Akkam’s Razor

It occured to me while thinking about how the death of Suprnova was going to affect my off-schedule TIVO-less TV viewing, that the broadcasts networks are missing a tremendous opportunity to get some more utility out of their programming. Instead of waiting until the end of the season to package up a show as a DVD (and absorbing the expense of creating, manufacturing, advertising, and distributing) box set, why not have them available “on-demand”. You could also show some time-restricted programming (live events, sports, news) at the users convenience. Also, each network could charge a subscription fee (I’m thinking a $1/month) or $5 for ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/WB/UPN. The smarter thing to do is to use the on-demand viewing info (since only true fans will make it a point to see shows by requesting them on demand), they can better illustrate (and increase) their worth and ability to generate advertising revenue.