Discovery Channel to Jettison Hokum and Lies?

Rich Ross, a longtime Disney executive, is the a new chief at the Discovery Channel and he says his company is going to dump the bullshit shows on Mermaids and Giant Snakes.

“Brands are all about trust. You can expand the universe of what people think you are, but there’s only so much elasticity. On Discovery, that’s why I talk about authenticity. Authenticity is job No. 1, 2 and 3.”

So are National Geographic, Animal Planet, and The Learning Channel (TLC) going to abandon their malarkey too?

Don't count on it.

 It's too easy to contract with independent film outfits who are eager to cock-up low-cost crapola and fakery like "The Legend of Mick Dodge".

These crap peddlers have no brands to protect.  Rich Ross seems to understand that the short-term interests of fly-by-night production companies are not necessarily in his channels's long term interests. I suspect that that message will get reinforced all over as the era of for-pay always-on-demand internet television come to the fore.  The 120-channel package deal is probably going to die, and evidence of that is that a-la-carte is starting to gain ground even in the world of cable.  When it all goes to internet the money men and women will quickly discover (pund intended) that people will pay a dollar a show for Downton Abey, Alpha House, and Ken  Burns. but won't for Mick Dodge, Honey Boo-Boo, and Turtle Man.