{"id":1284,"date":"2014-05-06T16:16:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T23:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2014-05-06T18:14:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T01:14:32","slug":"we-switched-round-and-round-til-half-past-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/we-switched-round-and-round-til-half-past-dawn\/","title":{"rendered":"We switched ’round and ’round ’til half-past dawn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Zero<\/a>

From the National Archives and Records Administration, and Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

A new report<\/a> from the Nielson company:<\/p>\n

\n

According to Nielsen\u2019s forthcoming Advertising & Audiences Report, the average U.S. TV home now receives 189 TV channels\u2014a record high and significant jump since 2008, when the average home received 129 channels. Despite this increase, however, consumers have consistently tuned in to an average of just 17 channels.<\/p>\n

This data is significant in that it substantiates the notion that more content does not necessarily equate to more channel consumption. And that means quality is imperative\u2014for both content creators and advertisers. So the best way to reach consumers in a world with myriad options is to be the best option.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think we should find the first claim surprising. Online sales have greatly increased the amount of music and books available to consumers, but I would not expect that as a result individuals have, as a result, become more omnivorous in their purchases across genres. And television channels are, essentially, like genres – news, sports, children’s programming, drama, etc. A greater number of channels exclusively devoted to sports will not have any impact on people who are just not that interested in sports.<\/p>\n

The second claim seems rather obvious: with lots of competition all available for free at the click of the remote, you had best have high quality to attract viewers.<\/p>\n

A third issue (and the subject of my very first post<\/a> for this blog), likely to arise as a result of this study, is “if it remains the case that most households only watch a handful of channels, why are they paying for, on average, 189 channels?” Does this result bolster the case for “a la carte” channel licenses? I don’t think so. Cable or satellite providers can offer extra channels to customers at virtually zero marginal cost once the connection and contract for service have been made. A standard result of two-part pricing is that it is best to sell individual channels at marginal cost (i.e. zero) while charging an “entry” fee based on consumer demand given the available bundle of channels. Thus, I pay for all of the New Yorker<\/em>‘s content with my subscription even though I only read a portion of the articles, I pay for entry to the whole museum for a day regardless of how many rooms I actually view, and I pay for a television service regardless of how many of the channels I actually watch. Still, expect the report to raise questions,again, about pricing practices …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report from the Nielson company: According to Nielsen\u2019s forthcoming Advertising & Audiences Report, the average U.S. TV home now receives 189 TV channels\u2014a record high and significant jump since 2008, when the average home received 129 channels. Despite this increase, however, consumers have consistently tuned in to an average of just 17 channels. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[17],"class_list":{"0":"post-1284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"tag-two-part-pricing","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Family_watching_television_1958.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-kI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":924,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/06\/the-great-small-plate-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":0},"title":"The great small plate debate","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My very first post for this blog was about why for some products - cable TV, museums, Disneyland - you are made to purchase a \"bundle\" of items (one hundred channels, permission to visit many rooms in the museum, all the rides you can do in a day) rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"is that all you get?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/tapas-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/02\/museums-amusement-parks-and-cable-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":1},"title":"Museums, Amusement Parks and Cable TV","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Should museums charge visitors according to the length of their visit? \u00a0In a recent paper Bruno Frey and Lasse Steiner argue they should. We pay per hour when we park our cars, so why not when we go to view art? This question came to mind during the recent flare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bundling\"","block_context":{"text":"bundling","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/tag\/bundling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Zero marginal cost, you say?\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Family_watching_television_1958-300x279.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1724,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/12\/efficiency-in-fund-raising-a-technical-note\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":2},"title":"Efficiency in Fund Raising – A Technical Note","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Center for Arts Research has released its report on The State of the Arts - a compendium of data and what I call 'kitchen sink' regressions (i.e. looking for statistical relationships by including all data that might conceivably matter and seeing what comes out the other end, rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"marginal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/average-and-marginal-product-300x217.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2021\/05\/do-we-know-how-changing-prices-affects-the-income-diversity-of-audiences\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":3},"title":"Do we know how changing prices affects the income-diversity of audiences?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In the very first few weeks of Econ 101 students are introduced to the \"demand curve\", relating how changes to the price of a product affect the quantity demanded of the product, all other things held equal. I've spent many years drawing these on blackboards, but they are a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2021\/05\/do-we-know-how-changing-prices-affects-the-income-diversity-of-audiences\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/price.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/price.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/price.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1433,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/07\/performance-measures-indices-and-rankings\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":4},"title":"Performance measures, indices and rankings","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, not a blog post title likely to set your pulse racing, but with so much discussion in the arts world the past few years on the uses of data, a caveat. It is brought to mind by a story from Money magazine (a branch of Time), which has tried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"what are the data telling us?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/whirlwind-computer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1018,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/01\/pricing-at-the-met\/","url_meta":{"origin":1284,"position":5},"title":"Pricing at the Met","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times report on statements from the Metropolitan Opera regarding recent changes in prices and box office revenues. The WSJ reports, under the headline \"Met Opera Suffers Budget Shortfall From Pricing Backlash\": \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The Metropolitan Opera's $311 million budget fell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"not just a theory, it's the law","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/demand.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}