Media Economics Posted: April 12th, 2014
1. What aspects of the pay TV program network business model make it superior (i.e., more profitable) to any of the other media segments (newspaper, radio, print)? If you were CEO of a widely distributed domestic pay TV network, what issues would most concern you in a generally good business environment?
2. Sports programming’s high value is due to its reality-like programming (uncertain outcomes) and its resistance to DVR time-shifting (and ad-skipping). But sports is also most responsible for rising pay TV bills for consumers and is therefore capable of destroying the lucrative pay TV ecosystem as cable/satellite bills rise and subscribers cut or shave the cord. If you were CEO of a cable or satellite distribution company what would you do to attempt to tame sports programming inflation and preserve the program bundle that has existed so successfully throughout the industry’s history? Or might it make more business sense to try to bust the bundle and pursue a world of a la carte programming?
3. What is a film release window and why does it exist? Discuss window compression how you see it evolving and who is resisting it most.
4. Explain as best you can the puzzling phenomenon in music streaming that has the two unprofitable industry leaders (Pandora and Spotify) paying out 60%-70% of total revenues to rights holders as content acquisition costs yet the rights holders seem to be unsatisfied with the current arrangement. How do you see this situation evolving over the next several years?