Commentary

TV Guarantees Of A Different Sort: For The Viewer

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 2, 2009

Service contracts are always the last thing a salesperson pushes after you buy your appliances, including new high-end TV sets.

That's all well and good -- but how about service contracts for consumers when actual TV shows don't deliver?

You should get what you pay for -- and for consumers, that means time well-spent in front of the set. In that regard, what if I tuned into CBS' "Welcome to the Captain" or ABC's "Cashmere Mafia"? Should those shows come with a "guarantee" -- not just for TV advertisers who buy those shows?

TV consumers invest their precious viewing time -- just like TV marketers who invest in their commercial messages. Sure, viewers can just switch. But viewers have already made an investment.

The Service Contract Industry trade association now tells us 55" plasma screen TVs and other sophisticated equipment can break down, big-time. So, you need a service contract to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on a repair.

Viewers' hearts and minds can break down as well. "Eli Stone," "Moonlight," or "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" can leave us in a lurch -- like an angry lover with a sudden appointment.

TV producers and advertisers want us more than ever -- which increasingly means giving them too much personal information to micro-target their sales of products in an ever-increasingly fractionalized video world.

Privacy issues will abound concerning users' Internet behavior, and for cable subscribers whose set-top boxes are being rigged by Canoe Ventures -- just so someone can target a nifty sports drink to an aging male, wannabe athlete who happens to be watching "American Idol" because his wife has the controls. (Who, me?)

Network executives don't mind stopping poorly rated but well-written TV shows with abrupt endings. That won't be good enough in the future.

Viewers should get make-goods

5 comments about "TV Guarantees Of A Different Sort: For The Viewer".

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S.e. Olson from Why We Watch, March 2, 2009 at 10:44 a.m.
Jon what does a *fan* of a show do when a show he or she likes gets cancelled because not enough other people like it to watch it old fashioned appointment TV style?
It's enough to make you never want to watch a new show because God forbid you get hooked but no one else does...your TV show can be taken away from you like that.
That is what Wayne is addressing. Not the perceived 'quality' of the shows or lack thereof as measured or not measured by Nielsens (which to fans mean bupkis).
Does it ever occur to advertisers that people consume the *content* as much as they consume the products & services sponsoring/subsidizing the content?
Frankly I'd rather watch shows on DVD without the advertising. I don't mine either paying for the shows myself (if I've seen a sample of them and like it well enough) or checking them out of the public library (paid for by my taxes) or renting them.
And I'm sorry but I think behavioral targeting's creepy. If I have to pay to 'opt out' either by not upgrading to the newest technology or fork over my cash to sponsor the shows myself I will.
Reply

Lisbeth Kramer from Identities, March 2, 2009 at 10:48 a.m.

WAYNE- WOW! I LOVE this expression. Even the shows you pinpoint.......can we even add THE WEST WING? However, I totally agree here with Jon from SMART TV...I guess my feeling is, why can't the two "platforms", yours and his live together? For me, the quality of the TV product is just as important to not only consumer connect and loyalty, but for the potential brand connect through its advertising support in whatever integrated fashion that is. Why not great TV product that delivers the targeted connect?You mention several shows which I for one as a cross-platform advocate from the brand side for some time, believe had opportunities just by their content to drive potentially big deals to advertisers, especially if woven in early enough. I find even a show such as "BIG SHOTS," which had such a short life, well, the men who don't watch TV, who might (no matter what screen they view it on), could have been connected to in such unique, direct manner, and I did not see anyone making use of that opportunity from the network/advertising side. I think they missed the boat on a significant market that they could have spoken to with that product.

I think these are two very relevant issues, yours and Jon's...but I truly applaud you, as I for one feel, this could change the TV model just as "JZ" (NBC) is constantly also saying...

I think this conversation is worthy of social media sharing,engagement...

Thanks so much Wayne and Jon...

Lisbeth Kramer from Identities, March 2, 2009 at noon

I think these are two very relevant issues, yours and Jon's...but I truly applaud you, as I for one feel, this could change the TV model just as "JZ" (NBC) is constantly also saying...

Thanks so much Wayne and Jon...

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, March 2, 2009 at 2:57 p.m.

Nice tongue out-of-cheek, Wayne.

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, March 2, 2009 at 7:21 p.m.

Anyone who buys a service contract obviously has never successfully attempted to make a claim. There's always a way for the warranter to wriggle out of paying a claim. It's a waste of money. Don't trust me; talk to anyone who has ever filed a claim. It's a scam.