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News Corp.’s Fox television network has announced it will erect a pay wall that will delay access to popular Fox shows for eight days after airing… unless you are an authenticated cable-TV or other pay television subscriber.
The announcement is the first among the major broadcast networks to keep cord-cutters and those who don’t pay for their television entertainment from conveniently watching shows online. With most Fox shows formerly available for free on Hulu one day after airing, many viewers simply watch programs online, enjoying a reduced number of commercials along the way.
Now, viewers will have to wait a week before those shows become accessible. Or, they can pay Hulu $7.99 a month for a Hulu+ subscription and watch right away. Or sign up for cable television.
The pay wall will be introduced Aug. 15 and was constructed at the behest of the nation’s largest cable, phone, and satellite companies to stop consumers from watching shows online for free. Local Fox stations don’t mind the change either, if it means you will watch your favorite shows on local stations instead of a national website.
Michael Hopkins, Fox’s president of affiliate sales released a statement explaining the change was designed to “enhance the value” of cable, satellite, and telco-TV subscriptions. Cable companies have been upset about paying retransmission rights fees for Fox’s local affiliate stations, only to see the network give away programming, for free, online.
Hopkins
“We’re concerned that cord-cutting is going to be a problem,” Mike Hopkins, Fox’s president of affiliate sales, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “The more you enable it by putting content out there for free without any tether to a pay-TV subscription, the bigger that danger becomes.”
If Fox is the first broadcast network to erect a pay wall, it likely won’t be the last. Disney’s ABC is exploring adopting a similar strategy, and CBS had withheld much of its programming from online ventures precisely because it believes it dilutes the value of its shows. It will likely favor a similar pay television approach.
For consumers, the details of how the pay wall will work could become problematic depending on their pay television provider. DirecTV is quickly working to keep free access to Fox shows for its subscribers after the pay wall takes effect. But some cable companies like Time Warner Cable have dragged their feet on TV Everywhere online projects, and subscribers, even with cable TV packages, could still find themselves locked out behind the wall, unless they also have a Hulu+ subscription.
The risk of annoying viewers by keeping them away from their favorite shows could easily spark a renewed interest in piracy. With a commercial newsgroup account, access to peer-to-peer software or file storage sites like Rapidshare or Megavideo, bypassing the industry’s pay-walls is as easy as finding the shows viewers want to watch, legally or otherwise.
I’m vaguely okay with this, in general. It’s daft for network shows that are available over-the-air, anyway. Why would I need a pay TV subscription to time shift those on-line? I could buy a digital recorded and do that myself for free. It makes sense for paid content, however. The HBOGo app is a great example. It works well and gives me mobile (and Internet) access to a huge library of HBO content, past and present. Giving this away to non-HBO subscribers would make no sense from a business perspective, but as an added value service that embraces the way… Read more »
For Time Warner customers, HBO Go is a no-go. It’s still not available to us and looks to remain so indefinitely. It’s a safe bet the same will be true with Fox shows, regardless of a cable subscription or not. I agree there is nothing wrong with premium or even cable networks doing a TV Everywhere model, but I am very uneasy with the ongoing push to punish free TV users by increasingly denying them access to content. Since when should a cable company dictate to a broadcast network what they can and can’t do with their own shows? I… Read more »
Amazing that HBO Go is still not available to Time Warner customers.
You’d think that Time Warner, who pushed ESPN3 to agree to terms where the site would be available only to qualifying cable TV subscribers (and not all ISP customers as is the case with other providers) would have been all over a similar video service like HBO Go.
Or watch YouTube. 😉
Still wont stop cord cutters like me. Ok, so I dont get to watch Bones or Kitchen Nightmares or whatever your pleasure be the next day, oh well. A simple Outlook calendar appointment with reminders of eachs shows availability and me happily on my laptop 8 days later will enable me to still watch the entire season of my shows online, for free.
Being a week behind everyone else seeing it for me is a non-issue. Now…wheres that cord? *snip*
For FOX-only content? WTF? They realize that their Fox network is a FREE channel broadcast over the air right?
This would make sense if it was a cable channel doing this. It doesn’t surprise me that Fox would make such a boneheaded move. This is just going to send people back to pirating their favorite Fox show every week.
“For FOX-only content? WTF? They realize that their Fox network is a FREE channel broadcast over the air right?”
Welp, yes its free over the air so watch it over the air. FOX understands that it makes enormous sums of money SELLING their content to the Cable, satellite and Telco companies so they understand that
throwing the content up for free on the NET means that their product is less attractive.
Its a business not a charity.
fox screwed up most of the good shows house & fringe r all i watch anymore and 8 days is too much .they are promoting piracy
It looks like my favorite show (Bones) is available after 8 days because my only choice for cable where I reside, Charter, is not an option.
I’m sure it’s a lucrative deal for FOX but it is very annoying to be a week behind my favorite show, or pay even more for cable to add a DVR.