Originally published December 3 2005
CBS and NBC offer ad-free TV for 99 cents per show
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
CBS and NBC have agreed to let Comcast and DirecTV customers pay 99 cents to watch some hit shows without commercials. Customers can watch the show as many times as they want for 24 hours.
CBS and NBC delivered another hammer blow to the traditional TV economic model on Monday by agreeing to let some Comcast and DirecTV customers pay 99 cents to watch certain hit shows on demand and without local ads.
A scene from 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,' which Comcast subscribers can see ad-free for 99 cents.
Viacom's CBS struck a deal with Comcast that will make new episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race available to viewers who subscribe to its extra-cost digital service and live in markets served by network-owned CBS stations.
Dramas will be available only until the next new episode airs, but viewers with digital video recorders (DVR) can save copies.
He says the video-on-demand (VOD) showings offer "an additional revenue stream without affecting the mother lode" from advertising.
NBC Universal reached similar terms enabling DirecTV to offer new episodes of Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: CI, The Office, Monk, Surface and Battlestar Galactica.
Hours after they initially air, DirecTV will transmit them to the hard drive in homes that have receivers with the new DirecTV Plus DVR, which the company says will hit the shelves this week.
The decision to charge 99 cents "wasn't scientific," he adds.
"It's low enough to attract viewers, and it felt like an amount that's in balance" with payments for movies and other VOD programming.
If the split mimics most VOD deals --- programmers and distributors sharing proceeds equally --- it should pay off for the networks, even if some viewers skip the regularly scheduled airing and pay to watch an ad-free version.
That's because advertisers pay the equivalent of about 36 cents an hour per prime-time viewer, CBS research chief David Poltrack calculated last year.
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