Word: cbs
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...movie and CBS's Pope John Paul II (Dec. 4, 9 p.m. E.T., and Dec. 7, 8 p.m. E.T.) cover the same birth-to-death span: his youth in Poland, his resistance first against the Nazis and then the communists, his rise to world leader. But they bring out different sides of his personality. Have No Fear's Wojtyla (Thomas Kretschmann) is starchy and principled, more a paragon than a person. CBS's mini-series presents a soft-focus, avuncular Wojtyla, dividing the role in two: the young priest (Cary Elwes) is a jocular guy who talks sex (within marriage...
...network TV are loosening their hairnets and offering viewers vending machines and takeout. In October, the Walt Disney Co., the parent company of the ABC network, cut a deal with iTunes to sell episodes of shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives for $1.99 apiece. A few weeks later CBS and NBC Universal struck deals to sell shows, hours after their airing, via video on demand (VOD) for 99¢ a pop from cable company Comcast and satellite company DirecTV, respectively. (The CBS service debuts in January; NBC's, early next year...
...would people pay to watch shows they can get for free? For the same reasons, networks hope, that they buy DVDs of shows: convenience, instant gratification and the ability to skip ads. (CBS's offerings have commercials, though viewers can skip them; NBC's and ABC's do not.) Considering what big business DVDs have become, this could mean a big shift in how TV is watched and paid for. "Over the next five years," says NBC Universal Television Group president Jeff Zucker, "the world is going to change. Broadcast television will remain an incredibly important vehicle in society...
...change in a business model, these new distribution formats could create big losers if they're widely embraced. Local affiliate stations are nervous. Since they sell ads on network shows, they worry that viewers will choose to buy shows rather than watch them on-air. To sidestep potential complaints, CBS has decided to sell its shows for now only in markets where it owns the local CBS station. "Some [affiliates] feel that we're wrong and that it may cannibalize the network," says CBS executive vice president Martin Franks. "We're convinced it extends and reinforces the network...
Bernoff says the new formats could include ads, as CBS's do. Video clips at websites like MTV's and CNN's, he notes, include spots that sell for a higher rate per viewer than TV equivalents. And selling shows could diversify the revenue streams of a business that's almost wholly dependent on Madison Avenue--which, with more viewers using digital video recorders like TiVo to skip commercials, is already threatening to pull money from TV and put it into other media...