Probably the most profitable online content is what tickles your fancy. Erotic and pornographic content has driven much innovation on the net from the fairly respectable content of "soft" sites like Australia's "Abby Winters*" to stuff that sickens and disgusts many people . As the old saying goes "there's money in muck". The question is of course: Can money be made from the more mundane content of the news?
This post is a follow on of sorts to both the last one about copyright and this one citing Rupert Murdoch because it raises the question of just what internet users would be willing to pay for accessing online content and just how content providers could possibly hope to charge for their stuff when it is available from multiple sources simultaneously.
WITHIN five years internet users will have to pay to access content now free, according to Barry Diller, chief executive of InterActiveCorp in the United States, which runs about 30 websites and turns over $US1.5 billion ($A1.8 billion) each year.
“I absolutely believe the internet is passing from its free days into a paid system,” he told the Advertising 2.0 conference in New York this week.
Mr Diller said the paid model would include subscriptions, one-time purchases for access to sites and micro-payments.
So dear readers would you care to nominate just what you would pay to view online*?
Personally I don’t pay for any content, well other than paying for access to the net via my ISP and I think that Barry Diller, rather like Rupert Murdoch may actually be trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy here, a piece of wish fulfilment that is going to be disappointed.
Cheers Comrades
8)
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
“So dear readers would you care to nominate just what you would pay to view online*?”
Depends on the quality I guess.
AFL footy – I’m already paying Austar/Foxtel so if came over the net instead then why not? But I wouldn’t pay for news. Quite simply, it’s not a product that anyone owns.
Part of the attraction of the internet, is that it is mostly free. If site operators started charging for content, I think they would very quickly find themselves in the financial doo doo. We are already charged outrageous amounts, just to access the internet, and now to access content on top ? As the majority of content is overseas, how would they do that, c/c ? I think kids would soon find something else to do, as their parents said the inevitable “no”.
Hmm, let me think about that.
Maybe not such a bad idea after all ?
What about the Saintas last night Ray ?
Haven’t seen too many games better than that for the last few years ?
Religion, we always get back to religion with you southerners 🙄 😉
It was probably the best game of the year so far, David. A bit too close for comfort but the Saints got there and are now 12 – 0. Sometimes I think going on a winning streak like this actually puts the players under more pressure than they need, as every other team goes hell for leather in an attempt to be the first to knock them off. I never thought I’d say this but they actually need to lose a game to get rid of that unwanted extra physical attention.
Iain, there are many things you miss out on by living up there – snow, a decent government and a footy code that is not played by neanderthals who visit their close relatives at the zoo every weekend.
Ray
As far as I am concerned all football is the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable (with apologies to Oscar Wilde)
heathen !
🙄
Get into it Iain, you might be surprised how it offers a welcome relief to all the so-called news we find ourselves commenting on and the other tediums we get wound up in.
It’s a great outlet. If women can be converted to it (as my daughter and my partner are) then it has to be a good thing.
Btw, I’m talking AFL of course, not the gorilla game they play in Qld, or that other one from your homeland played by metrosexuals like Beckham.
[…] about the Ramsay & Grimshaw stoush or the newspaper tycoons suggesting we should be paying for access to news websites? It’s best to ignore that stuff because writing about it is exactly what they want you to […]
Well I know Rugby is a game for men with oddly shaped balls!
Anyway Iain, I did try yoga a couple of times, and if the instructor had looked like the one above, I might’ve gone a few times more! 🙂
Iain I have never heard of this “Abby Winters” woman but I am not surprised that so many people pay for porn, its basically a less embarrassing way of renting a hooker, but if it “tickles your fancy” then you should go for it. As for news well I would never pay for news from web sites, a site called Crikey keeps sending me the e mails telling me that I should sign up for $x a year but why should I? Because you can usually find what interests you for nothing.
Alan
I did not think that it would be cool to link to the site at my blog Alan but if you do a search for “Abby Winters” you will find it easily enough.
But thanks for what you say about not being willing to pay for news. I have yet to find anyone who would pay for that.
PKD
I know what you mean about Yoga teachers…
…and don’t forget Iain, sites make money out of ad revenue etc. Not as much as they’d like to make if they could charge for content, but money nonetheless. Of course, its not going to stop fat companies from trying to squeeze every last bit of revenue out of us by trying to charge for their exclusive ‘content’…!
As was said in the Murdoch post, advertising revenue is not the point, what people would be willing to pay to view is.
We pay for newspapers because there are high costs involved in printing & distribution. But on the net, those costs are reduced to next to nothing.
Anyone who says we should pay to read news on the net has no sense of proportion and economic reality.
If the news sites try that someone will simply pay for it (once) and then distribute it for free to everyone else – and reap all the advertising benefits. I realise that raises issues of copyright but that would be overcome.
Iain I took your advice and googled “Abby Winters” and they sure do have some pleasant looking young ladies there, also nice to see that where their models are concerned some madcap gardener hasnt “trimmed the bush” too much there (I prefer things “au natural” and cant understand the fascination with the “shaven maven”). Would like to get a subscription but if Mrs Jacko sees it on my Visa bill then she will take the axe to me. Oh what it is to be under the thumb!!
Who was it that said man was the superior sex ?
Must have been a woman, and an unbelievably ugly one at that ?
Never been my experience ?
As I said in the post Alan I don’t subscribe to any websites But one thing that is certain about that site is that it shows that our Aussie girls are, (shall we channel the PM?) some bonzer sheilas and like you I appreciate any woman who is real and not trying to look like a fako silicone enhanced caricature of “beauty”.
I am blessed with a partner who does not care where I get my appetite as long as I eat at home. 😉
David
Women have it all over us humble blokes, we are poor creatures who are lead more by the head in the trousers than the one on our shoulders and the smart ones know this and use it to their advantage.
As was said in the Murdoch post, advertising revenue is not the point, what people would be willing to pay to view is.
Heh – Iain, for someone keen to point out what the post topic is, you sure do seem strangely keen to keep talking Abby Winters!?! 🙂
Well I was willing to stay on topic but when you guys make specific comments I generally make appropriate responses.
I can see where the pay for news comes from. Newspaper distribution has fallen substantially over the last twenty or so years, to such an extent, one wonders how they are surviving ? Pay for news on the net, that won’t fly. We have access to tv, pay tv and with it all the international news providers so no point there. If pay tv providers, stopped being so dammed greedy, by charging the earth for their services, then everybody would sign up. I have seen the ads for this new “free view”, for the last few months, and still waiting ?
Still, having to pay for content on the net ? Have to be awfully good content. Don’t see too much around that would qualify. Sorry Iain ?
No need to apologise at all David I agree with your sentiments on this topic.
well I’m afraid I’d pay for nothing , save my $60 a monthh Internet fee . As it is I pay for FoxTel sports chanel and still cant
watch rugby league until late on friday night. So why would i pay for internet sports feed?
Rossini
I have never had pay TV, frankly I don’t get enough time to watch all of the DVD’s I get from the library let alone watch sport on TV, however fro those who dig sport I can see the attraction of paying to watch it. What I hate about pay TV though is that you can’t just take precisely what you want you have to accept a package and now they put adds on it as well …
Iain its good that you can “get your appetite” elsewhere so long as you “eat at home”, as for Mrs Jacko she once caught me using the computer/internet to “look at another menu” and needless to say I went hungry for weeks. Women are very nice to look at but vicious creatures when angry.