He’s only gonna pay for shows that you can’t watch elsewhere.

Why should I pay top dollar for reruns of Mismatch, when people can see em on another network? I’ll pay top dollar if they can ONLY be seen on my network.

And Netflix is another network.

No collusion here, this is bizness.

Tough talk for a guy who himself is getting his seat at the table knocked right out from under him. Guess what? In the end, the people decide. The people are favoring services like Netflix and no longer want to watch normal television.

Broadcasting companies and cable companies are going to have to take a haircut eventually. I suspect some will go away all together.

And by the way, regarding the post made by “Smartesse” – what planet did you come from? Spend 5 seconds on Google Finance and prove yourself wrong.

first thing i thought too.

but let them collude. just look what the newspapers did with the much-balleyhooed journalismonline (now press+) to see how that’ll work when you get them all into one room.

herding cats will look like child’s play

The traditional business model still feeds channel programmers and channel distributors with tons of cash, so both camps will continue to prop up the levee as long as possible. But with the DVD cash cow already starting to run dry, other elements of the traditional model will also soon be impacted. The tipping point for legacy businesses moving to new business models, which retain existing customers and attract new ones, and which generate sufficient revenue streams, is the Holy Grail. This is a huge challenge for mature stage companies, but it is critical for survival and they have to move, lest they travel to the cliff’s edge, as print and music have done. Consumers have decades of frustration and disdain for cable companies, so they’ll jump ship at the first opportunity. Channel programmers, whose bread and butter are affiliate revenue (advertising revenue, withstanding) will irk the ire of their consumer/fan base if programming content can’t be accessed however the consumer demands. Hence, the broadcast/cable channels slowly making more programming available off the traditional distribution pipes. This process will continue and not ease. Starving these outlets for content will eventually prove futile.

PS – In another Paid Content post of today, read how the NBA/Turner may be on the “cutting edge,” “The NBA’s latest push for ubiquity and digital revenue could allow fans to bypass pay TV operators for access to live games.”

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ces-nba-digital-expanda-to-more-connected-tvs-and-adds-premium-live-gam/

David Polakoff

“The Winter of Our Content Distribution Discontent”
http://davidpolakoff.wordpress.com