TELEVISION: Cable's Big Squeeze

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Tom Bergeron and Laurie Hibberd are new on the job, but already they are the most laid-back personalities on morning television. While camera operators and stagehands wander in and out of shots, the co-hosts of Breakfast Time, a new morning show on the fX cable network, sidle from room to room in their spacious, apartment-like set in New York City. When not trading quips with a wisecracking hand puppet, they introduce segments that make Good Morning America look like The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour: a visit to an Oklahoma ostrich farm; an interview with a Florida man who makes furniture out of junk; a live report on Hula-Hoopers in the park across the street. This is homemade TV -- and proud of it. On the show's first broadcast, Bergeron playfully chased his executive producer around the set and accidentally broke a lamp. "You're watching our final day on fX," joked Bergeron. "Tomorrow the Lint Channel will be here."

Maybe the Lint Channel has already arrived. fX, launched three weeks ago by the Fox network, is perhaps the ultimate example of disposable television. Along with its lighter-than-air morning show and a slate of oh-so-familiar / network reruns (Hart to Hart, Batman, Family Affair), the channel features a pet show, a consumer guide to rock CDs and a collectibles program. If it weren't for a Nightline-style interview show hosted by former CBS correspondent Jane Wallace, the network would be so insubstantial that it might float away.

Yet fX and two other similarly superfluous channels created by broadcast networks are the most potent newcomers on the jammed cable dial. Fox's entry went on the air with a subscriber count of 18 million homes -- the largest start-up figure for any cable service in history. Nearly 11 million homes are expected to be on board July 4, when nbc introduces America's Talking, a new network consisting of -- are you ready, America? -- nothing but talk shows. Last October ABC launched ESPN2, a hipper, younger version of cable's largest sports network; it currently reaches 12.8 million cable homes.

For years, cable visionaries have promised a day when everyone from sailing enthusiasts to opera lovers would have a cable channel to suit his tastes. But the new cable programmers are pursuing a more old-fashioned strategy: aiming for a broad-based audience by replicating fare that already gluts the airwaves. Meanwhile dozens of other worthy cable aspirants -- channels devoted to history, health, fine arts, golf -- are struggling to be born. There may well be an audience for more knockoffs of Oprah, more sappy morning shows and more reruns of Dynasty. But viewers looking for the diverse array of niche programming that cable once promised are still looking. What has gone wrong?

One answer is that, remarkable as it may seem, the cable dial is full. The much hyped 500-channel future is years away, and for now the average cable system has only about 40 slots for programming. Take away the dial positions that must be given to over-the-air stations and public-access channels, and there aren't nearly enough spaces for the more than 70 basic-cable services vying for an audience -- and for the advertising revenue they need in order to survive.