Subj : Re: Old Geek Thoughts...
To   : TALIADON
From : Jeff
Date : Wed Jan 05 2022 17:56:32

On 04 Jan 2022, TALIADON said the following...
 TA> Back in the day, channels that employed advertising were essentially
 TA> free; independent TV stations did not receive a stipend from the licence
 TA> payer. These days, people pay massive subscriptions in order to watch
 TA> 10x the ads we had 40 years ago.
 TA> It seems big media really can have their cake and eat it in the 21st
 TA> century.

I'm afraid this is true. The "latest" model is streaming services, such as
Netflix, Disney+, ABC All Access, etc., that charge a smallish monthly fee
for a subscription. That, in itself, is ok, I suppose; I mean, if no one
wants it, no one will buy it, right?

The smallish fees do add up if one has multiple subscriptions, but it's very
a la carte channel-wise and currently one would have to have quite a few
subscriptions to match a monthly cable bill.

And, here's where I'm going with this: Most of these subscription streaming
services are currently ad-free. We're back to "if you pay for it, you get it
without ads." However, there's absolutely no guarantee that it will continue
this way into the future. The subscription streaming services are still
relatively new and are having to compete against cable TV and satellite
services. Once they get a foothold, who knows? I'd like to imagine that it
would continue as it is now, but everyone in this discussion already knows
what's going to happen.

Jeff.

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