Preville on Politics

Our pay-per-view future

Posted on July 4, 2007 by Philip Preville

News for media junkies: Today’s Statscan Daily reports that television had a banner year for advertising revenues in 2006. Two salient tidbits. One, the post-lockout return of the NHL has swollen the CBC’s coffers. Two, the pay-per-view segment of the industry produced the highest revenue growth and the most swollen profit margins. It took a quarter century, but pay-TV has finally caught on, so expect broadcasters to find more ways to make you pay. If only those blasted video-on-request menus weren’t so bloody slow and difficult to navigate. Attention cable and satellite companies: the first of you to integrate a search function into your service, allowing subscribers like me to find titles quickly, wins.

Comments

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Hank July 4, 2007 at 3:49 p.m.

While this clearly has nothing to do with politics, but I think pay-tv's huge profit margins are going to be short lived as the ability to access online content, free online content, continues to increase at such an astronomical pace. While quality might vary at times online, it is reasonable to assume that free movies in front of the computer will definitely cut into the profit margins of the on-demand...even if someone creates a search feature. (Which of course already exists on every internet site where movies can be watched)

William Johnson July 17, 2007 at 3:44 p.m.

Philip, for a book I'm writing, I'd like to talk to you. Can you send me by email your phone number? My email is: wjohnson@videotron.ca

Thanks.

WJ


Author Bio Pic

Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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