You have to wonder why it has taken this long, but Comcast is going to be experimenting shortly with offering cable content online, but to their paying subscribers only. In a deal with Time Warner (the programming arm, not Time Warner Cable), Comcast will be bringing Turner’s (a division of Time Warner, are we confused yet?) TBS and TNT to 5,000 customers who will access the channels on the web rather than on their televisions (where, presumably, they already have access to TBS and TNT).
Not like we can’t already find this programming online, albeit not directly from Turner or from Comcast, and usually in some sort of delayed fashion.
Be that as it may, this is a nod by Comcast to the requests of their users, who want to consume more content online. The burden at this point is on Comcast to come up with a viable authenticated log-in process, which apparently is where they’ve been stuck before. They don’t want to offer this to just anyone, as this goes against their current “you must pay” business model.
I have to wonder, however, when broadcast and cable channels will get to the point where the advertising in shows is enough. Presumably, shows are making money on television. I watch shows on Hulu (and other sites) all the time. Shows on Hulu often contain advertising, which I assume is how they are making their money. There is no reason this same model could not become the New Way of doing television business. I do not believe my monthly satellite bill is paying for programming; that check I send every month is going to pay for infrastructure, maintenance, and salaries of those that are running the service. The shows themselves are supported through the advertising that shows up every 12 minutes during a broadcast presentation. In my mind, cable and satellite companies are no different than ISP’s; they are providing a pipe, and nothing more. We aren’t paying for television, we are paying for the pipe that brings us the television.
So what’s the difference if a show, complete with commercials, airs on the Internet the same as it airs on television? If the commercials are actually the revenue for the shows (and that’s my understanding of the system), then what difference does it make where we consume it, television or web?
In some ways, this move by Comcast is too little too late, and going down a path that is going nowhere. Just put the programming online already, and let us consume it as we want.