Why aren't old comedy silent films shown on TV anymore?

[dave50]

Like Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton or the Keystone kops? Also Laurel and Hardy are never on anymore either. I remember when I was young these kind of films were on TV regularly.

[emmie]

perhaps the rights to show them have expired. It's possible there are pay for tv channels that show them

[FredPuli43]

Bit of a niche market. How man good silent films are there? Some of Chaplin's, maybe three of Keaton's, The General being one of the great films of any kind.What of the rest? But Laurel and Hardy still appeal; I remember my children laughing at Way Out West at a time when they snootily refused to watch any film which wasn't in colour! It may be a question of rights, but that doesn't stop modern films on TV. It may be that the TV bosses don't think that old films in monochrome would appeal to modern children.

[tonymclark]

It may be that the films aren't being offered to TV stations any more, or are not included as part of the films packages that the TV stations buy.

[razza]

Life has moved on,way past that era

[jno]

good question: there aren't as many films on TV in general as there used to be; Sky have lots of channels but they lean more toward recent films. But silent films have just about vanished. The good news is they're widely available on DVD. I've got about 100... the earliest one is Richard III, from 1912.

[chaptazbru]

Those films wouldn't appeal to me at all.

[dave50]

On the same subject, what was the name of the TV program many years ago that had Bob Monkhouse introducing clips from these silent films?

[pretty_snowdrop]

Was the program with Bob Monkhouse called Mad Movies?

[bibblebub]

Thank goodness for DVDs. I have a few hundred silent films from 1895 onwards and appreciate them all. Keaton is my favourite silent comedian and Laurel and Hardy are still funny.

[Celticv11]

All those you mention are over 70 years old and are therefore out of copyright, they are now in public domain and can be downloaded,copied to dvd and sold legally, i have recently purchased the will hay collection of 19 films on 6 dvd's for a few pounds on ebay , excellent quality too.