A column in the Guardian takes a look at two extremes of the emerging Internet TV market— youth-centric Mania TV and the U.K.’s BBC, whose first online broadcast offering consisted of Beethoven symphonies.
Regarding the economics of Mania TV:
All this has to be paid for, of course, but a good proportion of the shows are generated by users. And advertisers seeking to attract the elusive youth audience are starting to pop up on the site. Recent ads include several from big corporates such as Vodafone and upmarket clothing label Abercrombie & Fitch…In the future, Mania may charge for downloads, or up advertising rates as its audience grows. Crucially, its cost-base is low, so there is little need to.
As to the BBC’s efforts to develop a viable model for online distribution:
When the BBC placed Beethoven symphonies on-line, it was a huge success, but many of the 1.4 million people taking advantage of the offer were American, and the BBC’s internet sites are also used extensively in other countries. It costs licence money to stream content online, although the price is falling all the time, and negotiations over contract rights are delicate.
The corporation is working on technology that allows it to determine users’ country of origin, and it is likely to announce a change in policy before the end of the year. The logic is simple enough: why should British licence-fee payers pay for foreign nationals to download British TV and radio programmes?
The BBC won’t comment on the plans, but it is understood that, initially at least, it will seek to block access to its websites from overseas. Until recently, that was difficult, because there was a risk that, in doing so, some domestic users would be accidentally barred. Those problems have been ironed out, and charging a small fee has not been ruled out in the longer term.
Mitch Shapiro at 12:43 PM|Comments(0)
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