From Television to Sell-a-vision

From Free-to-air to Pay TV, March 1995

And television doesn't come cheap. Prices paid for programs for a primetime screening of a Hollywood blockbuster run to millions of dollars. Add the costs of making programs and operating stations and theres only two ways to pay expenses - advertising and subscription.

So-called "free" channels are paid for by "delivering eyeballs" to advertisers - so the industry jargon goes. When we watch television, our eyeballs are on the line. Then, fresh the next morning, television executives turn the tables and watch us as the "dailies", the ratings for the previous day's viewing, come in. Knowing what we like to watch and where to show their products is why advertisers pay for our commercial television.

Increasingly accurate ratings help programmers better target programs to different age, income and other groups.With large audiences and a few channels this is straightforward but with smaller audiences and more channels the game is going to get more complicated.

The replacement of ratings diaries with people meters in 1991 showed a few percent more eyeballs watch television than was generally thought and brought the detail of the viewing "landscape" - that's you and I - into a much sharper focus. This improved focus helps Channel Ten turn a healthy dollar with smaller audiences: by "delivering" young people with young programs. As Ten's ex-network programmer Mike Lattin said last year, "television's not about ratings anymore, it's about demographics".

This trend continues with the advent of multichannel pay television. Watching more channels makes it harder for advertisers to get to these new and smaller audiences each with its own demographic or statistical profile. A lot of money is being spent sharpening the focus further to more accurately pinpoint smaller and smaller groups of viewers. Finally, with cable and on-line services, advertisers can focus right down on individual customers and reach them as only direct-mail companies and subscription magazines could in the past.

In the US, a set top unit is being trialed by Neilson's, the ratings agency. It's a "passive" people meter with a small "lens" that can distinguish who's in the room and if their eyes are open or closed. It relays this information back to the corporation's home database. In Time Warner's trial of interactive cable television in Orlando, Florida, you get paid for watching ads! Payment is by way of promotional gifts and free services in exchange for knowing your viewing and buying habits.

Nicholas Negroponte, Head of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, describes this future world for media as an "audience of one" where personal tastes in programs, news, ads and daily routines can be "taught" to your expanded television. An artificially intelligent "agent" can tailor your ads and programs to a profile built up over many months as you use your interactive television as personal organiser, ATM, shopping mall, catalogue, movie theatre and travel agent combined.

Your agent could end up with a better idea of what you need, or at least want, than you do. As long as no-one gives the agent your credit card. And you thought you could simply relax with your new television!

You might also end up with more control over the ads you see, choosing only those you want, when you want them. What, you say, who'd watch ads if they could choose? Don't forget, one of Australia's most watched programs is a series of "the best of" advertisements from around the world. And ads can help lower your subscription fees and sometimes pay for better programs.

While our eyeballs are getting bloodshot it's comforting to know that someone else's vision is getting clearer. Now I'll rest my eyes for a moment, if you don't mind - they're feeling very tired. Here's looking at you, kid.