Originally posted by melon:
1) TBS is a superstation, a local station in Atlanta, but spread on cable because, obviously, airwaves don't travel so far. It's also cheaper for TBS to be on the cable systems, rather than have to invest in all that capital for affiliates. Superstations were a 1980s phenomena that hasn't been repeated, because it is expensive, but not as expensive as the networks.
2) FOX is the newest successful network, mostly because the government was pushing for a fourth network, as the big three were considered anti-competitive, so they loosened a lot of the laws for FOX. Hence, it was easier for them to wedge their way in, and Rupert Murdoch put in a lot of money to buy up affiliates in 1996; otherwise, FOX would still be quite obscure most likely.
3) Limited bandwidth. We are still using the analog spectrum, so there's no room for those other networks. This should change with the conversion to digital, which packs much more in in smaller bandwidth.
4) Most of these cable stations suck, and can't compete against the major networks, because they don't want to put in the money to make all original programming. They would fall flatter than UPN on the networks the way they are.
Melon