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AMC Plans Ad-Free Streaming Service (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Fortune report: AMC Networks, whose shows include The Walking Dead, is planning to launch a commercial-free online video streaming service aimed at millennial TV subscribers, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters this week. Unlike standalone streaming options from Time Warner's HBO and from CBS, AMC's would be exclusively available to consumers who subscribe to a cable TV package. AMC is doing this, the sources said, as a way to support the traditional cable television industry at a time when many younger consumers are increasingly cutting the cord. AMC is discussing featuring digital-only spinoff shows of its existing programs like The Walking Dead and is considering pricing between $4.99 to $6.99 a month, according to the sources, who cautioned final details are still being worked out.
It seems AMC has a fundamental misunderstanding of why millennials get streaming services. Few are getting it to supplement their cable and many are getting it to replace their cable TV subscription. Also, $5 to $7 per month is quite excessive if you look at what you get for your money on Netflix.
More than likely, they are going to start hire scumbags to harass people for downloading their shows which means people like me will just stop watching their programs altogether. They're going to actually do significantly more damage to their audience (which ultimately decreases the popularity of their programs among paying viewers) than they'll be getting in return for a paltry few subscribers.
Small short-term gains and large long term losses. That seems to be how corporations operate nowadays.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Cable: Take what we offer, more or less when we offer it (and we'll do our best to mess with any DVR you try to use), and pay through the nose for it. And then double or triple that to get some decent channels.
Streaming: Take what you want from our entire catalog, whenever you want, for a fraction of a cable subscription. You need an Internet connection, but we don't really care how you connect.
AMC: "Let's start a service that should replace cable television, but require subscribers to maintain their cable television subscription as well! What could possibly be stupid about that?"