This following article in today’s Wall Street Journal raises the larger question about the sustainability of television’s current model. Program production is funded by ad dollars but as networks’ ability to deliver impressions diminishes, it’s likely that all networks will move to subscription-based models to generate the revenues necessary to produce shows. In the case of Dish Networks Auto Hop, discussed in the article, I do think an extremely good argument can be made for an increase in retransmission fees to the networks. Revenues have to come from somewhere…and when one source dries up through alternative delivery channel demand, the broadcaster can reasonably command a higher price to satisfy that demand.
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