Adele doesn’t want her new release, “25,” to be on any music-streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. Taylor Swift did the same thing a while back (though came back to sign
with Apple). When you’re a big artist, you can opt out of such stuff.
Now, CBS doesn’t think the new “Star Trek” series should be on broadcast television (except for the
premiere episode of the new show). Is that like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?
Chuck Lorre, a most verbal, opinionated TV producer, who has produced big CBS comedies
like “The Big Bang Theory,” “Two and A Half Men” and “Mike and Molly” -- doesn’t like what CBS is doing. He wrote a “vanity card” -- an end-of-the-episode note (something he regularly does) -- for his
latest “Big Bang” episode to say, that, as a result of CBS’s non-broadcast effort, network TV is dead.
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So will big TV producers -- like Lorre -- be thinking about
leaving that “system”? Hardly. Top TV producers will just shift to new area -- perhaps even making more money.
Still, Lorre is particularly peeved because of what CBS expects from
new digital-savvy TV consumers.
At the end of his note — titled, “R.I.P. Network Television 1948-2015” — he added: “In lieu of flowers, CBS has requested that
mourners send them six bucks a month.” That last bit refers to CBS’ still new digital site CBS All Access, which is priced at $5.99 a month for consumers.
You can understand
Lorre’s angst, wistfully believing that TV, as a “broadcast” network, still provides the greatest ease and reach for TV networks and consumers, perhaps at the cheapest price: that of
watching some advertising. (Lorre might be forgetting consumers also pay plenty to pay TV providers).
To him, taking one of the most iconic TV shows, “Star Trek,” and
shipping it out to a still-narrow part of the new digital TV-video industry seems like CBS is abandoning a platform much loved by TV consumers.
It makes you wonder how Lorre’s a
negotiation with CBS might go for his next comedy. Or perhaps Lorre has another bigger bang theory about this.
Concerning music-streaming services and many other transitioning U.S businesses:
Any final “vanity card” tributes to consider at the end of your business projects?