One night last week, I was watching TV in my hotel room. I was a little bored with the regular TV offerings and was curious about this “EXCITING WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT” the hotel had made for me, all behind the little yellow Menu button on my remote. I explored the EXCITING WORLD from the comfort of my easy chair.
This EXCITING WORLD has such features as movies, music, music videos, and TV shows. It’s a little like an On Demand system but… you pay now. That’s the big difference. And boy, do you pay.
Most movies were around $8-$10. That’s not bad if you compare it to, say, going to the theater. TV shows were $2.
Music and music videos were of highly questionable value, however. I had access to an EXCITING CD jukebox all for the low low price of $18. Per day. So for the cost of one CD at full retail value, I can listen to such great artists as Aerosmith and Beyonce.
But the real kicker was this. The music video collection was small and, frankly, rather crappy. The best song I could find was a Collective Soul song. I thought, “Well, I’d watch that. It’s like YouTube on TV.” I clicked through to the info and… $8.
For 24 hours access. To one video.
I can’t imagine any circumstance, ever, in which I would pay $8 to watch a 3-minute music video. And why would I want to watch a music video more than once in a day? Perhaps if the video is like an episode of Lost sure but, I don’t think that’s likely.
Who is buying this stuff?
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music
Merle April 29, 2007, 12:08 am
There are some videos I’d watch a dozen times a day. Not many, and certainly not often, but sometimes I get into one of those “repeat this often” moods.
And as for who buys that stuff? Suckers? I’m not sure. Seems like a hotel TV would probably come with MTV and VH1 (and although they rarely play actual music videos, they do play some now and then).
Maybe they set the prices so high because only one or two people are buying each day.