Don't Blow Up Your TV -- Scrap the Networks Instead
In my last column, I wrote about
recent data that revealed that television ads are far less effective (and watched!) than
the TV industry's conventional wisdom would have us believe. Winding up to a fine (I
thought) rhetorical flourish, I asked, "Does that mean that TV advertising is going
to change drastically in the near future?"
Reader jimbob88 posed a more interesting question:
"Everybody knows that ads are ineffective, the trickier question is 'Why do TV
networks still exist?' With VOD [video on demand] and the other PPV [pay per view] options
available on cable and DTV, why are we still watching stuff only when the networks feel
like showing it? Why can't we just download what we want when we want it?"
Actually jimbob88, I've been wondering the same thing
lately. My own viewing habits, which I confess are far from average, have become totally
independent of anyone's broadcasting schedule. I just don't watch in real time anymore.
I have TiVo, but it took me a long time to lose the old
TV-watching paradigm. It started innocently enough -- I had about three new shows I
watched regularly, so I programmed them into my unit. But I still found myself drifting
towards the TV when they were on. After a while, I realized that I spent a lot less time
watching the tube if I watched them after they were broadcast and I could
fast-forward through the ads (yeah, I'm one of those).
Then I discovered that TiVo's software engineers had done a
pretty good job of constructing the unit's fuzzy-logic "prediction" programming.
The DVR began recording programs it "thought" I might like and -- aside from an
unshakable conviction that I like Martha Stewart Living and One Stroke Painting
-- it did a pretty good job. I still end up deleting most of its choices, but frequently
filled with regret that my spare time isn't limitless.
And let's not forget the trend to release entire seasons'
worth of classic TV series, made-for-cable movies, and, of course, miniseries on DVD. Why
would anyone need to watch FX at all, when M*A*S*H, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
and The Shield are available on DVD? And let's not forget "regular"
movies on DVD.
There's the news, of course, but that's available on basic
programming. And there's sports, although the trend in sports is increasingly towards
making that a "premium" (read: you pay for it) service where you buy the
package you're interested in anyway.
According to recently released figures compiled by the
Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the average monthly bill has risen from $37.06 to
$40.11. That's for 500 channels, assuming we include all those strange special-interest
stations like Scrapbooking 24/7. Wonder what it would cost if we bought our
programming the way Apple is marketing songs at the iTunes site?
Would you buy a new episode of Friends for a buck?
Fifty cents? What would you pay for one of those episodes from the first season (you know,
the ones you've seen a jillion times on WPIX)? A dime? How about a new seven-chapter
documentary by Ken Burns? A five spot? A new documentary that won an award at the Sundance
festival?
I don't know how it would work or what I'd think it was
worth, but it seems to me that networks have got to be dinosaurs these days. Are
they producing programs you feel good about paying for -- with either the money you give
the cable companies or your precious "eyeballs"?
Besides, it costs a lot of money to get something on a
network. Imagine how many artists, writers, musicians, actors, producers, and directors --
not to mention us viewers -- could benefit from the economics of being able to
market their wares directly to consumers. Sound idealistic? Well, that's what the record
industry said a few years ago and now it's stumbling around in the dark (still!), crying,
"Where'd all the customers go?"
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a pretty
good piece of advice. But is there really anybody who wants to argue that broadcast TV
ain't broke?
So, yes indeedy, jimbob88, that's a mighty fine question
you posed -- and it's one that I suspect a lot of people will be uttering in the very near
future.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
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