Meanwhile back at my original thought - why I'm willing to pay to see Sanctuary. Technically we pay to see TV anyway it just isn't obvious, it is paid for with higher prices for merchandise. The advertising costs are just added into what we pay for our purchases. In the case of Sanctuary or any other direct entertainment series we are forking out what would have gone to the advertisers (actually probably a lot less) and it goes directly to the marketers. In the case of Sanctuary it would be the Executive Directors / Investors rather than several nameless corporations.
The people that are doing the work bringing us the entertainment are being paid directly. I can live with that as it sounds quite fair to me. Now we do not know actually how much it will cost but I read somewhere in my travels that it would be competitively priced. Now the only thing that I know of that would come within shouting distance of that is what they charged for SG-1 / Battlestar Galactica on iTunes which if I recall correctly was US$1.99 per episode or US$34.99 BSG S3 and US$37.99 for SG-1 S10. Now take into account these series are 20 episodes (damn they get shorter and shorter as the years go by) averaging 43 minutes so that's about 14 hrs 20 mins. The producers have said they would like to do around 40 webisodes averaging around 15 minutes each so that's about 10 hours which is about 70% of the running time of the other shows.
So a quick conversion into Aussie dollars, with the reduced percentage, and I'm looking at around AU$31.15 to AU$33.82 for a season pass. A DVD boxset will cost me anywhere from $50 to $90 and a single new release movie will cost around $35 so I'm thinking "looking good".
Other reasons I am willing to pay are - I already have a cable internet connection with a vast amount of unused capacity per month so my costs are not going to increase in that respect. I no longer have cable TV because I hardly watch any of the programmes anymore. I also see this as an alternative to buying DVD's, no need to wait for years for release in Region 4 and I get immediate delivery with a high quality copy which I can port to my favourite medium. What more could a girl want??
Oh yeah - did I mention I was a huge Amanda Tapping fan? Reason enough I'd say but if you add in the production people (many of whose work I admire from Stargate) and the new tech and the instant delivery and the flexibility, so long as the show isn't a dog (WHICH I HIGHLY DOUBT) then I'm laughing. It's money well spent!
Did I mention that the first four webisodes are free?
Here's an interview Amanda Tapping did on Urban Rush, they talk mainly about Sanctuary but there is also some about Stargate.
The geek in me came across a few interesting things recently :
- Flexible Lighting? As a camper this one has me intrigued. Check it out at Gizmag
- WOW! This definitely comes under the heading of what will they think of next. The Flipping Ship. Check it out at Fogonazos
- Portable DVD players, dockable iPod with DivX and MPEG 4 support. It is getting to a stage that these things may start to interest me if my old laptop bites the dust. Check it out at the iLounge
Catch ya later,
Trace
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