Around the world, pay-TV
audiences sometimes complain about programme re-runs, preferring to be served
fresh content every time. Legitimate preference. But it is the nature of pay-TV
that programmes are re-run. In an era of 24-hour programming, multichannel and
multimedia broadcast, it is impossible not to repeat TV content.
A major reason is that costs
associated with pay-TV content are so huge that subscribers will be unable to
pay if fresh content were to be served every time. Content, it bears repeating,
is acquired by pay-TV companies at very huge costs from the producers and
owners. It also costs a king's ransom to produce.
For a pay-TV company to
continually show fresh content, the cost has to be borne by somebody: the
subscriber.
Movie content, for example, is
produced in huge quantities by movie industries worldwide, with Hollywood,
Nollywood and Bollywood accounting for the greatest number of productions.
Movie content, or any content for that matter, takes time to produce. Movies,
in particular, are often first shown in cinemas before being broadcast on other
platforms, through which producers earn additional income.
Content owners, like the big TV
networks, allow their content to be distributed by pay-TV companies only of
successful exposing them on other platforms like the Cinemas, video on demand (like the DStv BoxOffice) and
DVD. This strategy is financially viable only when enough episodes of a
television programme are produced to make the series valuable to distributors
through syndication.
The re-run system, particularly
as it supports syndication, has become the economic foundation on which the TV
industry does business. Deficit from production can only be recouped if the
programmes goes into syndication. It is only when a programme is sold into
syndication that the profits to owners are likely to be huge and sufficient to
pay off the cost of financing of original original productions and to support
the development of other programmes. The entire system is dependent on a
sufficient market for re-run programmes, a market composed of independent
television stations, international
television systems and on an economical means of reproduction.
Without re-runs, pay-TV
companies will have to buy tonnes of content to keep up with the demand of
fresh content. Can they afford to pay? Certainly not. Is there enough time to
produce enough programmes to fill the 24/7 requirements of modern television?
Very unlikely.
Re-runs and repeats are not
used merely to ease production schedules and cut costs. They are also a product
of contractual agreements between content owners and pay-TV companies. During
contractual negotiations, content owners often demand from pay-TV companies
that their content be broadcast, say 10 times, at peak viewing periods and less
frequently at other times. This means that the control over how many times TV
content is shown is shared with the owners and not pay-TV companies, which are
merely content vendors. Movie content producers specify the number of times
their films are shown when negotiating with pay-TV companies. Going against
such agreements will certainly spell breach of contract.
It will also put a
defaulting pay-TV company in the bad
books of a content creator. And if a top-notch content creator withholds its
content from the pay-TV company, the latter is at a big risk of losing
subscribers.
Aside from this, programme
re-runs are actually necessary for TV because one person's repeat is another
person's chance to watch. Since occupational and social demands make it
impossible for everyone to watch TV at the same time, programme re-runs afford
those unable to watch at a certain time the opportunity of catching up on their
favourite content. They also serve the purpose of those who may want to want to
re- watch.
Even in these days of video-on-demand (VOD)
services and Value Added Services like DSTV Catch-up, repeated content still has its place. Not
everyone uses VOD or DSTV Catch-Up, meaning that many have to depend on re-runs
to watch their favourite content if they are not available when it is first
broadcast.
And for kids' programming, research has shown
that repetition has positive implications for education by providing optimal
comprehensibility and audience retention.
In the early days of
television, most programming was live. This required the continuous production
of new programmes which, once aired, were gone. Certain program formats, such
as variety, talk, public affairs, quiz, sports, and drama were dominant on the
airwaves. With the exception of variety and drama, each of these formats is
inexpensive to produce, therefore the creation of live weekly or daily episodes
worked well for broadcasters. Television at the time was not a 24 hour event.
But the nature of television
like everything else has changed. The financial and logistical demands for
twenty four hour programming has made program re- runs unavoidable.
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