More new TV video platforms will start this year. But there'll be a price to pay -- for all concerned.
For CBS' Les Moonves, this will come in the form of new subscription video-on-demand services -- like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Moonves hopes that new companies will pay TV networks decent fees for airing older episodes of shows -- like Netflix does. In turn, consumers will also need to open their wallets.
Viewers are getting primed for all this -- in different ways. For example, about half the country more or less delves into 'video-on-demand' of TV shows. That's right. But it isn't through traditional cable VOD-type services. It’s from home DVR units.
If consumers are already paying a $5 or $6 DVR monthly fee to a TV/video multichannel distributor, there already is a connection. What’s needed now is a more savvy subscription VOD company, like Netflix, to market the transition.
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Right now, no single SVOD company has enough programming heft to make this a reality. Neither Netflix nor Amazon has a wide range of network and cable programming to convince consumers to make the switch. Even Hulu -- with the likes of NBC, Fox and ABC programs in its stables -- can't truly be pitched as a pseudo-DVR alternative.
And TV viewers might always want a form of DVR under their control -- at least in the near term.
For CBS and other companies, a new wave of SVOD services -- paying handsomely for older programs or year-old episodes of current series -- is a good deal. So are upcoming higher retransmission revenues. But not buying the likes of TV Guide Network or Hallmark Channel.
That's because the goal is all about big-time costly programming, not something mid-size channels or others can support. That said, even CBS wants to start producing more for the bigger general interest cable networks. But that would just be a starting platform to sell shows internationally and digitally.
For many networks -- cable and broadcast -- big time-shows will continue to demand big dollars. Somehow and somewhere, new VOD services will have to adjust to those business metrics.
Do current and future SVOD services become competitors to broadcast and cable in the syndication marketplace