They Get It

Another story last week that caught my eye was the announcement by CBS and NBC that they will offer some of their programming on-demand through Comcast and DirecTV. For a small fee consumers can watch their favorite program from these networks when they want. Premium cable channels like HBO and Starz have been providing some of their programming on-demand to subscribers for almost a year. ABC offers their hit shows for $1.99 per viewing on iPods through Apple’s iTunes. The networks and cable companies get it. Instead of restricting content ownership, the networks are offering their customers the opportunity to view their programming when they want to view it and on devices they want to view them. They are not threatening customers and disabling their computing devices with malware like the recording industry. They are providing them what they want and making more money doing it. The recording industry wants to control the entire music industry. Recording industry executives should take cue from their television counterparts and embrace this new medium for content and distribution; not fight it.

Tag: on-demand, TV, cable