the list is even longer in the west where people can tune into a food channel gardening channel pet channel homeimprovement channel history channel biography channel and much more the future lies with pay channels which will finally create a standard market like most leftist demonology that soon proved to be rubbish it will also prove yet again that critics of markets are generally pretty ignorant of how markets work but leftists now have a new complaint that the apparent width of tv choice is illusory every sort of specialist audience can now pay and be catered for tv programmes are not a product so much as a currency used by advertisers to buy eyeballs here big tv networks provide free viewing no this notion flows from a misunderstanding of the tv market cable in the us has steadily eroded the market share of the big networks which were once moneyspinners but may now go the way of dinosaurs so is it really true that competition and choice in the tv marketplace is illusory so let a thousand tv channels bloom and let new technology constantly erode old monopolies suddenly we see the tv market in a new topsyturvy light the result say critics is vapid uniformity not choice that will produce the greatest variety quality and empowerment of viewers in practice it is usually less simple and this product is avidly sought by a bunch of consumers called advertisers who pay for this product in an unusual currency called tv programmes readers may think the criticism does indeed have some basis sports channels business channels news channels music channels the list is long and varied only if as in any other market viewers pay for what they choose to consume no longer does technology or advertising yield only programmes for mass audiences but it is nevertheless the reality in india it has produced channels in several languages and covering a vast range of themes new technology has finally created a standard viewer market and this has produced the diversity and choice that wellfunctioning markets always do typically cable operators offer a bunch of channels for a fixed rate rather than letting viewers pay for only those channels they seek free programmes are the currency in which tv channels pay viewers to suffer a cavalcade of advertisements and so they pay in a currency formula programming acceptable to it but even cable with all its shortcomings has revolutionised choice small specialist channels may provide variety but the big tv channels certainly produce similar programmes by charging large sums from advertisers who ride piggyback on popular programmes to reach large audiences back in 1990 when doordarshan had a tv monopoly i wrote an article titled let a thousand tv channels bloom can we change from this topsyturvy market to a standard one in tv contrary to impressions tv channels are not the producers in this market and viewers are not the consumers that was considered pure fantasy at the time