Richard Siklos writes: "For five decades or so, the television industry's main mission has been to come up with hit programs, get them on screens, and hope people will stop and watch. Now, that is just the starting point. ¶ As an era of ordering TV shows at the push of a button gets underway, new challenges are clouding the landscape in the year ahead: What business models are going to work and who is going to get paid what? ...¶... One issue is whether consumers ought to pay for their shows individually or whether on-demand access should be a free component of a subscription to video services provided by cable or satellite operators or newer competitors like Internet or telecom companies. Another is whether the shows will be sold for viewing during a set time period, or will be permanent so that consumers can collect them like DVD's. And, not surprisingly, a big point of contention is how the revenue generated by these new services is shared. As a result, only a handful of the most popular shows on television are available on-demand so far. ..." Link: New York Times. Good overview of the pragmatic issues involved for content owners.
Update 12/6/2006:
Thomas Hawk comments on this story in Video on Demand, The Big Pipe Dream in the Sky. Link: Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection. --Dennis
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