I'll agree that Reveal is being rude, and I'll also agree with him just to confuse the issue.
If I'm a network executive, what this article tells me is that a bunch of computer geeks like this show. That's wonderful, but the problem with computer geeks is that, by and large, they're on the front of the tech evolution. And that means that the big point currently arguing in favor of buying this show is also the point telling me (and any potential advertiser that might come a'calling) that this audience is going to have a high percentage of people watching it online, on their TIvo, on their satellite digital recorder, on something that lets them skip commercials.
I could be completely and totally wrong in my thinking, and I'd welcome anybody with an inside view of the television industry to correct me. But my understanding was that this is becoming a bigger deal -- the notion that yeah, having 9 million people watching our show is great, but if 7 million of them fast-forward through the commercials, and our advertisers hear about that, it's gonna be a problem. This starts to become a reason to pass on shows that you think are going to only appeal to the tech-geek crowd -- at least, until advertisers succumb to the inevitable and start taking ads to the next step.
No idea what the next step might include. Could just be a little Nike logo in the corner of the screen for the entire episode of Alias. Could be Evangeline Lilly pausing in the middle of Lost to say, "You know what I miss? Dr. Pepper. I would just kill for a nice tall glass of Dr. Pepper. That was always my favorite drink. Jack might be the doctor I want, but Dr. Pepper is the doctor I NEED." Could be a 30-second Mazda commercial that fires up every time I hit "Play" to watch CSI, unless I pay my satellite company an extra fee for the Premium No Ad package.
Regardless of what it is, though, until that time, shows whose biggest presence are represented by Internet downloads are going to be a tough sell, I think. You're not the customer when you watch television, although you might think you are. You're the product. The advertisers are the customers. And a product that doesn't work -- that usually fast-forwards or digitally edits out the commercials -- is a product that few customers are going to want to buy.
(And yes, it's more complex than that -- the audience is the customer to an extent, because they can leave if they don't like it, so the network is trying to sell to two groups simultaneously in a delicate balancing act. It has to have enough ads to keep the advertisers happy, but not so many that the audience goes away, because when the audience goes away, the advertisers go away as well. Actually, it's kind of like running a plant-herbivore-carnivore web simulation. The networks are the grassy plains, the audience is the grazing herd animals that also keep the grassland healthy, and the advertisers are the roaming hyenas that prey on herd animals. If the grassland stinks, the herd animals go elsewhere, and the hyenas follow them. If the hyenas show up too often, the herd animals go elsewhere, and then the hyenas follow them. If the herd animals have learned to avoid the hyenas while still getting the grass, they eventually kill the grassland by overeating, and the ticked-off hyenas don't bother heading over to that particular grassland anymore.
Okay, it's a strained metaphor at best. But come on. Marketing hyenas. You gotta love that.)
