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Michael Wolff writes in the NYT that online-media revolutionaries once figured they could eat TV's lunch by stealing TV's business model with free content supported by advertising but online media is now drowning in free and internet traffic has glutted the ad market, forcing down rates. Digital publishers, from The Guardian to BuzzFeed, can stay ahead only by chasing more traffic — not loyal readers, but millions of passing eyeballs, so fleeting that advertisers naturally pay less and less for them. Meanwhile, the television industry has been steadily weaning itself off advertising — like an addict in recovery, starting a new life built on fees from cable providers and all those monthly credit-card debits from consumers. Today, half of broadcast and cable's income is non-advertising based. And since adult household members pay the cable bills, TV content has to be grown-up content: "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "The Wire," "The Good Wife."
So how did this tired, postwar technology seize back the crown? Television, not digital media, is mastering the model of the future: Make 'em pay. And the corollary: Make a product that they'll pay for. BuzzFeed has only its traffic to sell — and can only sell it once. Television shows can be sold again and again, with streaming now a third leg to broadcast and cable, offering a vast new market for licensing and syndication. Television is colonizing the Internet and people still spend more time watching television than they do on the Internet and more time on the Internet watching television. "The fundamental recipe for media success, in other words, is the same as it used to be," concludes Wolff, "a premium product that people pay attention to and pay money for. Credit cards, not eyeballs."
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday June 29 2015, @06:16PM
I know a few people that are stuck with cable, but I think the majority have live sports as the main sticking point.
I'm in the process of moving from cable. For me it was local news, but I picked up a HD HomeRun that has two tuners, enabling you to stream to your PC, record to MythTV, etc. It just took me a while to get a decent antenna up in the attic. The quality and convenience is great.
(Score: 2) by SrLnclt on Monday June 29 2015, @06:36PM
I finally made the cord cutting move myself. My wife watches TV all the time, but half the time I don't think she is actually watching whatever program is on. My sticking point was sports. Between MLB, NFL, NHL, and college football/basketball the only way to get the programming was satellite/cable. I finally realized I was paying something like $3/day, and I might only watch a game every other day - making it effectively like $6 per game.
Already had a WDTV Live to play local media off my NAS. Now I've added a digital antenna for live broadcast stuff and a Roku 3 for streaming. Added Netflix, already had Amazon Prime. This probably pays for itself in 2 months, and after that it's like 10% of what I was paying one of the satellite companies. I'm also "borrowing" a login of a friend so I can do the streaming stuff for live sports on things like ESPN which require a paid TV package to stream.
It's not perfect, but so far (a few weeks in) it has been well worth it for the cost savings.
Once enough people make this move in a couple years, the sports teams/leagues/networks may realize they are missing out on a growing portion of the population. Hopefully at some point they realize this is a lot of potential revenue and start offering more streaming for sports without full TV packages. I know that goes against their current business model and goes against language in many current TV contracts. HBO recently saw the light, hopefully others can soon.