Prime Time Gets Redefined

[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Steven Pearlstein pearlsteins@washpost.com]
[Commentary] For years, the entertainment industry tried to fool us -- and itself -- into thinking that it only prospered by giving consumers what they wanted. The real strategy of the entertainment industry has been to force customers to pay inflated prices to watch the movies and television most profitable for the industry to produce, at times that allowed the industry to rake in the most money, and distributed through channels designed to keep out upstart competition. But technology now threatens to put the consumer back in charge. Thanks to TiVo and other Internet-based technologies, people not only can watch what they want when they want to watch it, but they can also do so without having to watch commercials. Suddenly, the whole concept of a prime-time lineup has been tossed out the window, along with an economic model that's been around since Geritol decided to sponsor the Ted Mack amateur hour. While nobody knows exactly how all this will shake out, several things are already clear. Much less of what we think of as television will be paid for by advertisers, and more by viewers. Television networks will need to hammer out new financial arrangements with local affiliates, which will lose the monopoly they have over distribution of network programming in their area. And the big networks will continue to lose market share, not just to niche cable channels, but to interactive gamers and anyone with a good idea, a studio and access to the Internet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR200511...
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* How to Watch TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant peter.grant@wsj.com & Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey@wsj.com]
A guide on video-on-demand, DVRs, TV by cellphone, iPods and video over the Internet.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113150218439791869.html?mod=todays_us_pe...
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