Time Warner Cable is exploring a way to mesh SVOD (subscription video on deamnd) and the watercooler phenomenon by offering top-rated shows for quasi-instant replay. TWC is in talks with ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to provide a subscription service that would offer access to their most populer programs as ranked by Nielsen Media Research, according to Richard Siklos. A TWC spokesman and two people “who had been briefed on the talks” called them “embryonic.”
The idea is billed as the first “wisdom of crowds” approach to packaging and selling TV programs although you could argue that’s been the network credo for decades — programming via ratings. The difference here would seem to be the effort to create a faux watercooler atmosphere that would tell people they should watch these shows to be au courant or because other people liked them. Again, a lot like some current TV marketing but with the emphasis on selling to users, not advertising to them. One option: top 20 shows for a monthly fee of $10. A combo of PPV/VOD could be another option.
Another suggestion is that Time Warner would offer the shows with intact advertising and without the ability to fast forward, a really good argument for a DVR controlled by the user, not the distributer.
No matter the option or options, ithe biggest sticking point is the same one we’ve been writing about all along — how to pay/who to pay. It’s hard to see any way this can be accomplished without including affiliates in the equation (either financially or as litigation waiting to happen), never mind the owners of non-network shows.
Related: Cablevision To Roll Out Centralized Server-Based DVR
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