The Wall Street Journal reports in its Tuesday edition that NBC and CBS have struck video on demand deals with cable and satellite TV providers to allow the replay of some of the most popular prime time television shows for a fee of 99 cents. This will allow the subscribers to Comcast Digital Cable and DirecTV who do not own DVRs to time shift their television viewing to some extent.
According to the article:
The distribution deals will allow viewers to order episodes of some prime-time shows — including hits like “Survivor” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” — for 99 cents apiece. CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc., made its deal with cable company Comcast Corp., while General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal set its pact with News Corp.’s DirecTV, a satellite TV provider.
I think this is a pretty bold move on the part of network executives. They have done what they could to force their audiences to reserve time at night to watch popular programs on the networks’ schedules. This policy continued through the beginning of the Digital Video Recorder era, but now they appear to have realized that they need to alter their strategy and maximize their revenue before the majority of digital TV subscribers convert to set top boxes that allow them to record programming for free.
It will be quite interesting to see if this move results in a change in the rate of adoption of DVRs. Will $0.99-per-episode video on demand of the most popular prime time programs be a good enough deal for some subscribers who haven’t already brought a DVR into their homes?
Another interesting tidbit contained in the Wall Street Journal article is that Bob Wright, CEO of NBC Universal is reported to have said that his company is “very close” to working out a deal with Apple to provide content for the new video iPod as well. [ Subscription required to read many articles in The Wall Street Journal ]
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