# Why are there awful movies playing on cable channels so often? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744 "2003-09-15T16:55:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Misha77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Misha77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misha77)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/1 "2003-09-15T16:55:37Z")
I subscribe to HBO and Starz. They play decent movies at times, don’t get me wrong, but why do they play such pap so often? There are seasons where they’ll play something like **Police Academy 3** or **Just One of the Guys** constantly instead of the myriad movies that are more popular and more critically lauded. I don’t consider myself too much of a film snob, but I feel pretty confident that there’s not a line of people waiting to watch **Airborne** (Please God NO!) for the 20th time that it’s on. So could someone tell me (or link to) why the movie channels seem to “sponsor” a few crappy movies for a couple of months, while neglecting movies that would get better ratings? I’m sure their motivation is financial, but I don’t see how. I do realize that my taste does not necessarily reflect the rest of their viewing audience, but man, it seems that they’re consistently scraping the bottom of the barrel. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/2 "2003-09-15T17:14:02Z")
They’re cheap to get the airing rights for? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/3 "2003-09-15T18:04:47Z")
1. 168 hours per week of programming to fill. 2. The rights to air crummy movies generally cost MUCH less. 3. Even if it were a good movie, how many times would you watch it? 4. TCM and Fox Movie Channel own pretty much the entire output of MGM and 20th Century Fox, as well as some B-studios. That reduces the available inventory – of both good and bad movies. 5. As AMC found out much to its dismay, people don’t really tune in for black and white movies, unless it’s something special like Citizen Kane or Casablanca. Between that and the fact that foreign movies with subtitles generally look bad on TV, that cuts the available inventory even more. ---
**Author:** ![Misha77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Misha77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misha77)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/4 "2003-09-15T19:52:38Z")
Well, to expose my ignorance , I don’t know anything about “airing rights.” I have no concept of the ins and outs of the premium movie channels, so what you’re saying makes sense. The cable channel pays for each time a movie is played, and “better” movies cost more, right? That basically answers my question, so thank you. But there are certain movies, crappy as they may be, that a cable channel will decide to repeat _ad nauseum_ for a few months. So suddenly, **Mannequin** is playing 24-7. Then starting the next month, **Grease 2** is playing constantly. Is there some sort of perk for playing one particular movie so often, or is it just that the rights to that one are so cheap that it’s played all of the time? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/5 "2003-09-15T20:37:40Z")
I honestly don’t know what kind of package various cable networks negotiate, but back in the old, old days of the afternoon movie on your local TV station, I know that the movie studios offered a package of movies that individual stations could rent for a given period of time (say, 25 movies for 13 weeks) and run them as often as they wanted. There were usually a few good titles in there, along with a bunch of filler. Perhaps the cable station buys the rights to run a given movie for a set length of time and runs the hell out of it during that time. Perhaps they own long-term rights to it, so they can plug it in anytime they want. Of course, movies like Grease 2 (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Mannequin (Kim Cattrall) have recognizable stars the network can promote, even if the movie itself stunk. However, NOTHING explains Police Academy 3. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/6 "2003-09-15T21:10:19Z")
It’s really more simple than all that. 95% of movies are shitty. Cable channels just reflect that. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/7 "2003-09-15T21:30:32Z")
I also suspect that certain films become AVAILABLE at certain times for certain lower prices. It used to be that you could find the same movie on nearly every cable channel in existence. On one occasion, shortly after having every premium channel in existence hooked up, my roommates and I tuned into Showtime and found ourselves watching “Conan The Barbarian” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. We got bored with it, so we switched over to HBO. Just in time for the beginning of “Conan The Barbarian” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. So we switched over to Cinemax… and found ourselves watching the climactic end scene from “Conan The Barbarian” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. ---
**Author:** ![Headcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@Headcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/8 "2003-09-15T21:55:06Z")
I hope you arent implying that Conan The Barbarian is anything other than the finest fantasy action movie ever made! ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-awful-movies-playing-on-cable-channels-so-often/201744/9 "2003-09-16T00:35:53Z")
kunilow basically got it right. We could show only academy award winning movies, but there are only about, 250-300 of them that won the major awards. That leaves about 100 more hours of programming per month left.