Free TV: Is the end nigh?
Submitted by debritz on November 20, 2008 - 20:52.
This article - revealing that most television revenue in the UK now comes from subscriptions rather than advertising - should send a shiver down the spine of commercial free-to-air TV executives. It presages a future where people will pay directly for the content they want and advertising revenue will just be the cream for broadcasters. Conversely, a lot of people are saying the opposite will eventually true of newspapers - that the paid-for papers will disappear in favour of the freesheets. I disagree; I think that people will pay for what they really want, be it a movie, a newspaper, a magazine, a TV series or even a radio broadcast. The challenge for the commercial media is, as always, to produce things people really want.
Brett, mind you, England
Brett, mind you, England still has television licence fees. In Australia it is completely different. We used to have fees for radio and TV, (which funded the ABC) but now the ABC is soley based on government funding.
My idea to drive digital takeup, is to reinstate a licence fee, only for analogue sets without digital TV accessories, with digital TV (whether it is a TV with a built-in digital tuner, PVR/digital TV cards for computers, TiVo or similar devices or just a simple digital set top box) being fee-free, and subscription television would be also asked to convert to digital, with the threat of the analogue phaseout "tax" being added to analogue subscribers fees.
The licence fee only
As a result, Brett, digital
As a result, Brett, digital takeup in this country would skyrocket. But what I said in that previous comment (but was never mentioned) that it was only hypothetical.
I honestly think, that any experiment with FreeView in Australia will end up like AM stereo radio did in the 80's, hyped dramaticly then quickly forgotten about by the audience and then eventually abandoned.
The problems facing Australia's free-to-air networks need massive investment. Not just studio upgrades and new transmitters, but in people. Take for instance Channel Ten Brisbane newsreader, Bill McDonald. He is someone who is simply underrated compared to his contempories, Paige and Young. When the storms hit this week, guess who decided to drop off for a family in The Gap who lost all their food, a lot of fresh groceries in the company car. (which ended up on Ten's bulletin) Not Paigey, not Kay, but Bill McDonald. Bill is what the industry needs now, someone who is smart to what people want, not what the bosses want.
Australian television needs more of a person-to-person feel in the digital age, than ever before.
You are right, but as
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