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According to the Wall Street Journal, Walt Disney’s two networks, ABC and ESPN will be offering free Video on Demand of their top shows and sporting events on the Cox Communications Cable Network. Here’s the twist, the only way that Disney would agree to this was if Cox disabled the fast forward capability so users will have to watch the commercials.
Let me try to break this down, ABC and ESPN are going to offer shows and sporting events that have ALREADY aired and are being replayed on Cox’s video on demand, but I can’t fast forward so ABC and ESPN can charge ad rates for second, third and fourth viewings? The commercials already ran live and everyone watching the program live already watched your commercials, but now you want to try to double and triple dip on me, huh?
Hmmm. Well the good news is that I do not have Cox Cable because if I did, I would remove this channel from my favorites to ensure that I never landed on it even by accident. Oh Disney, when will you guys learn? I know you guys are stuck making the 437th version of Cinderella, but let me give you a little hint on what is going on in today’s world.
If I want to watch a show or sporting event of yours, there are numerous ways that I can do that. Can I take a second and walk you through them? Gee, thanks.
1. The most obvious, if I am around, I can watch it live which means I will watch your commercials. Not really though, as when commercials are on, I tend to be looking at my computer. Too bad.
2. If I am not around or doing something else, I can DVR it. Which means even if you are offering this on VOD, I can still fast forward through the commercials using my own DVR recording.
3. Let’s say for one reason or another, I forgot to set my DVR, if I wanted to view highlights of a sporting event, I can go to one of numerous web sites to see the best highlights of the game. That includes video sites like YouTube and the numerous sports sites even yours, ESPN.com.
4. If I missed a show on ABC, I could choose to see if it was available for download legally at iTunes or I could find it at a million p2p sites and download it illegally.
Very simply put, you cannot control your content, no matter how many things you disable. You are a content owner, but because of technology, you are no longer in control of the distribution of your content. When will marketers and content owners learn that trying to force the people who matter most to them; their customers, to do something they do not want to do, will not work. It will only force users to find others ways to get what they want, when they want it and will show just how irrelevant these networks and content owners truly are.
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Technorati Tags: Wall Street Journal, Walt Disney, ABC, ESPN, Video on Demand, Cox Communications
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I couldn’t agree with this more if it was tatooed on my *&%$!! The other decision Networks make (which cause me to stop watching) is the moving of programs all over the place, then the showing reruns every third week to make the season longer. The minute they make it too much trouble to just sit down and enjoy the show, I am off doing other things. I don’t bother coming back. It irritates me that these young executives think I have nothing better to do than follow their lead. Get over yourselves.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Catherine,
Venting is always encouraged here at the Hipster’s so feel free to come by and vent all you like. Your points are so right on, I have written several posts on the stupidity of TV execs and how they just do not get it. But I guarantee you they will in the future as they see their market share drop and their audience splintered across multiple mediums.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again.
that drives me nuts! So idiotic…
Hamas militants have enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience — children. Oh the kicker is that Hamas also does not have fast forward and has to watch the infidel Mickey the whole way thru as well.
Cathrine: One of the reason they show reruns every third week is for people who missed the previous shows. Pre DVR days, but still most people dont have DVR today. Also it builds hype for the upcoming shows. More ad revenue to boot.
But I do agree with your opinions Cord. Its amazing how much money they are trying to milk out of the system.
If only we could run simulations that allowed us to design a network television schedule, and then deal with the consequences (positive or negative) when we tried something different, and it didn’t or did work the way we expected it to.
At some level, the reward structure for taking common-sense risks must not be great enough to offset the punishment one receives if taking a risk goes bad.
I know that in my career in retail, there are a lot of things the customer would have wanted for us to do — and if I tried them and failed, I’d lose my job. It would be similar to your blog — let’s say you took a risk when writing a post, but if you got fewer than three comments, you’d have to shut your blog down. You might think twice before taking that risk. I’d guess that TV execs feel that kind of pressure with each decision they make.
Brett - Thank you for your comment, but I have to disagree with you. I don’t think they show reruns to build hype or for people who have missed previous episodes. They do this because they only pay for a certain number of episodes and they want to stockpile all the good stuff until sweeps. While in years past, a network would buy 15-20 episodes, these days, they are only buying 13. They need to add reruns so the show lasts the whole season.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Kevin,
I hear exactly what you are saying and it makes all the sense in the world. Though based on my experience, I don’t want people working for me whose first thoughts are whether they will lose their job or not. I guess my thought is that if you surround yourself with smart and talented people, they will be willing to take risks cause even if they lost their job, they have talent and can always get another one. Smart, talented people can always get jobs.
Thanks for your comments.
Thank you Cord …
My comment back was going to be, “It makes no sense to upset viewers who show up to watch a show for those that don’t. It would be like postponing a movie an hour for those who might show up late, or taking a phone customer over the customer who is standing in front of you waiting to pay.”
I remember when Fox stood by the X-Files on its Friday night line-up. It took a season, but eventually caught on, and was a huge success. I think this is also why Sopranos, and Sex and The City built such a following. Besides being well written, they aired in chronological order and on the same night each week. If I wanted to plan a Soprano party with a bunch of friends, I could count on the episode not being a re-run during the season. I am too busy to go around searching for something to watch when I want to sit down and relax. If you make it too complicated … I have Netflix, movies I own, PBS, books, the Internet - a vast array of choices that don’t require me to hunt them down.
Catherine, the redhead
History will show you big media are always slow to catch on to new ways to distribute their material. I think it’s ironic that many moons ago, Disney was actually one of the first to embrace TV, while his peers were forecasting gloom and doom if TV took off. But that only happens when you are led by people with vision rather than people with butt’s to cover.