Would TV networks use VOD…and bypass affiliates?
Friday, June 9th, 2006If ABC can stream ad-supported prime-time shows on the internet one day after they air, and make money doing so, why wouldn’t the network do the same with video on demand?
That question—and it’s a dangerous one, potentially—is posed by Michael Willner, CEO of cable operator Insight Communications. For now, it may be just hot air. But let’s for a moment take this exercise, however speculative, up to the next level: If a broadcast network can distribute its shows via the net and VOD, for how long does it remain a broadcast network? For how long does the network still need its affiliates?
Affiliates won’t go away anytime soon. They have local ties and broad audience reach, including mandated cable carriage. They may soon gain additional cable channel slots for multicasting—slots that are otherwise very difficult to come by. They have 24 hours of air time to fill each day, and when they aren’t showing network programming, they’re promoting it.
But what favors affiliates most, perhaps, is sheer inertia. Our whole system of television, initially designed with an inherent bias in favor of local broadcasting, has grown up around them. Networks are in the habit of distributing their programming in this way, and audiences are in the habit of watching it this way.
Habits can change, though, and eventually they will. That process has probably already begun. I really wonder about this: Are affiliates on the verge of a long struggle for their very survival?
Earlier:
• Will TV’s new rules serve big players or public?
• To make multicast TV local, stations need viewer content
• Link: Broadcasting & Cable