I was skeptical at first, but now I believe. There really is a channel for everything.
It’s been coming for a while now, I suppose. As cable television has grown more and more ubiquitous, more networks moved in to cater to ever-more niche audiences. And now, thanks to streaming “television” services, we’re getting some really targeted programming.
Thought that a channel like G4, for gaming and geek culture, was niche? Well, on pluto.tv, an online streaming service, you have separate channels dedicated to Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft. You can watch “Slow TV,” filled with the sort of content Norwegians apparently love. There’s a drug-themed 4:20 channel (on channel 420, of course). And just recently, pluto.tv rolled out something called Cats 24/7—a channel about and for cats (and, presumably, their owners). Just the purrrfect addition, wouldn’t you say? On Roku, another streaming service, I see three channels dedicated to Christmas, at least eight for Westerns, a channel called Depressing Prospects Films (“Strange, pointless and slightly offensive films in the tradition of South Park and Beavis and Butthead”) and one whole channel dedicated to all things Texas. (What, just one?)
And now, according to USA Today, Roku will be adding in July a channel specifically dedicated to atheism.
“Why are we going on television?” Davis Silverman, president of American Atheists, told a gathering of non-believers recently. “It’s part of our strategy of going where we are not.”
If that is the strategy of American Atheists, their next step might be to go to church, which would be interesting. But I digress.
The channel will apparently air footage from atheist gatherings and conventions. Atheist video bloggers will provide some content. And the channel also is expected to re-run segments from The Atheist Viewpoint, a show spearheaded by the organization’s founder, Madalyn Murray O’Hair a couple of decades ago. “We are hoping to sign on many other atheists who create videos currently on YouTube and other places,” Silverman said.
Now, I do not begrudge atheists their very own channel. USA Today tells us that there are more than 100 Christian networks on television, so it’s not like we believers risk being shoved out of the market.
But it is another illustration of the incredible, bewildering world of “television” today. As the main television reviewer at Plugged In, it can be frustrating trying to keep up with it all. Back in Plugged In’s earliest days, you could just keep up with four networks and call it a day. Now the average home receives 189 channels—not including the stuff on Netflix or Hulu Plus or Amazon or Roku or pluto.tv. And, if you’re a parent trying to figure out what’s appropriate for your kids to watch, the landscape must be even more bewildering.
Maybe someday, just for a hoot, I’ll cast my eyes on some of these streaming channels, just to see what they’re like. Maybe I’ll write little bloggish reviews of them, if y’all would be interested. If not, I won’t.
But I might skip the Atheist Channel. Cats 24/7 sounds like more fun.
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