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But while cable has and needs billions of dollars of revenue they will offer billions for exclusive access to whatever content is deemed compelling (sports, Gam
by josephlord 14y ago
But while cable has and needs billions of dollars of revenue they will offer billions for exclusive access to whatever content is deemed compelling (sports, Game of Thrones, HBO generally).
A la carte providers just can't compete in the exclusive bidding war yet and the value of exclusivity is worth more than the incremental revenue of a la carte sales. There will be a point at which cable penetration could be small enough that these effects change but it has a long way to fall before it gets there. In the UK Sky has massive amounts of top class exclusive content on under 50% household penetration and they are still growing and strengthening their position.
- tptacek 14y agoDo I have to concede that HBO and new a la carte content producers are in a bidding war? I don't follow this market that closely, but I follow it a bit, and the sense I get is that there's a threshold price at which any producer has a good shot at securing high-quality marketable content: good shows get cancelled, or never picked up at all, all the time.
- josephlord 14y agoQuite a lot of what we might regard as good content (with niche rather than mass appeal) could be helped by this but it won't free the big budget mega-hits any time soon.