Broadcasters Afraid of Dying Like Newspapers – Yet some have decided to act just like them…

31 Mar 2009

It has been interesting to watch cable industry executives talk about online video lately, few really understanding that broadband and piracy have changed video forever, and that there’s no stuffing the genie back in the bottle. Some execs, like Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, seem to think they can simply take the existing business model (with its bi-annual rate hikes) and move it online. While that idea has its flaws, Rainbow Media CEO Josh Sapan goes one step further, believing that if he digs in his heels, the threat from online video will simply disappear. From Multichannel News:

“If everyone engages in putting cable TV shows on the Web shortly after they air on cable television, they’re doing nothing other than creating what I would call very bad habits. They’re bad for the health of the industry. . .” Sapan said consumers won’t see episodes of AMC’s Emmy Award-winning drama Mad Men or shows from other Rainbow-owned cable networks online. . .because he said such actions will eventually undercut the healthy advertiser/affiliate-fee dual revenue stream that networks enjoy and use to make the programming that he says has ushered in a new “golden era” of television over the past decade.

Of course Sapan sees a future where cable and broadcasters become less relevant like print newspaper, as content becomes free (or cheaper), and competitors spring up from behind every bush. Ironically though, clinging to the old model and grumbling instead of adapting is precisely why many newspapers went under. Perhaps Sapan’s successor will understand that and help usher the cable and broadcast industry into the “platinum era” of television?
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