TCM - Turner Classic Movies

I love this channel, and have watched it for years. Recently I decided to cut cable to the basic service, or cut it altogether, presuming that I could simply subscribe to TCM online or through Roku. However, evidently this is not possible.

In order for TCM to make money, it gets a small piece of cable revenues to be one of their extra channels. Unfortunately one must usually have to buy the 200 channel version of cable in order to have TCM included in the package (other cable providers may vary).

So since TCM is the only cable channel we watch, it's costing me $40-$50 a month over the basic cable line-up just to have it available. Therefore I may have to pull the plug entirely on TCM, which I'll sorely miss.

One can get TCM on Roku or other devices, BUT only if you've subscribed to that channel on your cable service. My guess is that the cable companies insist to TCM that they can't have separate subscribers on their own. Too bad.

I was looking forward to "Filmstruck", but it went belly-up. The Critereon Channel has classic movies, but those movies are simply in the mix with art films, other films, and other programming. I'm only interested in the classic movies.

Maybe the scene will change one day. There's a huge audience out there for classic movies, so perhaps someone will step up. Unfortunately TCM seems to own the largest catalogue. So for now, it seems that the cable companies have us by the short hairs...

~Doc

I got rid of cable. TCM was the only channel I watched, but I guess I could always look at their calendar, write them down, and maybe see them on YouTube, etc... Great channel, especially after midnight, when they play really rare greats; things on IMDB with less than 20 votes.

I feel your pain Doc. I wish I had access to TCM! I tried to sign up online at the TCM site but as you found out, it can't be done unless you're a cable subscriber with TCM in the package.

About every 6 months, I check with my cable company to find out the cheapest package they offer with TCM included, and that's the plan I choose. I don't care about any other channels they take away when I change plans, but I watch too much on TCM to drop it.

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I've pretty much done the same thing. Unfortunately they seem to include TCM in their most expensive plan, so it's dawned on me that I'm spending a lot of money simply to watch TCM!

One benefit of having TCM on cable is that the movies can be recorded on DVR for later viewing; whereas when movies are watched on set top boxes or via computer, I don't know any way to record them.

My guess is that TCM has weighed the revenues they get from cable, and decided that it's more profitable for them to stick with the exclusive arrangement, rather than offering their channel singly through subscription.

I hope that'll change!

~Doc

I watch a LOT of movies online and I can confirm that there's no way to watch anything on TCM online, unless it was taped from TCM and uploaded to a different website. But watching anything on TCM online is impossible.

I find that the plans seem to change a lot. Sometimes it's in a package with no other movie channels, (HBO, Showtime, etc.), and sometimes it's in a package with a few of them. About 6 months ago I had a plan that included only Showtime, but the plan I have now includes Showtime, Starz, and Encore, and it's actually a little bit cheaper than the previous plan because they removed a bunch of other minor channels that I never watched anyway.

(It might help that I live in a co-op, and the co-op management makes a deal with the cable company to get us a better rate if we all use the same cable company.)

^ from Wiki..
Do you guys know the criteria TCM uses for eligibility to their movie library?
I really want to make a personal top 100 list based on those criteria.

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JC, I guess it would take a good web search to find out their criteria for selecting films. One thing that makes them unique is that Turner still owns the entire film library from MGM prior to the mid '80s, and has rights to much of Warner Bros. library. IMO that's why it's hard to compete with them., because they're not going to let anyone else use those films.

My guess is they'd want to show any classic movies they can get their hands on. And that they'd try to get rights to many of those films for their "library".


~Doc