Here’s an interesting idea. Mark Pesce did the math back in 2005 and found that for the price of one (of many) ad spots on popular tv programs, an advertiser could actually buy the whole episode and distribute it themselves. This would mean that they got the sole ad spot, and they could brand it however they please, like putting a “bug” (like tv channels put their logo in a corner) with their intended message somewhere in the program, for the duration of the show. That would be much more efficient for advertisers, who would get a lot more attention, but it would also be advantageous for the viewer, because then the advertiser could distribute it over the internet, making it available instantly and freely to viewers. (In fact, viewers wouldn’t be doing anything different from what they do now, except it would be legal, and they could be certain that the producers of the show made something off their viewing it.)
Everyone wins. Except the tv networks that live on being middlemen for this kind of transaction between producers and advertisers, of course. These networks would still live on for live events, Pesce contends, but they wouldn’t make much off programs that don’t happen live. This lecture is from 2005, and the idea hasn’t exactly caught on, but one can wish.
