Text 7088, 83 rader
Skriven 2006-08-27 19:29:00 av Robert E Starr JR (7585.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: SG-1 Ratings...Measur
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* * * This message was from Joseph DeMartino to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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John wrote:

> Yeah that's a really good point, Joe.  I don't know...seems we're in
> uncharted waters.  I was thinking though maybe this is simply the end
> of comerical sponsored TV.  I mean shows like the sopranos or sex in
> the city last years on cable channels....of course this probably falls
> in line with what you were saying about pay-per view.  I suppose
> Showtime or something similar falls in that veign.

Exactly.  HBO and Showtime can run high-profile limited series with
huge budgets and name casts almost without regard to ratings because
they are supported by subscription fees, not by advertising.  (Even
newspapers and magazines, which also charge by the copy or by
subscription, could not survive without advertising.)

For HBO the purpose of developing a "water cooler show" like "The
Sopranos" or "Sex and the City" isn't ratings *per se*, it is to
develop "must have" exclusive content that will increase subscriptions.
 Because, let's face it, Netflix and Blockbuster have pretty well done
away with the "get the latest Hollywood movies uncut" business model of
the premium movie channels.  I don't have to subscribe to HBO to get
the latest films six months or a year before they make it - butchered -
to network television.  I can get them on a shiny disc in their origial
aspect ratio with superior digital sound and tons of extras.  That's
why sports and originals are increasingly emphasized by most of the pay
movie channels - and why "HBO" is now simply "HBO" and hardly anyone
even remembers that it was once called "Home Box Office".

But even HBO has its limits.  "Deadwood" was not proving the viewer
magnet that HBO needed it to be to justify its cost, so it is being
wrapped up early.  "Rome" is coming back, but with a much smaller
budget.  (In part this is possible because most of the giant sets,
period props, costumes, etc. were built for the first season and can
now be amortized over subsequent years.)

Ultimately the market will sort out the changes and life will go on.
Radio used to be mostly drama, comedy and live music.  When television
arrived, it switched to music.  When FM and stereo came along the music
migrated there, and AM became all about talk.   The Hollywood studios,
in turn, tried to strangle TV in its crib, blacklisting actors who
appeared on the evil little box.  TV was the competition and was
keeping people out of theaters.  But then the studios learned they
could sell their old movies to TV, and eventually that they could sell
new series, and TV effectively saved some studios that would have gone
under without their TV revenue.  The whole thing was repeated with home
video when Sony introduced the Betamax and JVC launched VHS.  The
studios tried to kill home video, and home video saved the studios.
Fast forward to 1997 - the studios try to kill DVD.  By 2005 DVD sales
equal or exceed box office receipts for many titles, and represent the
difference between profit and loss for dozens of marginal films.  Sony
ultimately bought Columbia Studios in order to put itself in a better
place in future format wars, but seems poised to take it on the chin
again with its Blu Ray high-definition DVD format (which I'm now
starting to think is going to lose and lose quickly to the
Toshiba-backed HD-DVD.)  In every case the realities of the market
forced people out of their mental ruts and into rational behavior, in
spite of themselves.

The TV biz will shake itself out as well.  But I doubt it will do so
without advertising.  Most of us have jobs that depend on goods or
services being delivered to the public, and therefore on advertising
(which is how the public hears about our goods and services.)  So
there's always going to be advertising, just as there pretty much
always has been.  (Speaking of "Rome", we have records of handbills,
graffiti and posters advertising all manner of things from the Republic
and the Empire.)  And some of it is going to be on TV unless we all
decided we're happy paying much higher cable and satellite TV bills.
<g>   (Or advertisers develop the system I saw in a recent "Futurama"
rerun and start beaming product placement directly into our dreams.
<vbg>) 

Regards, 

Joe
                                
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