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How Television Is Fighting Off the Internet
HughPickens.com writes: Michael Wolff writes in the NY Times that online-media revolutionaries once figured they could eat TV's lunch by stealing TV's business model with free content supported by advertising. But online media is now drowning in free, and internet traffic has glutted the ad market, forcing down rates. Digital publishers, from The Guardian to BuzzFeed, can stay ahead only by chasing more traffic — not loyal readers, but millions of passing eyeballs, so fleeting that advertisers naturally pay less and less for them. Meanwhile, the television industry has been steadily weaning itself off advertising — like an addict in recovery, starting a new life built on fees from cable providers and all those monthly credit-card debits from consumers. Today, half of broadcast and cable's income is non-advertising based. And since adult household members pay the cable bills, TV content has to be grown-up content: "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "The Wire," "The Good Wife."
So how did this tired, postwar technology seize back the crown? Television, not digital media, is mastering the model of the future: Make 'em pay. And the corollary: Make a product that they'll pay for. BuzzFeed has only its traffic to sell — and can only sell it once. Television shows can be sold again and again, with streaming now a third leg to broadcast and cable, offering a vast new market for licensing and syndication. Television is colonizing the Internet and people still spend more time watching television than they do on the Internet and more time on the Internet watching television. "The fundamental recipe for media success, in other words, is the same as it used to be," concludes Wolff, "a premium product that people pay attention to and pay money for. Credit cards, not eyeballs."
So how did this tired, postwar technology seize back the crown? Television, not digital media, is mastering the model of the future: Make 'em pay. And the corollary: Make a product that they'll pay for. BuzzFeed has only its traffic to sell — and can only sell it once. Television shows can be sold again and again, with streaming now a third leg to broadcast and cable, offering a vast new market for licensing and syndication. Television is colonizing the Internet and people still spend more time watching television than they do on the Internet and more time on the Internet watching television. "The fundamental recipe for media success, in other words, is the same as it used to be," concludes Wolff, "a premium product that people pay attention to and pay money for. Credit cards, not eyeballs."
into television. I cut the cord years ago because I couldn't stand all the commercials. Now my hulu+ is getting loaded with commercials- it's almost as bad as watching broadcast TV.
I think I'll go back to getting discs from Netflix..
Online media has, like a meth junkie at a desert party, overdosed itself. The average slate or buzzfeed is a rats nest of unrelated yet increasingly predatory advertising that saps bandwidth and kills the user experience waiting for everyhting from monolithic flash ads to autoplay html5 elements to load. even your local newspaper is taking advantage of this to hose you for cash payments you wont make to read their clickbait articles that are written at the 4th grade level.
And what is this television thats slowly weaning itself off advertising? Watching Van Helsing in my hotel room I was treated to a 3 hour movie padded with advertising for everything from pain pills to fried chicken and cars. some ads even came back-to-back for the same damn product. television is rehabing from ads like a crack addict rehabs at the family reunion with a rail of white lightning in the bathroom. And dont think this excuses you, blu-ray and DVD titles are just as much television as the average CW network after school highly sensored puritanical life lesson sitcom. I have 12 to 20 minutes of un-skippable content in each of these disks where 10 years ago i was promised this wasnt ever going to happen. Im forced to watch advertisements and previews for products i dont give a shit about, just so i can get to the movie that includes (surprise) more product placement. Does anyone remember Oreo-bot from the transformers?
The only change in televisions model has been taking credit cards for things other than the ronco electric food dehydrator or the jack lalane power juicer. the guide feature in most provider services at the 1080p level still includes a myriad of floating chyron ads for weight loss and dick pills. buying anything pay-per-view will immediately forward your personal information to nearly two dozen affiliate advertisers and merchants. its a horrendous pain in the ass. And if you dont like it? two words: Its Comcastic.
cable and television service providers not only insult your intelligence and dignity but take it as a personal act of blasphemy if you try to cancel. simply calling up, youll be asked a phonebook of personal and insulting questions about your service and your personal likes and dislikes. its not the callcenters fault, some seersucker clad golfbag toting used car salesman marketing drone decided it was going to be a great idea to force the callcenter to carpet bomb customers in whats known as 'customer retention.' tactics.
the only thing this article isnt mentioning is that adblock is still a very real and useful thing, and that everything on television inevitably shows up on torrent.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Ever since cutting the cord two years ago its amazing how much extra time I have per day and now more alive you feel not watching tv. Now I haven't gotten rid of it all yet, still have Netflix and we watch a few Star Trek episodes at night but the medium no longer controls out lives. Now internet had eaten up quite a bit of my life but that is one more thing I'm slowly removing also.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
It's always comes down to the same thing. If you want people to get your product, make a damn good product. Some things will naturally be a fad, but will fade away. Lasting revenue is based on making something people actually want/need. For so long, many networks have been shoveling our crap content - now that there are ways to view exactly what you want, they have the incentive to make something you really want.
...many years ago, we were told, "in the future, you will pay for TV". And we said "WHAT!? We get it for free, off our antenna now!" And they said, "but since you will pay for TV, there won't be any need for advertising." Many years later, I am paying for TV, PLUS, getting ads that run across the screen all the time. It it any wonder I am feeling ripped off? Oh yes... I think these were the same people who said, "we will put catalytic converters on cars. it will cost more, but they will convert the noxious fumes into harmless water and carbon dioxide." So years later, we are, indeed paying more, PLUS being clobbered by the "carbon crisis"
He's not really using his terms very well. He seems to be defining Netflix and Hulu as primarily television companies as opposed to internet companies. He says so at this point:
Netflix bills itself as a disrupter of television - except that it is television, paying Hollywood and the TV industry almost $2 billion a year in licensing and programming fees.
