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
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