Posted on 12/30/2009 3:37:51 AM PST by mmanager
NEW YORK | For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.
The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks' programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That shift will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable- or satellite-TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast-TV channels in their lineups.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
That is another reason why I cancelled. I rarely use it.
Don’t forget that BIG MEDIA elected the present “socialist” regime and a large segment of the population still doesn’t know that this clown that we have as President is better described as a radical communist “want to be.”
The population is controlled by big media and it is a necessary part of the equation to complete the destruction of the United States as we know it.
Obama can’t let BIG MEDIA fail, he has to keep the propaganda going strong. Chavey in Venezuela taught Obama you have to control the media to be successful.
We are in a recession? Who knew? Since Jan of this year, all has been peachy, as well as keen. Unicorns and happiness abound.
I have no horse in this TV struggle. I’ve not had or allowed outside TV in my home for a few years now. While I do miss the football (or did, but they can take a leap too), I do not miss the lefty crap, the relativism, the immorality being praised as good. Nope, don’t miss it a bit.
Die NBCABCCBS, die.
I cancelled my Verizon cell phone years ago and got a GoPhone. Very reasonable for how I use it (convenience/emergency).
They just recently up-ed the amount of advertising per hour.
Programs used to have about 42 minutes of content per hour. Several months ago, that was changed to about 39 minutes of content per hour.
[Check some of those old TV programs from the 70s on Hulu — they run about 48 minutes of content per hour.]
Less content = more advertising.
They still don’t understand that viewers consider content over advertising.
Probably the official government media looking to get a compliant Obama administration to force a TV tax on the populace, just like they do in the UK. They then hand the stolen tax money over to the BBC.
DirecTV creeped the cost of our basic package up and up and up until they were billing us $70 a month - while sending ads that said the package was $29 for new customers. We called and fought with them and they refused to match their own price.
We cancelled and returned the equipment and they responded by taking $300+ out of my checking account, unauthorized for equipment “not returned.” I asked for the name of the person who authorized so I could add it to the police report. They told me “our mistake” over and over, refused to escalate the situation to a supervisor, and promised the money back in 8 weeks or so. I persisted and got nowhere until I contacted the CEO’s office to let them know I’d filed a consumer protection complaint over the unauthorized draft and would be putting the CEO’s name on a police report.
In the end, I got an email saying the money would be moved back in 2 days.
Now a couple months later, I’m getting “come back and we’ll give you a $29 monthly rate” letters addressed to us as former customers.
I have doubts that this model will win over free tv people - the scams and screwups and generate rate arrogance tell me the pay services aren’t growing through new subs, they’re growing through rate gouging and scams.
We’re over-the-air now with a pay once TIVO DVR and couldn’t be happier to not have to watch for the scheming of our satellite provider.
Re: 41 minute shows - the ad model is more inventory to counter the lower ratings and per spot rates.
Protecting margins with diminishing audiences.
British TV licenses on the horizon will be needed to pay for the coming nationalized media.
The real problem is that, with over a 100 different channels, there is less than 10 hours a week that I want to watch. And only a couple of those hours each week are on when I want to watch them...
Fox is playing hard ball now. 24 and American Idol are both around the corner. Fox is expecting their viewers to demand capitulation.
“Will poor programming and reporting end free TV?”
Hey Jemian. What is the best program to use to watch online TV? The Fox/TWC thing is going to affect my college bowl football in a big way.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Those who never watched ‘free’ TV were still paying for it because the cost of whatever products they bought included additional money for the advertising.
Talk about involuntary slavery and extortion.
In some countries such as Britain, the cost of ‘free’ TV is covered by sales and usage taxes and the government alone decides what to put on TV. The people are still forced to pay for stuff they never watch via the various sales and use taxes.
In American we have at least a little control over what is broadcast, because if the show doesn't have enough viewers, it then gets dropped by the advertisers which means we the people are no longer paying fort it via the increased prices of the products we buy. Unfortunately, good shows are often dropped early when their ‘demographics’ start to suggest a declining audience, and we the people lose out anyway.
Ultimately, a ‘pay per view’ model with a REASONABLE cost structure is the fairest because no one is forced to pay excessive prices for the products which we buy simply to cover their increased advertising costs.
This itself is not altogether desirable because without advertising, we won't see new desirable products being invented and sold because no one will even know of their existence.
There is no simple answer to all the problems and it seems that a combination of both advertiser supported and pay per view will allow for the best programming and introduction of new products.
Ditto. Before the strike, I was a little more interested in the TV. Still followed a couple of shows - 24 was one that I'd go out of my way to watch.
Post-strike, nada. We actually lost cable for a week due to a storm just recently, and I didn't miss it a bit.
The kids don't care for anything but Sesame Street. Now, if I can get Mrs WBill thinking in the same direction, I'd be saving 60 bucks a month.
When cable came to our town, many years ago, it was advertised as “commercial free TV”.
Now, we pay an exorbitant price to watch MORE commercials on more stations, and they are timed so that if you channel switch, you watch another commercial.
...and they run the same commercial over and over again, like we are to become mind numbed robots.
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