Why Internet Syndication is Important (and so awesome for TV nerds like me)
PC World has this interesting tidbit:
“A tectonic shift has taken place for the digital age: ad rates for popular shows like The Simpsons and CSI are higher online than they are on prime-time TV. If a company wants to run ads alongside an episode of The Simpsons on Hulu or TV.com it will cost the advertiser about $60 per thousand viewers, according to Bloomberg. On prime-time TV that same ad will cost somewhere between $20 and $40 per thousand viewers.”
Which makes me wonder why the companies who hold highly syndicated properties (Simpsons obviously, but also shows like Seinfeld, Friends, et al) haven’t been rushing to host their episodes on the internet – and hopefully, with this PC World report – they will.
The magic of these favorite shows is that certain moments live in our head – and when we think “Man, I’d love to see the Radioactive Man movie episode again”, thanks to the internet, we now can
As it is, me and the boyfriend, whenever we have the craving for Simpsons, we don’t turn on the local TV – we go to Watch The Simpsons Online – a fan effort that hosts most every Simpsons episode ever made. Free and immediate, any episode we want to watch, we can. Oh, how digital media spoils us!
The massive syndication of The Simpsons on regular TV since the mid 90s onward have resulted in us being very used to seeing Simpsons almost whenever we want. So we’re not necessarily going to go out and buy the DVD sets – but, put HQ versions on the net with commercials? Yeah, I think most of us will totally do that.
Regarding the Simpsons specifically, its sad that Fox isn’t more aggressive in putting these shows online. Hulu.com is only hosting 5 full-length episodes currently.
As usual, the fans have beat them to the punch, and people can now watch the episodes free online, without any commercials. Media companies need to get their heads out of their asses and embrace on-demand internet video – for if you give us free content EASILY, we shall embrace your advertisements. Let me watch The Rear Window parody on the Simpsons, and I’ll probably buy your shampoo, too.
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