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Message: [QUOTE="Phillymoose, post: 642769, member: 254"] The content distributers make money in 2 ways... distribution (e.g. subscription) and advertising. These two things are inter-dependent. Advertising dollars are driven by eyeballs, and then premiums are derived from the ability to hit targeted or focussed demo/psycho- graphics. So if I am AMC - and I am a cable company that distributes AMC, the fact that it has great viewership (because it invests heavily in programming) drives advertising revenue for both parties. The subscription is the gate. If the content owner/creator (e.g. AMC and ESPN) have great content, then it is net positive on the advertising side for the cable company to carry the programming. This should be the base model on which programming value is calculated, which would actually mean the price a channel with really premium programming such as ESPN should actually be LOWER - driving it to be more widely distributed - allowing ad revenues to increase. However - the model is completely screwed up because of legacy and anachronistic approaches - including bundling, that allow absurdities to occur. (And before Millhouse has a meltdown, I will say that there is nothing wrong with bundling per se - it has a place, but based on true market forces - not what is out there today.) We have no better example of such an absurdity than looking at the B1G network and how it impacted re-alignment and Rutgers. People can explain it left and right, but at the end of the day, we are left with a decision that was not driven by demand or even market forces. It was driven by legacy, anachronistic business practices in the cable TV industry. I would love to argue this point.. In media, the more popular something is - and the more widely distributed it is - the more money it will make on its own. How in the world did ABC and NBC survive for all those years while being distributed ABSOLUTELY FOR FREE? And, if they made shows as good as Madmen and Breaking Bad - they still make a lot of money. Mega-disruption has just begun in this space. I don't pretend to know how it will end, but (as this thread began), I'd be shocked of some of the blatant absurdities stood the test of time and market., [/QUOTE]

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