Why are Old Movies No Longer Shown on Network TV?

Who remembers the days up until just a few years ago when Sat. and Sunday
network TV would show old classic and non classic movies anywhere from the
30's thru 70's in both B/W and Color? Why has Network TV stopped showing
good movies? When was the last time you saw an old Bogart film or similar
film on network TV? Network TV now is a boatload of BS shows and a
sprinkling of made for TV BS movies.

Val...

I SO miss these days! I'm looking at the FOX affiliate here in Chicago right
now (with the MUTE button on, thank goodness) and instead of showing a
movie, for the last hour before and for the next hour hence, it will be
showing infomercials--?!?! It used to be so low rent to show these things in
the middle of the day, but now it's the nature of things.

In the 1970s the Chicago ABC affiliate used to show old movies from 3 to 5
pm every *weekday*, something which is totally unheard of now. None other
than Brandon Tartikoff had the idea to group similar films together and make
it a theme-specific week--which was brought him national attention and
helped him up the TV exec ladder. There was a "Gorilla of My Dreams" week
where the original "King Kong" and its sequels were shown. If you ask me
this in person, I'll deny it, but my very favorite week was the beach party
movies week, with the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movies, with
"Beach Party," "How to Stuff A Wild Bikini," and "Beach Blanket Bingo"
(which is the worst one btw, but I LOVE the theme song). Local afternoon
news at first shortened the movie spot a half hour, having it run from 3 to
4:30, and then took over the spot completely.

I think the general reasoning was that if people wanted to watch old movies,
they could either watch cable or rent videos/DVDs.