The television industry is driven by obsession. And obsession has degrees ( and therefore a value). What is interesting - and in hubris I'm going to call this Iolo's Law - is that collective obsession is worth more than individual obsession, and this goes against most of the laws of economics, particularly that of demand and supply.
To explain what I mean, imagine if you asked every football supporter how much they would be willing to pay to watch their club play live on telly. I suspect the sum of the totals would be a fraction of what Sky pay the FA.
Moreover, football fans are just a but more fanatical than the fans of any other sport, and the value of fanaticism is huge. It acts as a multiple on all other values.
People will therefore pay for Sky, and pay again for Sky Sport, when telly is free and there's a lot of sport on that free telly.
Television isn't about technology, it's fundamentally about psychology.
To explain what I mean, imagine if you asked every football supporter how much they would be willing to pay to watch their club play live on telly. I suspect the sum of the totals would be a fraction of what Sky pay the FA.
Moreover, football fans are just a but more fanatical than the fans of any other sport, and the value of fanaticism is huge. It acts as a multiple on all other values.
People will therefore pay for Sky, and pay again for Sky Sport, when telly is free and there's a lot of sport on that free telly.
Television isn't about technology, it's fundamentally about psychology.