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>If the SodaStream product is a better “soda idea” than Coke and Pepsi, then shouldn’t it be given a fair shot within any medium it decides to risk its dollars?
by Groxx 14y ago
>If the SodaStream product is a better “soda idea” than Coke and Pepsi, then shouldn’t it be given a fair shot within any medium it decides to risk its dollars?
On a private network? No.
- wpietri 14y agoThey are a private network running on public airwaves. That spends millions on trying to buy legislation, including things like SOPA and PIPA. They are showing the Superbowl, and the NFL has a special antitrust exemption. Given all that, I don't have any particular problem mandating that they run a fair advertising market.
- lostlogin 14y agoI might be misunderstanding you, but what is fair here? If I was Coke spending many millions per year with CBS then in a prime spot an advert was played which made CBS a tiny fraction of what I had spent appeared and made fun of my company, if be calling foul. At a bare minimum I'd be calling for some heavily discounted advertising.
- wpietri 14y agoIn this case I believe a fair market is the fair situation. That is, CBS would sell the advertising without special favor. I agree that people with privilege get all cranky when upstarts challenge them. And so Coke might cry "unfair!" when somebody with 1/100th of their marketing budget outmaneuvers them. To which I say: boo hoo! Marketplaces exist for the benefit of consumers, not producers.
- lostlogin 14y agoPlaying the devils advocate here as I agree with you: What if Coke walks away from CBS - it wouldn't be very fair from the perspective of CBS as they applied the same rules to everyone, and a lost a massive customer. CBS probably doesn't care what consumers think, CBS are effectively dumb pipes, and can charge through the nose for their service.
- wpietri 14y agoInteresting point. I think that's only a problem if the different TV networks had different standards. If the fair-market setup comes about because the FCC says that anybody who takes broadcast or cable ads has to sell air time fairly, then Coke won't have any incentive to leave CBS for somebody else.
- lostlogin 14y agoAhh, being a non-US person I am now getting it. I imagine there is something similar for us here when stations were sold frequencies.