Commentary

Glenn Beck's Gold-Standard Business Formula For TV Programming

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 8, 2011

Glenn Beck makes it easy to understand how some traditional TV shows can move to the digital TV world: Want a piece of me? You'll pay.

For $5 a month, the most fervent of Beck fans essentially get what was his Fox News show -- in a two-hour digital version. For another $5 a month, you'll get his whole website -- which looks to include a whole array of programs and other content.

Beck himself says it's a experiment. But the good news is that for his fans -- and anyone else it's easy to understand. Forget advertisers -- that's not necessary. Though we're probably guessing the new so-called GBTV.com (Glenn Beck TV) will have some sort of gold-trading company feel to it. Hello, Goldline International!

Beck still gets around two million viewers (and around 500,000 25-54 viewers) on Fox News. Overall that would give him some $10 million -- a month. But history tells us there's little doubt those numbers will move lower. Shifting to the pay model can strip away about 70% of free, advertising supported customers. Still, it looks to be a good business -- even at somewhat lower levels.

TV networks can't really decide what to do with their content. Regularly scheduled, regular-looking TV shows, like "House," or "Grey's Anatomy", or "The Office" are under the throes of many different kind of pay structures for viewers. Sure, Hulu is free, but Hulu Plus isn't. Netflix is a pay service with no advertising. Cable networks are forcing networks into TV Everywhere plans -- or new customers will pay.

For niche must-have high in demand content -- with more simple formulas for consumers to understand -- the Wall Street Journal, perhaps the New York Times, and perhaps the selective musings of Glenn Beck -- customers have a clear-cut decision.

Payment directly from viewers for their TV content is the gold standard for TV producers and distributors. The good news is that Beck already has familiarity with this metal. The bad? Viewers usually pay in dollars. And in this economy that can be tough to come by.

television, tv

4 comments about "Glenn Beck's Gold-Standard Business Formula For TV Programming ".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, June 8, 2011 at 3:59 p.m.
I, too, remember making fun of Beck when he was touting gold a few years back, when it was $800 an ounce. But now it's over $1500, so the joke's on me.
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Evelio Hernandez from HBEH Advertising, June 8, 2011 at 4:26 p.m.

It's going to be interesting to see how many people pony up $10 to see Beck cry!

Michael Kaplan from Blue Sky Creative, June 8, 2011 at 4:35 p.m.

Leaving Glenn Beck aside, PPV for television shows could be the wave of the future, especially for shows with a limited, but hard-core appeal. This includes partisan talk shows like Beck's (or Keith Olbermann, had he chosen to go that way), and genre shows with devoted followings (like sf favorites like Firefly, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica).

If it costs about $15 million to produce a talk show for a year (that's reportedly what "Countdown" will cost to produce), $10 a month from a million people, plus advertising, pays the bills. That's a lot of people, but I don't doubt Beck will find an audience that size. Who needs a network?

Jerry Foster from Energraphics, June 9, 2011 at 5:36 a.m.

Regardless of what one thinks of the guy's perception of what a "conservative" should be, most would agree that it will be great to see someone profit by just starting his own TV station on the Internet. That means less control by a handful of billionaires, the elites, the "liberal media", Rupert Murdoch's bizarre neoconservative world view or the Illuminati or whatever "powers that be". I personally feel Beck is too religious oriented and I'll note there are almost too many religious TV stations around the world. But he only talks about religion 5% of the time.