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I cut the cable about three years ago and I just subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. I'm also happy to spend $1.87 per episode for Breaking Bad. I don
by jstalin 13y ago
I cut the cable about three years ago and I just subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. I'm also happy to spend $1.87 per episode for Breaking Bad. I don't miss cable one bit.
- Amadou 13y agoI'm also happy to spend $1.87 per episode for Breaking Bad Compared to what they earn from regular viewers - subscription fees and commercials - that pricing is nuts.
- bryanlarsen 13y agoAccording to the article, they make about 0.35 cents per month from subscribers. Given 13 episodes per year, and a 30% commission that's $4.20 vs $17. I suspect that much less than 25% of AMC subscribers watch Breaking Bad given how bundling works so it can be argued that they're making more money from subscribers than from people buying on iTunes.
- axelf 13y agoyou're not factoring in the advertising money they're missing out on with digital downloads.
- bryanlarsen 13y agoThe article mentions subscription revenue is substantially larger than advertising revenue.
- Amadou 13y ago13 episodes is 3 months. So that $4.20 is really closer to $1. Bump it to $1.50 as a generous amount for advertising. Apply your 25% modifier and you are still at $5/season or 38c/episode.
- betenoire 13y agoNuts? For being high or low?
- jstalin 13y agoI'm happy to pay for quality content while filtering out all the jibberish I would otherwise get by watching it on cable TV. And I don't have to pay the $100+ per month that Comcast jacked me up to with fees, equipment, and constantly increasing monthly subscription costs, which would always go up without explanation or warning.
- jonnathanson 13y ago+1 For those of us who are picky about our content choices -- and especially those of us who don't really give a crap about sports -- cutting cable makes a lot of sense. I wish cable providers offered a lower-cost option with no sports package, but sadly, that's the bread and butter of the entire cable TV business model. So I'm stuck paying largely for content I don't consume. Bundling is a raw deal for those of us who don't care about the bulk of the bundle. (To say nothing of the silly equipment costs, etc.).
- pionar 13y agoIt's a raw deal for the cable companies, too. They'd rather do an a la carte format, but the networks bundle themselves. It's like this, ABC, which owns ESPN (one of the most watched TV networks) says that if you want to carry ESPN, you have to carry ABC Family, and ESPN 3, etc.
- aestra 13y agoCable companies do offer a low cost bare bones option. It is called "basic cable." It's a few bucks a month (around 10-15ish) and when I had it, it was about the first 15-20 or so channels. http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/support/faqs/faqs-tv/basictvservice/what-is-time-warner-cables-basic-tv-service.html http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/support/f...
- jonnathanson 13y agoYeah, the problem with basic cable is that you get only the basic cable channels. There is no great way to sever, say, HBO and Showtime from ESPN-XYZ, etc.
- bcgraham 13y agoJust for some solid numbers: Breaking Bad costs ~$3m/ep to produce. They normally pull around 3m viewers; this week's premiere pulled 5.9m viewers.
- papercrane 13y agoSyndication would probably factor in as well.
- Hinrik 13y agoBut... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes
- Amadou 13y agoThey pull 3 million viewers for the first showing in the US. Then there are all the catch-up viewings later in the week plus the showings in foreign markets. I don't know if BB will be syndicated, usually takes around 100 episodes before a series can be syndicated, but it is definitely sold on bluray and DVD.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- tedsanders 13y agoHow is it nuts? Most customers pay them much less, but most customers don't watch the show. It's the fundamental tradeoff behind bundling.
- chrischen 13y agoThey earn 33 cents for every single cable and satellite subscriber regardless of if they watch the show.
- TheCondor 13y agoThat's 33 cents for ALL of AMC, not just Breaking Bad. That's mad men, he'll on wheels, walking dead and the old movies. And they sell discs. And the sell in iTunes. And they get paid by Netflix, hulu, and amazon. I hope it continues to work out, I tend to enjoy just about all of their original content and they seem to be hungry enough to not just do the lowest common denominator thing. Probably not as big as hbo but give them some time.
- logn 13y agoI watch TV shows by the season, in one sitting often times. So shelling out $70 for the box set of discs is terrible. Netflix is my kind of product, but I'm still waiting for the next season of Walking Dead. Can they just stop delaying it so long?