I know, I know… I said I’d start doing a regular outdoors television review around here, but obviously it hasn’t happened.  Sure, I squeezed in the post about crossbow hunting last week, but that’s been about it. 

Part of the problem is that I’ve been on the road for nine weeks out of the last three months, and very few hotels carry outdoor programming (which is a drag, because sitting around the room in the evenings is the perfect opportunity to watch).  But I’ve been home most weekends, and a few weekdays, so the recent spate of travel really isn’t the biggest challenge.

So the thing is, it’s a little tougher to do this kind of review given that I really get two outdoor-oriented channels.  I get the Sportsmen’s Channel, of course, and I also get Pursuit.  I’d have to upgrade the Dish in order to get the Outdoor Channel, which is more than I’m willing to do.  Actually, if Kat didn’t pay for the service on her own, I wouldn’t have it at all.  I refuse to pay for television, no matter what’s on it. 

Well, since we have them, I watch them. 

The problem is, I thought there’d be a pretty good supply of content on these two networks.  What I’ve found though, is that there really is a lot of same-old-same-old.  No, really… the programming on these channels consists of a lot of replays, interspersed with updated episodes. I guess that when it comes down to it, even though there appears to be a glut of outdoor tv shows, there really aren’t enough out there to keep three major networks (and a couple of lesser ones) going 24-7 with fresh programming.

Each channel handles it differently.  Here’s what I’ve been seeing… tell me if it matches your own experience.

On Pursuit, the trick is apparently to mix the hunting and fishing programming with infomercials, especially during the weekdays.  I guess that’s one way to keep the bills paid.  But what it’s done is to turn me off to the network altogether.  I still flip over to see what’s on when there’s nothing on regular TV or the movie channels (the normal state of affairs), but it looks to me like the problem is getting worse rather than better.  It seems like it used to be that they’d run a little block of outdoors programs, and then a few infomercials.  But earlier this week when I tuned in, it looks like they’ve changed things up.  I saw one outdoor show, followed by an infomercial, followed by another outdoor show, and so on.   Evening programming is a little better, since I guess this is when they expect to catch most of their viewers, but I seldom watch in the evenings.  That’s when Kat’s home, and she doesn’t care much for my horn porn.

The Sportsman Channel has taken the route of simply replaying episodes to fill the space between new programs.  I certainly prefer this to watching 30 minutes on Prostate Health or the Miracle Saw, but I swear it seems like every time I turn on the TV, it’s one of the same episodes!  Drives me nuts.  Fortunately, just as my mind begins to slip, I’ll catch a new episode of Pig Man or something and all is well again. 

What I remember of watching Versus (used to be the Outdoor Life Channel) is that they had a similar problem.  However, their approach was to expand the content to include stuff like gold panning, bicycle racing, and rodeo.  It got to the point where I’d skim right past Versus without even stopping (unless the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) tour is on… that’s pretty cool).   I have absolutely no interest in watching a bunch of guys ride bicycles, or wade around in mountain streams with gold pans or destroy the hills with sluices and heavy equipment.  And hockey?  What the hell does a southern boy know (or care) about hockey?

I haven’t watched the Outdoor Channel in a while, but they have a pretty strong lineup.  But even that channel, which most folks would argue is the powerhouse in the genre, has filled space with programs about gold mining and metal detecting.  I don’t know if they fill the rest of the day with replays because I don’t see it enough.   The upside there is that the Outdoor Channel has taken over My Outdoor TV, so I’d expect to have access to much of their programming online (which means I can watch it when I’m on the road). 

On that note, many of the bigger hunting programs are also releasing content on their websites, either in affiliation with their host networks or independently.  That’s great if, like me, you don’t really need to watch a whole season in order or catch the newest episode while it’s still fresh.  For the most part, the content is free, although there are a couple of organizations out there setting up fee-based outdoors television and video sites. 

At any rate, I still intend to do some kind of regular critical coverage of hunting TV and video as the opportunity and content come up.  Honest.

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