The FreeTV Model Is Broken, Now Where Is the Fix?

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

Original Article Link

Perhaps they should instead focus on the broken system that drives their advertising rates:  The Nielsen Ratings!  While they mention the ratings in the article, they’re talking specifically about getting Nielsen Ratings for online videos, not about actually fixing Nielsen’s entire methodology.

Don’t even get me started on the issues inherent to statistics itself.

Here’s the issue:  As the music industry found out, you can’t hold onto a dying business model.  You need to change and keep up with the times or it will change in a direction you didn’t want or anticipate.  People used to work 9-5 (remember the song?), Monday through Friday.  Now, many people work 12 hour shifts, often the night shift, and also work weekends.  They bring laptops home to continue working.  They’re on call 24/7.  These people are NOT going to be told when they have to watch TV or that they have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials during their “1 hour” show.  Trying to force that on them will cause them to stop watching entirely.  Unless they come into my house, tie me to a chair, take the remote out of my hand, and put toothpicks in my eyelids to keep them open, I’m not watching commercials!

My solution for the Nielsen issue?  Put a meter on every STB sold by cable companies and satellite providers.  They can get the networks to subsidize the cost for next to nothing per box.  Anonymously report what everyone is watching.  If they want more demographics, let people opt IN to provide what demographics are present in the household.  Nothing more, nothing less.  You don’t need to know that someone’s Caucasian, 4 year old watches 5 episodes of Spongebob every day.  Then, give me a few dollars off my monthly bill for providing the extra info.  The networks want to make money?  Fine.  Guess what, though?  So do I!

My solution for the commercial skipping?  Product placement.  There are no other options.  Would it really be that difficult to have the main character of a TV show be “a Chevy guy” or “a Craftsman guy” or “a New York and Co. woman”.  (Okay, that last one might be a stretch.  I’m not female, so maybe it’d be a little more difficult for the female portion of this.  Feel free to chime in, ladies.)  Back to the guys, though, remember Home Improvement?  Imagine what Sears, Chevy, or Ford could’ve done with some serious money thrown towards the show.  In the early episodes, Tim was a frequent Sears shopper and the store was mentioned several times.

It’s just like politics.  The people “in charge” are so damned old, they have no new ideas and can’t relate to these new technologies and mindsets.  They simply can’t think out of the box.

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