This is it exactly.Phil wrote: ↑29 Jan 2019, 14:21I look forward to see how the industry develops if everyone adopts a “pay to view” philosophy.
Free television was brilliant because, like the internet, it allows everyone to tune in and watch unconditionally. Some people tuned in, liked what they saw and became fans. Some told their friends about it, and they too became fans.
Pay to view is the opposite of that. People not sure or who dont know, wont pay to find out. Only people who know what they get, end up signing up and paying.
You end up with a smaller viewing platform. This is bad for companies who are sponsors and only care about screen time and reaching as many people as possible. They’d rather have millions watching, rather than a few hundreth-thousand paying Sky viewers.
A group of my apprentices were talking about it (waaay back) and disagreeing with one of the others, saying they had no interest in 'watching cars go round in circles' and preferred to watch rally.
We both said more or less, that the race was just the focal point, the ethos was, as we do here, the background and prep, so slowly they (mostly) took an interest.
They would not have paid to find out, and would have been lost as 'consumers'