Pay radio: Georges Santayana, call your office

[thatcrazycajun]

BusinessWeek Online reports that the XM and Sirius satellite radio services, staring down the barrel of massive loss projections at least the next couple of years out due to (to paraphrase Robin Williams as the Genie in Disney's ALADDIN) incredible cosmic expenditures for programs and talent and a teeeeeeny-tiny subscriber base, are now starting to add on-air commercials to some of their channels. They are doing this chiefly at the insistent demand (backed by legal action) of the largest sat-radio content provider, Clear Channel, the radio industry's 800-ton gorilla (not "800-pound," but "800-TON" -- that's how big they are and how much clout they wield in these days of media consolidation), to be allowed to sell ad time on the satellite shows it produces.

The article is here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060413_150389.htm

I know I can't be the only one who remembers the early days of cable television, way back in the late 1960s to early '70s. Back in the day, one of cable's major selling points was that subscribers, in return for (quite literally) buying into the then-outrageous notion of paying a monthly fee for their TV programming, would get, in addition to the standard over-the-air local channels, a host of extra ones blissfully free of commercials. Now, several decades later, the cable universe has expanded exponentially...and commercials flood every single channel, with the exception of "premium" ones like the HBO and Showtime metastases (for which subscribers must pony up still more $$$) and a few ad-less basic-tier bones they throw us like Turner Classic Movies and the C-SPAN twins. As our monthly fee continues increasing (ever notice how those economies-of-scale savings cable carriers always promise us whenever they want to gobble up a competitor never seem to trickle down to us lowly subscribers?), we must suffer ads ranging from in-show animated promos (am I the only one who hates those?) to 15-second "bumpers" to full-hour infomercials.

Although I will probably never become a sat-radio subscriber (I don't listen to all that much free radio as it is), I agree with the first reader post below the article: It's time for satellite subscribers to start looking for their pitchforks and lighting their torches. And past time for cable-TV subscribers to do likewise. Like the man said, "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." (And pay through the nose while doing so.)

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

in-show animated promos (am I the only one who hates those?)

Nope. We rail at them every time they appear onscreen. Especially the ones that take 1/3 of the screen, blocking out something critical to the actual show at that point.

Superimposed in-show animated promos

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like the opening credits showing who actually is doing the acting, directing or writing in an episode. I suppose I should be glad they don't cover the captions, which would REALLY cheese me off, being a hard-of-hearing person.