Watch Out: TV Is Tinkering With Its Business Model
from the look-who's-adapting dept
Like the recording industry, the people over in TV land have been in deep denial about the future of their business. Mostly they've been whining about all the money they've been "losing" to ad skipping, which they've actually tried to make illegal. But some Hollywood types might be wising up. A startup called Delivery Agent is working with networks and studios to sell products seen in TV shows, both as a consignment agent (fancy purses used on Will & Grace) and e-commerce vendor (Crest white strips promoted on Queer Eye). Digital Agent recently nabbed $5 million in funding to sign up more shows, which pay the company to establish websites and other methods for hawking their merchandise. There are some questions about the Digital Agent approach, namely that its services seem to overlap with those that networks can (and sometimes already) do themselves. But it is encouraging to see them at least experimenting with a new business model that doesn't solely rely on commercials -- or forcing people to watch them.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This is nothing new
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This is nothing new
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
imitates
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In a few years will television be nothing but info
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Soaps
I've seen some soaps do this already. At the end of the show they'll have a quick commercial explaining how you can buy a characters jewlry, for example.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]