{"id":98690,"date":"2020-10-27T19:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/would-anyone-pay-45-a-month-to-watch-their-favorite-show\/"},"modified":"2020-10-27T19:00:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T16:00:25","slug":"would-anyone-pay-45-a-month-to-watch-their-favorite-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/would-anyone-pay-45-a-month-to-watch-their-favorite-show\/","title":{"rendered":"#Would anyone pay $45 a month to watch their favorite show?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Would anyone pay $45 a month to watch their favorite show?<\/strong>”
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As a devotee of The Good Fight<\/em>, I was excited to learn that showrunners Robert and Michelle King were re-teaming with actress Audra McDonald for The Second Wave<\/em>\u2014even if a pandemic-themed drama<\/a> isn\u2019t exactly escapist fare right now. Then I saw the word \u201cSpectrum\u201d and abandoned all hope of seeing the show. Spectrum Originals is a streaming platform that isn\u2019t even available to me; and if it were, it would set me back at least $44.99 per month, the price of Charter Communications\u2019 cheapest Spectrum cable subscript<\/a>ion.<\/p>\n

The Spectrum Originals slate launched in June 2018 when Charter Communications ordered L.A.\u2019s Finest<\/em>, the recently canceled Bad Boys <\/em>spinoff series<\/a> starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba. \u201cOur content partnerships offer us a great opportunity to provide Spectrum customers with the dynamic, authentic, and unique programming that drives value for their Spectrum subscription,\u201d Katherine Pope, Charter\u2019s senior VP and head of original content, said at the time, per Variety<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sure, that sounds like a shrewd business move, but anyone who isn\u2019t a Spectrum customer is S.O.L. As far as I can tell, unless these Spectrum shows make it to network TV like L.A.\u2019s Finest<\/em> eventually did, the only way to stream Spectrum Originals programming\u2014e.g. the Mad About You<\/em> revival, the gothic mystery Paradise Lost<\/em>, and the latest season of the Manhunt<\/em> anthology\u2014is to have a Spectrum cable subscription.<\/p>\n

I even went through the motions of subscribing to Spectrum, only to be informed that my address \u201cis not part of the Spectrum service area\u201d and redirected to the Xfinity website.<\/p>\n

According to a Spectrum availability map<\/a> on CableTV.com\u2014a Spectrum authorized reseller\u2014the cable service is available in 41 states but only certain areas in each state. The map shows that Spectrum is available almost everywhere in Ohio and New York, for example, but almost nowhere in Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, and Colorado. To the company\u2019s credit, Broadband Now<\/a> reports Spectrum\u2019s service areas cover an estimated 102.7 million Americans\u2014second only to Comcast\u2019s Xfinity service\u2014but that\u2019s still less than a third of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n

My sign-up attempt was just an experiment, of course. I wouldn\u2019t subscribe to a service costing $44.95 per month\u2014six times the price of a Disney+ subscription and nine times the price of Apple TV+\u2014just for the exclusive original content. (Maybe if I were madder about Mad About You<\/em>?)<\/p>\n

A recent Trade Desk survey<\/a> of more than 2,600 U.S. consumers found that 59 percent of consumers won\u2019t pay more than $20 per month for the sum of their streaming services, and 75 percent won\u2019t pay more than $30 per month. $45 per month is way out of those comfort zones, so a consumer would have to find the whole Spectrum package worth that price tag, especially because there\u2019s no Spectrum Originals-only plan.<\/p>\n

If I were a Charter exec, I would offer Spectrum Originals as a standalone subscription. After all, rival cable company Comcast offers its Peacock streaming platform to everyone, not just customers of Comcast\u2019s Xfinity cable service. There\u2019s still a perk for Xfinity customers, of course: They get Peacock Premium for no additional cost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unless Charter follows suit with Spectrum Originals, it might have trouble gaining traction in the streaming wars. As one commenter<\/a> said after the demise of L.A.\u2019s Finest<\/em>, \u201cIt was cancelled because no one watches Spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n