NBCU’s Latest Online Video Idea: Paying Viewers

The Information ^ | August 9, 2018 | Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel

[cba123]

The battle to win over viewers online may be reaching new levels of intensity. Comcast’s NBCUniversal is considering the launch of a streaming service that would pay people to watch it.

(please see the link for full article)

[cba123]

Just noticed this article on Drudge.

Interesting.

[cba123]

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nbcus-latest-online-video-idea-paying-viewers

[MuttTheHoople]

But, wouldn’t you have to join the screen actor’s guild?

[pgkdan]

When I said they couldn’t pay me to watch the crap on TV I never imagined they’d take me up on it! But I’m sticking to it...They can’t pay me to watch their crap.

[BBB333]

Film Actors Guild...?

[I want the USA back]

You would have to pay me a lot to watch hillary clinton’s speeches.

Wouldn’t want to watch maxine waters with the dog in the room - animal cruelty.

[Getready]

The stuff is so bad...they want to pay you to watch....which indicates what their motive is...if they can slowly induce you to buy products by their propaganda...er...programming...they get money from the sponsors...what they bill as entertainment or social realities is all meant to induce the viewer to spend money. We need to stay away from it and keep telling our friends to do the same. The whole modern entertainment industry is a complete farce.

[TomGuy]

You couldn’t pay me enough to watching about 80% of the crap on NBCU, even if you included the other 3 major broadcast networks.

Would this venue also have ads? They take up about 1/3 of each hour of programming. Cut that by 90% and people might start watching regular TV again. Until then, I use TiVo to record most programs, as it allows skipping or flashing through commercials.

[TomGuy]

To entice people to watch, Watch Back viewers would earn points that could be redeemed for gift certificate

So, it would be more like reward points on a credit card.

Hollywood reporter full article.

it will be used primarily as a marketing tool to pull viewers into the NBCU fold by offering samples of some full-length programming from across NBCU's networks as well as web-friendly clips. Full seasons of shows will not be available through Watch Back.

I seldom bother with 'clips'. This description makes it sound more like a hodgepodge of stuff. I do not see a 'success' factor in that description.

==

I seldom watch my cable On-Demand because they started inserting commercials in many programs and removed the capability to fast-forward through them.

[HonkyTonkMan]

TV was so revolutionary when it came out....a signal to our homes. Now it's just garbage and they want us to pay for the trash. No thanks.

Life is so much better without "TV"

[cba123]

I think this is the beginning of a complete restructuring, in television.

The internet is going to replace it.

When it does, television will have this new set-up, to support itself, from ads.

For a while anyway.