Los Angeles Acting blog by David August: Let the Audience Buy from You or They'll Pirate from Others

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Let the Audience Buy from You or They'll Pirate from Others

For years it has been clear that the audience wants to watch what it wants to, where and when it wants to. Even some major media companies realized, back in 2009, that [t]raditional television viewing patterns are collapsing [and have collapsed by now]. Yet somehow, some are unwilling to let the audience give them their money (in the form of ad views).

You might remember that Fox just recently did away with next-day access on episodes of their shows streaming online. That move went into effect about a week ago, and already appears to have nearly doubled the piracy rate of Fox television shows. I’m guessing that wasn’t the outcome Fox was hoping for

(from Fox's 8-Day Window For Online Episodes Drastically Increases Piracy). Piracy is bad, and as an actor and producer I do not encourage it. However, any business that makes it hard for their customers to give them money is not doing things well. As iTunes showed eons ago, the audience will pay you if you let them.