CRACK IN THE DAM
Looks like the "Content Bottlenecks" I touched on yesterday (CBS and NBC for now) are cutting a deal with their "Infrastructure Bottleneck" counterparts.
The deal is to distribute their primo shows on demand for $0.99 a pop to the Cable and Satellite companies (read Comcast and DirectTV for now). Here's the Wall Street Journal story and an excerpt:
"Together, the deals mark a profound change of heart for the broadcast television industry, which from its earliest days has built its schedule around the evening hours known as prime time. Executives have long resisted efforts by cable operators to offer so-called on-demand viewing of popular TV shows, worrying that it could cannibalize their existing businesses by eroding their ability to sell advertising for programs and reap lucrative profit by selling reruns.
But technology is forcing their hand. The Internet has encouraged widespread piracy of media content. Traditional prime-time viewing, in which viewers schedule their evening hours around showcase programs, is under siege from technologies like digital-video recorders, or DVRs, which allow users to save shows and watch them at their convenience -- and without commercials."
Reminds one of the old George Bernard Shaw story:
"George Bernard Shaw once found himself at a dinner party, seated beside an attractive woman. "Madam," he asked, "would you go to bed with me for a thousand pounds?" The woman blushed and rather indignantly shook her head.
"For ten thousand pounds?" he asked. "No. I would not." "Then how about fifty thousand pounds?" he contined.
The colossal sum gave the woman pause, and after further reflection, she coyly replied: "Perhaps." "And if I were to offer you five pounds?" Shaw asked.
"Mr. Shaw!" the woman exclaimed. "What do you take me for!" "We have already established what you are," Shaw calmly replied. "Now we are merely haggling over the price."
We finally have the beginnings of an a la carte pricing scheme, thanks to the initial efforts of Apple for it's video iPod. The pricing is far from perfect, and the actual implementation is complex for mainstream consumers at first blush. But it's a beginning.
It's a whole new ball game from here.
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