You can certainly make an argument for that. They are certainly a blend of the two. His argument is really much more about subscription services versus ad-supported services.
The subscriber base is ratcheting down.
The only thing keeping the cable model going at this point is sports.
That's it. And the instant the sports leagues think they can make as much money on line... cable is done.
Would you pay a 100 dollars a year for access to every NFL game streamed to your machine of choice? A lot of people would.
Total up the sports leagues people care about... football, basketball, soccer if you swing that way... Its a finite number of leagues that people care about and you could charge 10 bucks a month for access, discounting for a yearly subscription, and maybe throw in minor leagues of the same sport. So the NFL package gets you all the college games etc.
Its entirely viable. And if that means no blackouts and the ability to watch the games on your smartphone or tablet... Sure, there is sling boxes and some cable services let you stream anything to your devices. But the underlying problem with cable is that it isn't fully a la carte. And until it is... there's going to be a problem.
The vast majority of what people pay for with their cable package is something they have zero interest in watching. None.
We're spending a lot of money on other things besides our cable now as well. We've got all these new streaming services. And on top of that the cable bills have gone up.
Something has to give there. The reality is that people tend to prefer netflix for general entertainment programming... the only edge cable has is the dubious value of cable news stations and sports.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Like you were supposed to when you started charging for cable. Who knows, you could make more money by offering a better product.
I don't think that they could make more money by dropping ads because many many people just aren't bothered by ads, and that drives me almost as crazy as having to sit through ads. And everything in the U.S. has more ads now. As an example, I've been watching football (the real football, not American hand-egg) for about five years, in particular English football. For about three seasons, I paid a subscription fee of $150/year so that I could watch every Premier League game online commercial-free for up to one week after the game aired. This also included many FA Cup matches and some matches from other leagues and even sports like rugby. I would have gladly paid double for this kind of service. So when the EPL was rebid and NBC won the American rights, I was devastated because I knew what was coming, and I wasn't wrong. Now I can watch all matches online (for free if I have NBCSN on cable), but online there is a banner that sits above the viewing area for the game that is constant. And whether or not I watch online, there are ads every 4-5 minutes in the form of a video that plays in the upper left where the score is, and then the static logo of that advertiser displays until the next ad runs. And of course there are always things like "The Ben and Jerry's Stoppage Time." In addition, NBC only has the rights to the Premier League, so I can't watch any other competition on that channel. International football is now spread across at least five networks (NBC, Fox, ESPN, GolTV, BeIn), three of which are not included in basic cable, and all of them maximize ads (but not up to the standards of MLS on Fox, who actually shrinks the game area by about 40% every few minutes to show an ad along the entire right-side and lower-section of the screen - so I just never watch an MLS game on that network). I truly don't get why people pay for this crap. (I don't pay for cable.) I actually have a couple of modified pieces of black felt that I use to cover the top score/ad area and the bottom ticker, both of which are equally annoying. I would gladly pay around $100/month or probably even more if I could watch most matches around the world commercial free online, but I don't see that happening, ever. It seems like we're going towards more ads in the U.S., not fewer.
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying. - Woody Allen
The thing people are avoiding isn't "television" (video dramas, comedies, etc). The thing people are starting to avoid is "television" (getting those shows via cable companies). I don't think any predicted the death of video as a form of entertainment.
The ideal situation is for all the content creators, to still make their content, but sell it to the public over the internet, bypassing the cable companies. It is the cable companies that need to die (or just be relegated to being ISPs). They just aren't up to the task of delivering media in the 21st century. They have stopped being a distribution channel and more of a gatekeeper for old people who can't use the internet.
I just spent a week recovering from surgery. I had a big screen TV and a high end Time Warner Cable package available.
Absolute Fucking Crap
500 channels my ass...250 regular and 250 dups with High Def
One movie channel ran the same 4 fucking movies all weekend....except after midnight and before ten, which were all fucking sham-wow commercials.
Books. No commercials and better resolution.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Like you were supposed to when you started charging for cable. Who knows, you could make more money by offering a better product.
Yea, I miss the good old days. MTV actually played music (and no advertising). USA actually had programming all night (and it was weird stuff). TBS had black-and-white movies.
Now, get off my lawn
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
they call them "TV time outs"
American football (NFL): The National Football League requires twenty commercial breaks per game, with ten in each half. (Exceptions to this are overtime periods, which have none.) These breaks run either a minute, or two minutes in length. Of the ten commercial breaks per half, two are mandatory: at the end of each quarter, and at the two-minute warning for the end of the half. The remaining eight breaks are optional.[1] The timeouts can be applied after field goal tries, conversion attempts for both one and two points following touchdowns, changes in possession either by punts or turnovers, and kickoffs (except for the ones that start each half, or are within the last five minutes). The breaks are also called during stoppages due to injury, instant replay challenges, when either of the participating teams uses one of its set of timeouts, and if the network needs to catch up on its commercial advertisement schedule. The arrangement for college football contests is the same, except for the absence of the two-minute warning.
NBA: "Mandatory timeouts" are called at the first dead ball after 6:00 and 3:00 in each quarter and after 9:00 in the second and fourth quarters. First mandatory timeout is charged to the home team and second TV timeout is charged to the away team (or whichever team has not been charged previously in that quarter), assuming no other full 1:40 timeouts have been called, which replace the mandatory TV timeouts. In addition, a timeout after 3:00 in the second and fourth quarters is called but not charged to either team, if neither team has called one prior to that point. If they do, then the "official's timeout" (as it is called) is given at the first minute mark in which it is not taken early by either team.[5]