Will Network Television Eventually Become Entirely Pay Per View
In the old days, things were much simpler for the big three networks.
Start with a respected news broadcast.
Follow that with great eight o'clock hour programming.
Then have the 8 o'clock hour be so strong that the viewers simply stayed 'where they were' for the rest of the television night.
Walter Cronkite and Archie Bunker...
brand builders.
But now that we have every channel on the planet available to us on a shiny remote the size of a toaster, the networks are, rightly so, even more petrified.
In the old days, heavy competition meant that each network began losing share to ONE ANOTHER as more and more people started to jump from ABC to CBS then to NBC and back to ABC.
This 'looking outside the brand' was a natural evolution as this new thing called a television really started to pick up steam and diversify.
It didn't help matters that the successful production companies were allowed to show their projects around to the other networks, of course.
But the you-know-what really slammed the fan when cable television exploded.
Now the big dogs had to almost band TOGETHER to stave off the competition.
And it has been very rough.
So now, one wonders if the networks will eventually follow the ultra targeting that we now see with ezine publishers in how specific a target they market to.
Ezines are simply online 'magazines' with a subscription base of people who want to receive them.
(That's the key...
these are subscribers who've opted in to receive the products.
) What makes ezines so incredible...
their ability to TARGET.
If the networks 'know' which people want to see Scrubs, or Everybody Loves Raymond or the Masters, can and will they turn that show into a Pay Per View to better squeeze money from their advertisers? Because it all comes down to advertising dollars.
Always has.
Always will.
So, what this would do for the advertisers of those programs is incredible.
Because then IBM and Kodak and Welch's grape juice would know that these people are shelling out good money to see these programs.
And aren't they more apt to want to see the commercials on those shows that they have opted into? Human nature suggests that they would be far more interested in those commercials.
Simply from the "well I paid for all of it so I'm gonna watch all of it" mentality.
Or perhaps we could look at it from a "hallmark card" point of view where the entire show is advertised by only one brand.
There are tons of options for the networks.
And they'd better start getting to those options sooner rather than later.
Start with a respected news broadcast.
Follow that with great eight o'clock hour programming.
Then have the 8 o'clock hour be so strong that the viewers simply stayed 'where they were' for the rest of the television night.
Walter Cronkite and Archie Bunker...
brand builders.
But now that we have every channel on the planet available to us on a shiny remote the size of a toaster, the networks are, rightly so, even more petrified.
In the old days, heavy competition meant that each network began losing share to ONE ANOTHER as more and more people started to jump from ABC to CBS then to NBC and back to ABC.
This 'looking outside the brand' was a natural evolution as this new thing called a television really started to pick up steam and diversify.
It didn't help matters that the successful production companies were allowed to show their projects around to the other networks, of course.
But the you-know-what really slammed the fan when cable television exploded.
Now the big dogs had to almost band TOGETHER to stave off the competition.
And it has been very rough.
So now, one wonders if the networks will eventually follow the ultra targeting that we now see with ezine publishers in how specific a target they market to.
Ezines are simply online 'magazines' with a subscription base of people who want to receive them.
(That's the key...
these are subscribers who've opted in to receive the products.
) What makes ezines so incredible...
their ability to TARGET.
If the networks 'know' which people want to see Scrubs, or Everybody Loves Raymond or the Masters, can and will they turn that show into a Pay Per View to better squeeze money from their advertisers? Because it all comes down to advertising dollars.
Always has.
Always will.
So, what this would do for the advertisers of those programs is incredible.
Because then IBM and Kodak and Welch's grape juice would know that these people are shelling out good money to see these programs.
And aren't they more apt to want to see the commercials on those shows that they have opted into? Human nature suggests that they would be far more interested in those commercials.
Simply from the "well I paid for all of it so I'm gonna watch all of it" mentality.
Or perhaps we could look at it from a "hallmark card" point of view where the entire show is advertised by only one brand.
There are tons of options for the networks.
And they'd better start getting to those options sooner rather than later.