04-02-2012, 02:13 PM
There is definitely more to it. Television is a big, nasty mess of different rules and regulations. Since the FCC dictates the rules, it's a cluster fuck.
HBO makes all of their money off of subscriber fees. By having high ratings, they can coerce the cable/satellite companies to charge more per customer for each subscription. And since they don't have ad revenue, they feel that those customers should be watching their shows on the television, where they still use ratings to dictate their sub fees. Nielsen is still a lumbering dinosaur that can't track online viewing very well and their data is not reliable.
You have to consider that so far HBO has not suffered at all the same kind of viewership declines that the rest of the market is seeing. They are still making money hand over fist using the older model, so there is very little reason to change.
Having said all that, check out your local libraries for all of their shows. I watched all of True Blood and The Wire from taking out the DVDs at my local library. It cost me $0. =)
HBO makes all of their money off of subscriber fees. By having high ratings, they can coerce the cable/satellite companies to charge more per customer for each subscription. And since they don't have ad revenue, they feel that those customers should be watching their shows on the television, where they still use ratings to dictate their sub fees. Nielsen is still a lumbering dinosaur that can't track online viewing very well and their data is not reliable.
You have to consider that so far HBO has not suffered at all the same kind of viewership declines that the rest of the market is seeing. They are still making money hand over fist using the older model, so there is very little reason to change.
Having said all that, check out your local libraries for all of their shows. I watched all of True Blood and The Wire from taking out the DVDs at my local library. It cost me $0. =)