With the rapidly growing number of AAs and their equally rapidly growing dissatisfaction of misrepresentations and underrepresentations of AAs by the existing media, how come there's no cable channel that caters to AAs? Isn't it about time that some AAs with money, power, and influence invested into forming an English-based AA cable channel that can fill this void and show more Asians or AAs depicted in more positive and non-stereotypical roles? Would someone like Jerry Yang of Yahoo be interested in this rapidly growing and untapped market?

Outofeast:

I don't know where you live in the US, but tonight, there was a presentation about Chinese immigration to the US. It lasted from 4:00-10:00PM Pacific Standard TIme.

It talked all about the hard work they went through, from fighting for the US in WWII to working to connect the trans-Pacific Railroad.

But you're right outofeast. There should be a channel dedicated to Asian-Americans.

I know there are tons of cable channels dedicated to other minorities, such as the hispanics. NOt only one channel for them, but 5 here in Los Angeles. Even in cities such as Philadelphia has a hispanic channel!

I guess us Asians need to voice our opinions to have a cable company for AA to get started.

The first step, then, is for enough of us AAs to voice our desire for one so that it will get the attentions of those (preferably AAs) who have the money, knowledge, and time to be motivated to invest in such a venture - knowing that there's a potential growing market for a national AA cable channel. So, let's spread the message and get their attentions.

I live in the midwest and I don't think that an intelligent AA cable channel would be feasible. Look at BET. No offense to its viewers, but it's not exactly a good representation of the black community. Also, look at Oprah's channel. It recently had to stoop down a level, reality-like show, to attract more viewers.

Anyways, this all boils down to supply and demand. No demand = no supply.

I haven't exactly figured out if this is actually a pan-asian television channel or going to be, but check it out to see for yourself, I guess:

http://worldasia.com/

Chuchu:

You're right about the deman theory.

It's because the Asian-American/Asian percentage in the US is very small compared to the black population or the hispanic population.

But I would say our buying power is high. To compensate for the fewer Asians in numbers.

Despite this demand theory that needs to take place for an Asian-American cable channel (or even direct TV channel), I don't see why local cable companies in Asian populated places like Hawaii, California and Washington State, don't incorporate something like this.

I know there are Korean soaps (which I love watching), Japanese shows like Sokogaishiritai (don't know if they still have that around) and Chinese movies and soaps aired in certain Asian dominated areas.

However, I would like an Asian-American channel to be implementd.

I think the main problem is that the Asian-Americans are busy watching VH1 and MTV...those white party lifestyle shows.
To be frank, I don't like MTV or VH1.

It would be interesting to see what the theme for such a channel would be. If it is a catch-all, with subjects ranging from comedy, to the hip-hop club scene, to drama, to just about every aspect of AA life, I think that would be confusing.

Also, if it were a Pan-AA channel, it would inevitably be dominated by a certain ethnic group, probably Chinese, which would inevitably lead to under-representation of other AA cultural groups, such as Japanese, Corean, Vietnamese, and Filipino.

A show geared toward the youth scene would not get a lot of support from the over-25 crowd. A show made up of drama shows starring mostly AAs wouldn't get too much support from the youth, and probably not even from the targeted audience, unless the writing was on par with such mainstream network shows like ER, NYPD Blue, and CSI.

For all those asking WHY?
Ask yourself next, why don't I help start one?

There are Asian American channels. I watch SinoVision frequently. It's not a Chinese channel that's beamed into the U.S., it actually is an Asian American channel. In the commercials, they always say: "Sino Vision: The American Chinese Channel".
If you're ever in New York state, tune in to channel 78.

At least in NYC, we get the AZN channel (500). It's an English-Language Asian-American channel not a Chinese-language channel. So somebody is workin' on it

Around the tthe Bay Area, esp. Vallejo, CA, my folks do have an American branch of Filipino-based channels like ABS-CBN. Plenty of spoken English and Tagalog within its afternoon and evening line-up. Plus, the channel has many shows and editorials with plenty of Filipino-American commentary.

There are Asian American channels. Imaginasian TV and the International Channel target the Asian American audience. Soon, MTV will do so with MTV Desi, MTV Korea, and MTV China.

jstele,

You're right about the International Channel part! I realizd that when I got the I-Channel yesterday.

I would love a Asian American cable channel, or any cable channel where almost 100% of the people I see for hours on end are other then only white.

Basically a channel with a good mix of people in ENglish.
Lets face it, almost all the chanels are "White Channels", we just dont call it that because it has been the norm.

Can we allow AM to have intimate scenes with women besides Asian females on this channel ??????????

Until AZN went under, Comcast and Time Warner were airing AZN and ImaginasianTV if you paid for the extra channels in their Dallas markets. They need to move IATV down to the basic tier so more people know they are there and will watch. Paying a premium for what is now only one network is hard to justify.

I was happy to see IATV pick up Fujisankei programming, but with none of it being susbtitled there is not much point in my watching most of it.


I have asked several times if Time Warner is going to add any of the Korean networks they air in the coasts, but so far they just stall with "we're are looking into new channels all the time."