• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 15, 2009

More fee-based payments for TV shows on the Internet?

Sounds like a return to the iTunes Music Stores -- but those days when only a handful of networks sold TV shows for $1.99 an episode, starting the whole TV program on the Internet boom.

Things evolved into a no-fee, advertising-supported model -- because people like stuff free. Turns out that was just a tease. It seems research, the marketplace, and prominent cable operators are now rallying behind the thought: "The free ride is over."

You can't blame them. It's their stuff. They control it; you want it. Supply and demand equations have never been so obvious.

Upstart "TV Everywhere" principals stand behind this process. But for Time Warner and Comcast the effort isn't just to "authenticate" everyone; it's to make money.

The PR spin is: "Don't worry, you'll get your stuff free online -- as long as you are a customer."  The underlying message is: "But don't think for a minute we undervalue our premium TV programs. We may even ask you to pay an additional charge, down the line, because of your crazy, never-diminishing TV desire."

For content owners, all this dovetails nicely with the downward trend in advertising revenues. Media executives speculate it's only a matter of time when the biggest of these sites -- Hulu.com -- will consider a pay component for consumers.

What will be free? Consumers will have all the user-generated stuff they want -- or less-valuable stuff that broadcast and cable networks don't consider a threat to their main businesses. 

The big question: How will consumers respond? The belief is that -- like the music business with retailer iTunes -- consumers will get used to spending what seems like a small fee for premium TV content. 

And what if that doesn't work? Then content owners will lower the price, when, at the same time, marketers who buy Internet TV shows will probably pony up bigger money. This will result in content owners chanting a mantra cable operators have used for years: dual revenue stream.
 

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