Instapundit is musing over a New York Magazine article
that floats the idea of Joss Whedon offering subscriptions to a new
16-episode season of Firefly. The example given specificies one
million customers at $39.99 per subscription, which seems reasonable to
me. Whedon would then have $40 million to produce and distribute
16 episodes, which also seems doable, and subscribers could download
the episodes as they became available.
It seems inevitable that this model of programming distribution will
come to pass, and it seems equally likely that as a result,
niche-targeted programming will become common. There are, after
all, many television shows that earn good money but are cancelled
anyway by TV networks hoping to make a better return not just from
their financial investment but also from the opportunity cost of the
timeslot. A network can only put one show on the air at a time,
after all, so it wants to make sure that the most profitable possible show will be aired.
A good example of a profitable show meeting cancellation would be Cleopatra 2525, which was Sam Raimi's attempt to duplicate his Xena
success with a sci-fi program built on the same strongwoman
motif. The cast consisted of former bodybuilder Victoria
Pratt, amazonic actress Gina Torres (coincidentally also a star of
"Firefly") and athletic beauty Jennifer Sky. The program ran for
two seasons, but never equalled Xena's success. It strikes me
that just among Amaz0ns readers there'd be at least a few hundred who
would be willing, at some future date, to fork over $40 for a season's
worth of programming featuring a trio of physically powerful babes.
Our subculture tends to be a little tight with the wallet. Wreckshop had trouble getting enough people to contribute 6.95/mo. to keep his site going. 'Sides, someone is just gonna rip and burn the episode and post it for free elsewhere.
BTX
Lingster
-
Wallets
|
209.158.203.xxx
|
2005-11-30 21:22:40
I don't think that's true about us being cheap. What's more likely is that "our subculture" hides from "our" girlfriends and wives and friends and doesn't want to have to explain a credit card charge.
Nice thing about iPods is that they're much more personal than PCs. A guy downloads stuff to his iPod, the risk of someone else seeing it is much reduced.
