The reasons are simple:
- It's incredibly expensive to start a TV network from scratch. Where is Donald Trump going to get the money? American banks won't lend to him. We know he won't spend his own money. Will it come from Russians? Don't count on that.
- Which cable company will accept Trump TV on their service? Time-Warner? Comcast? Optimum? There is already a plethora of news on their systems. The controversy of distributing Trump TV would hurt their over-all business models. By the way, cable operators are not required to carry any and all programming that comes their way.
- The base of supporters that Mr. Trump enjoys is probably not large enough to sustain the 24/7 programming a new channel would have. In order for the channel to work economically, it would have to be a premium channel. Would enough of his supporters pay an additional monthly charge for Trump TV?
- Far too many corporations have shunned Donald Trump because of his extremism and bigotry. The list is long and includes Macy's, NBCUniversal, the PGA and many others. Where would the big money advertisers come from? Mr. Trump is toxic to so many Americans that the corporations will not want to associate with such a divisive man. The ads on a Trump TV would end up mirroring old-time late-night broadcast television. There's not enough money there to sustain a business that way.
- Where will Trump TV get its programming? An important point to consider is that Roger Ailes will not be able to assist a nascent Trump TV because of his severance deal from Fox News. But who is going to create the shows? Donald Trump is not a producer and it's very difficult to come up with 168 hours a week of programming. It's also expensive.
- A review of other attempts by right-wing individuals demonstrates the fragility of such programming. Sarah Palin's shows were failures so were Glen Beck's. Even Rush Limbaugh's programs (and their advertising dollars) have diminished in recent years. An entire network of such programming would be exceedingly difficult to execute.
- Donald Trump is going to be the thing he hates the most: a loser. He's trashed his own brand so thoroughly that it's hard to see how he could establish a consistent audience. In addition, Mr. Trump is going to be facing something else he hates: scrutiny. His legal problems are just beginning and he's going to find himself in a lot of courtrooms in the next couple of years. Does he really have the focus and business model to make a network successful? He doesn't seem to ever put in the hard work for any of his endeavors.
- The Financial Times article about Jared Kushner's informal talks with Aryeh Bourkoff also points out some of what I've written above. More importantly, the article doesn't indicate that anything concrete came of those talks. The article is speculative, at best.
Even if Trump TV gets off the ground, history has repeatedly demonstrated that Donald Trump's endeavors have an extremely high rate of failure. One analysis showed that only 25%-30% of his businesses made money.
Donald Trump is in a swirling vortex of personal, business, financial and legal troubles that will finally take him down. I won't watch Trump TV (if it happens) but I'll certainly enjoy the shows and news detailing his demise.
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