The winning formula is really simple: offer an unlimited catalog (emphasis on unlimited - including all studios and publishers) and bill monthly subscription by

The winning formula is really simple: offer an unlimited catalog (emphasis on unlimited - including all studios and publishers) and bill monthly subscription by the hour: watch up to 24 hours a month commercial-free post-billed for $29, with additional ten hour blocks for $10. Why 24 hours? Because most TV seasons are ~12 episodes each now and there's 22 working days per month to allow for an hour of TV before bed. I would wager that most people would agree that ~$1/hour for entertainment is a fair price. The pricing model makes it easy to track how to compensate for a show's performance and scales with additional viewing. Unused time can be used to help recoup costs of unpopular productions, in the same way that cable bundling forces you to pay for shows you don't watch. Let people define caps per user on their account, both to protect against a surprise bill at the end of the month and as a parental control to ensure children don't watch too much TV. It's not that hard! The industry just needs to get its shit together and set standards for opening up distribution.