Pricing one's self out of the market
Lately, for some odd reason, I've been watching BBC America, and in particular, among other shows, I've been watching episodes of Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares." It's a lot more palatable than his FOX show, Hell's Kitchen, which is a show that seems designed to determine just how much foul-mouthed abuse aspiring cooks are willing to endure to make their dreams come true.
Nightmares, on the other hand, involves Ramsay visiting various restaurants all over the UK, and attempting to help them reverse their bad fortunes. There's still plenty of swearing, but Ramsay shows a softer side as well, as he really goes out of his way to encourage young chefs even as he's chewing out the idiots.
Anyhow, one of the changes he inevitably suggests to almost every restaurant owner is to lower prices. Lower prices gets people in the door and sets up traffic flow, customer loyalty, repeat customers, and a chance to sell them luxury items like appetizers, desserts, and drinks. Makes sense, but it is sometimes surprising how many restauranteurs fear the lower prices.
I was thinking about this when I saw the announcement that NBC is no longer going to be selling on iTunes, and that includes some of my current fetishes like Heroes and BSG. Or rather, I should phrase it differently: iTunes is no longer selling NBC content, because NBC wanted to more than double their per episode price, bumping it from $1.99 to $4.99, and this despite the fact that everyone else has stuck with the $2/episode price.
As unfortunate as it'll be not to be able to download the occasional episode when I miss them, I'm actually happy to see Apple take a stand in this instance. It seems like every time I hear about a network missing the point of digital downloading, that network is NBC. Maybe the loss of revenue will prompt them to spend a little money on hiring someone with a clue.
Heck, I'd even pitch in $4.99 to see that happen.
Comments
This is interesting to me, because I think NBC was one of the first networks to try to tie in with internet audiences. They tried to have a web-tied in second shift with Homicide: Life on the Streets. I'm not saying that was a great move for the network or the show, but it seems like they should have more of a clue.
Posted by: Brandilyn | September 3, 2007 10:43 AM
Well, my comment is tied totally to what I happen to notice. It may be that they're no worse than the others, but it seems like they've been trying to put themselves behind the curve a few times in the last year or so. I could easily be wrong about that.
But this seemed like a move on the part of the last-place network to try and buck the market to quick-fix their income, and it backfired...
Posted by: collin | September 4, 2007 11:26 AM
Totally with you here. Even though I was going to spring to buy the season for our BSG viewing cult here in Fargo, we are going to just avoid any digital downloading of this show this season. Why reward NBC for being stupid. It's the last season of BSG anyway. They'll select themselves right out of the business.
Posted by: DocMara | September 4, 2007 4:51 PM