I'm really hoping this works. Partially because I'm a Netflix subscriber, but mostly because I want HBO, AMC, and Showtime to follow suit eventually. If Netflix shows that they can support a high-profile show with a subscription model, maybe non-cable subscribers can eventually get HBO. Or am I just dreaming?
You wouldn't? I totally would. Seems like a cable package that includes premium content (HBO, etc.) runs at least $100 per month. If I could ditch the cable and instead get 11 HBO-quality content providers (which is much better than I get from cable), that would be a no-brainer. More likely, I would get half as many, and end up with more solid content than I have time to watch, for much less money.
I want to pay for content, not brands. This is just a different version of the problem we have with cable. You're forgetting that most of the content HBO, Showtime, etc. show is not original content, and it overlaps with each other (and Netflix, and Amazon Prime), so you'd be paying for the same content many times over.
No, I don't think I'm forgetting that. Netflix is talking about doing five original scripted series per year. HBO does... seven or eight, maybe? (Off the top of my head from the last year, Game of Thrones, Girls, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Newsroom, and Treme; that list isn't complete). That content is all not only original but, at least initially, exclusive. Showtime is at about the same level of volume, so this isn't unique.
You're right that in terms of a fraction of hours of content per month, most of what they show is not first-run original content, but I don't watch TV 24 hours a day, so I don't care. Like I said, if I got that amount of original content from four or five different providers (let alone 10), that would be more television than I have time to watch. The fact that they mostly show movie reruns is immaterial.
Why should you care who makes Game of Thrones? Isn't that immaterial to you as a consumer; you just want to watch Game of Thrones, right? Why must we choose certain producers of content and not just choose the content? If shows were more competitively priced, say .99 for rentals, 9.99 for season passes, this would all be a non-issue.
Maybe, maybe not. What's interesting about the HBO/Showtime/etc. model is that it specifically encourages programming diversity, as the original article discusses at least a bit. Many people are willing to pay the surplus on their cable bill just to follow their one or two favorite shows, and few of the audience watches all eight (or however many). What this means is that whereas when a network adds a new show, they're trying to maximize its viewership on its own to maximize ad revenue, HBO only cares about adding new viewers that aren't already a part of their audience -- if a new show is only of interest to people already in the target demographic of an existing show and, therefore, probably already subscribers, nobody new will subscribe and the show won't pay for itself. As an audience member of their content, then, you're not expected to watch all of the shows, but you get the opportunity to watch a few that are probably more-narrowly-tailored to your interests than would be expected of network programming.
So yes, I would like to just be able to buy Game of Thrones, but I'd also, personally, like to be able to just buy Deadwood or (on Showtime) Queer as Folk, and I think if every show had to justify itself to network executives on raw viewership numbers instead of on audience-broadening power, those shows would never get made; their audiences are too niche compared to their production costs. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to see at least some content that's not aimed primarily at 18-35-year-old straight men.
Of course, this is the kind of reasoning that justifies 100-channel cable packages instead of a-la-carte cable channels, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. But I think the expectation that a-la-carte show purchasing could really work, economically, is probably not realistic (and this without even getting into the issue that it'd be tough to pay for a $75-million Game of Thrones season at a dollar an episode).
Dish Network starts at $50/mo plus $18 for HBO. Once you start adding up streaming subscriptions and season passes to fill in the gaps, you're looking at a similar price.
