Comments on: Rage, Rage Against the Dying Satellite

By: Asha's dad

Asha's dad — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:01:42 +0000

Do not go quietly into that good night. Ah if it weren’t for Rodney Dangerfield and Back to School I might never have read that poem

By: rakshas

rakshas — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:50:56 +0000

no offense– but I think MTV Desi was prob. a step up from American Desi TV…. as far as distribution I think they prob. knew the directtv thing sucked but maybe they didn’t have a choice? “Cluelss” is prob. right– maybe they were working up to getting interest. it prob. takes time to make things happen.

More than anything– I think the bigger issue is –why are Asian Americans expendable? Even though I didn’t get the channle –I felt good knowing it was out there… so now we aren’t worth the investment?

By: The609

The609 — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:27:24 +0000

What does it say the MTV Desi and American Desi TV have both gone under within 12 months? Too soon? Poor product / execution?

By: The Great Ganesha

The Great Ganesha — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:59:23 +0000

Iâ€™m not American-born, (1.5 gen?), and made plenty fun of you ABCDs when I first got here. But along the way Iâ€™ve come to really appreciate that confusion, especially since it leads to questions that are often unasked, issues that are often ignored and unexplored, back in our ancestral countries.

well said. as a fellow 1.5 gen'er, i agree with you completely.

have never seen mtv desi (i think i'm outside of the target age range), so can't say that i'm going to miss it. but good luck with your quest. after your heartfelt post, i almost want it to come back on the air now.

By: Clueless

Clueless — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:10:47 +0000

Desi makes up less then 1% of the American population so the MTV desi had a smaller market that it could reach. So a cable system would have to have certain amount of people willing to pay for the channel for it to be worth it for the channel to be on a cable system.

By: Preston

Preston — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:48:21 +0000

The demise of MTV Desi is invariably bad. Though none of us except Amardeep was able to watch it, the MTV Desi crews went everywhere there was even a vaguely interesting Desi party. I crossed paths with them all the time. They covered Artwallah in Los Angeles a couple of times, gave airtime to up-and-coming musicians like Shaheen Sheik, filmed odd spectacles like Sholay Productions’ Desilicious- KarmaCaribbean drag shows in New York, and even hosted a party for SAJA. You could view all these clips online, if not on your TV. The channel was a good home for a lot of these things that don’t yet have a natural spot in the mainstream media. The MTV Desi archive is pretty good at this point, and it would be a shame if those materials go unviewed and unappreciated.

By: Neal (with no 'e')

Neal (with no 'e') — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:43:52 +0000

It just seems like the cluster of channels it was offered with was tailored to appeal to older Indians hoping to stay in touch with the Desh. I understand your point about the difficulties of getting good distribution, but couldn't they have launched it with other starting channels aimed at young people generally? Or "pop culture" type channels? I just know that most younger Desis I know aren't running out to buy satellite packages that include Zee or Namaste or whatever. Even an "MTV World" package aimed at people interested in world music might have been a better idea (I have no idea if they actually did this or considered it, it just seems more logical).

Anyway, I probably would have watched it if it hadn't required a satellite dish and subscription to a bunch of channels I really have no interest in otherwise.

By: mam

mam — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:27:59 +0000

This seems like the most important aspect of the network’s failure. If you’re not marketing it to aunties and babujis, why rely on their distribution model? I feel like the distribution fell down exactly where the content was forging ahead.

i’m pretty sure that no channel wants to be only available on a little known package on satellite tv – but getting the sweet distribution deals take time and money. like people have noted, mtv desi was going to launch on time warner very soon – for it’s second year in existence, that’s pretty impressive, too bad we won’t get to see it happen.

By: Ritam

Ritam — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:58:31 +0000

http://www.petitionspot.com/

By: Neal (with no 'e')

Neal (with no 'e') — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:56:18 +0000

I was always a little salty about knowing that the only people that could subscribe to the channel had to go for the package with all the South Asian channels. Kinda marketed the channel in a package, without really understanding the audience.

This seems like the most important aspect of the network's failure. If you're not marketing it to aunties and babujis, why rely on their distribution model? I feel like the distribution fell down exactly where the content was forging ahead.