But again, I'm getting ahead of the story. In spite of the broadcasters' attitudes, inexpensive tools for high-quality video production have reached the masses. Now, to be sure, this is a double-edged sword. But, inevitably, out of this sea of new voices some compelling stories will emerge. It's availabe today from satellite broadcasters such as Dish Network and DirecTV, but not from your local broadcaster.
Broadcast networks are, at their cores, money machines.
For the most part, he's right. A station I used to work at managed to squeeze its profit margin up to 52 percent. By comparison, the average grocery store gets by with a profit in the area of 2 percent. Profits might not be quite that rosy in today's crowded universe with dozens of cable channels, but it's still rare for a station not to turn a tidy profit. Those are considered the costs of doing business.