Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
But no, I don't like it when a corporation appears to visibly parasitize an existing established thing in order to get their own name out.
If "this program was paid for by a generous grant from the XXY Foundation, the YYZ Foundation, and Viewers Like You" was good enough for umpteen years, then why does "Masterpiece Theatre" now need to be "ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre"? It looks like a crass attempt to get the public thinking that ExxonMobil has been behind Masterpiece Theatre all along. And what happens when ExxonMobil's PR department starts thinking that Masterpiece Theatre no longer appeals to their desired demographic and goes shopping around for another venue?
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You're about 8 years behind the times and factually incorrect.
Production of Masterpiece
was always fully funded by Mobil, from its inception in the 1970s. It didn't get the moniker Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theatre until after the merger, probably as an attempt to rebrand.
Exxon Mobil decided Masterpiece wasn't their demographic anymore in 2002 (certainly wasn't because they couldn't afford it!) - the final programs that they had funded aired in 2004. Their name was removed at that time. No one else has stepped up, and PBS doesn't have the money to fund everything anymore so it merged Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre into one program, called simply Masterpiece, and then divided the year up into genres: Masterpiece Classic, Masterpiece Contemporary, Masterpiece Mystery! that air at different time of year. There is a lot less to watch now
Details here:
Masterpiece (wikipedia)
and here:
Exxon Mobil ends 32 year sponsorship
The big difference is that corporations and foundations used to fund the PRODUCTION of a program, and then local stations paid for the promotion, etc. Thanks to the Wall Street criminals, foundation sponsorship of any charity is minimal these days since their capital was decimated. Corporate sponsorship of PBS (and probably NPR) is now almost exclusively at the spot and local level, NOT the production level, just like commercial TV. The difference is the fine line between what the FCC calls sponsorships vs. commercials.
So when you feel like your PBS station is airing a lot of the same stuff over and over, that's all they've got now. And if they're pledging more, its because corporate and foundations sponsorship are half what they were 3 years ago.
The Los Angeles station announced last week they are dropping out of PBS, because they can't afford their share of the dues to pay for the national programs.