A Bloomberg news report on AdAge has this quote from NBC Sports Chairman on why airing the Olympics live sucks balls (I assume those are his words):
>”It’s undeniable we hurt our ratings by doing that,” Mr. Lazarus said in a phone interview. “We have to balance what we’re trying to do for viewers across the country and our business model.”
Holy crap. What exactly are you *trying* to do for your users? Milk them for more ad views and money? *Crickets*
The sick thing about cable television is that not only do users have to:
1. Pay for the service.
2. Put up with crappy cable companies.
3. Buy expensive TV hardware.
But in addition to putting out all those expenses, users also have to watch ads. And if you get around the ads, you must then put up with ridiculously obvious product placement (ever seen a TV show character make a stupid comment about how awesome some lame Toyota is, makes me want to punch something). How is any of this doing anything for users — the entire cable TV industry is user hostile.
Here’s an idea: let me buy the TV shows a la carte on my Apple TV — the same day the show airs. I pay you for what I want, you get a clear indication of what TV shows are crap, no one pays Comcast.
Together we rid the world of the Kardashians, commercials, and product placement. Hell we may even make Comcast into a company that realizes their users *are* important ((Yeah, right.)) .