Case and Nip/Tuck, as well as Westerns. Most viewers would not mind so much if these shows at least had Irish subtitles in the same way that most of the shows which do feature Irish dialogue have English subtitles.
- One particularly egregious example was the Hector O'hEochagáin Show, which had dialogue in both Irish and English. The Irish was subtitled, but the English was not.
- Reversed (Network Re-cay?) by a recent trend of "vault" cable networks that have actually gone out and defined themselves a niche when before they were just rerun farms. TNT has repurposed itself as being the drama network complete with the slogan, "We Know Drama," TBS wants you to know that everything they show is "Very Funny", and USA has made a point of acquiring shows that showcase quirky characters to fit its "Characters Welcome" campaign (oddly enough, an awful lot of these are genial detectives). This is probably because these networks would be just like the gazillion other generic networks otherwise.
- The British satellite station Bravo (unrelated to the American Bravo mentioned above) began as a channel showing black and white TV from the sixties (mostly Lew Grade action shows), dropped this in favour of Speculative Fiction and horror, dumped that for True Crime shows and "adult programming" (If You Know What I Mean), and now shows an eclectic mix of programmes that can best be described as "lad's mag television". In other words, anything they think (stereotypical) 18- to 31-year-old males will watch. Methinks it would get along well with the aforementioned Spike TV, right down to them both showing TNA Wrestling and UFC as the big draws.
- The TV Guide channel, formerly the Preview Channel. Originally a nice little channel with pleasant muzak and Teletext style graphics that gave the local TV listings and the weather, supported by unobtrusive text ads, it has since mutated into a tabloid rag that shoves the listings into less than half of the total screen so as to make more room to show talking heads blab about American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. This change was most likely to compete with digital cable and Internet channel listings. You may notice that they're calling themselves the "TV Guide Network" now, further proving that they care more about their shows than about the TV listings that are the main reason people watch the channel.
- The magazine followed a similar path, dropping TV listings entirely and moving to entertainment news, with the physical form of the magazine going from digest to glossy.
- Much like TG 4 above, SBS in Australia was originally created to show foreign language programmes to Australians who spoke languages other than English. Since there are so many of them (at the very least it would need to do Chinese, Italian and Greek), it couldn't dedicate itself to them all, and since pay TV services like RAI and ANT 1 launched later did it much better, it gradually became the mix of documentaries, sex, soccer and South Park that it's known for today.
- Similarly, Imparja was created to service indigenous Australians in Central Australia, but, thanks to network aggregation, it is now essentially Channel Nine from Sydney with a couple of breakaway programmes.
- Australian examples are rare because there are so few networks, most of them are owned by the same companies, and the ratings are too small to quibble about (if the most matched programme in Australian pay TV history got 419,000 viewers, what's the How To Channel supposed to gain any?). The only notable example is Fox Kids, which adopted a programming block called Fox Classics (not entirely unlike Nick At Nite) before the Fox Kids block moved to Fox8, leaving Fox Classics to absorb the entire network.
- BET, after they started blacklisting underground rappers and other non-"radio/video friendly" artists, as well as the purging of their news shows.
- ZTV, who was originally established as a Swedish alternative of MTV, pretty much went down the same line as MTV. In a brave attempt to counter this, however, in 2006 they decided to split the channel up; ZTV would go back to its musical roots, and the new channel TV 6 would focus on the programs that had made ZTV decay. Both channels still exist to this day.
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