(Ted Rall’s blog)
Steve Coll, in the New York Review of Books, discussing the latest Roger Ailes bio:
… One of the most fascinating aspects of Fox News’s business model is how its audience’s passion shapes and lifts the network’s profits. Normally, when a media company has an audience as old as Fox’s—the network’s median audience age is more than sixty-five—the business struggles financially. That is because younger people buy the most consumer goods and so advertisers prefer them. But Fox News does not make most of its money from advertising. About 60 percent of its revenue—more than $1 billion annually, or about the entirety of its reported profit—comes from fees paid by cable companies for the right to carry Fox News programming, according to Pew. Cable operators who pay these fees don’t care so much about whether Fox’s viewers are young or old; they care more about having viewers who are addicted enough to what’s on cable TV to fork over monthly subscription fees.
The Fox News audience’s fervor also assures that if a cable company ever tried to throw the network off its system, or reduce programming fees, the operator could expect intense, politicized protests. Call this a kind of extortion, or call it leverage in a market economy, but as a result Fox News today receives from the fees paid to it about ninety-four cents per cable subscriber per month, one of the highest rates in the industry, a third greater than what CNN receives and more than double what MSNBC gets. Fox’s high fees are mainly attributable to its superior ratings, but as the industry analyst Craig Moffett told The New York Times last year, the “level of passion and engagement” within Fox’s following has also lifted its revenue because such intense devotion is not easy for cable operators to find…
***********
Apart from learning, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
PsiFighter37
I’ve been given a heads-up that there’s a possibility layoffs are coming this week. Given there are 2 days left in the week, something’s going down tomorrow or Friday. I am not concerned too much about myself, but you never know in this environment, and I have very little clarity if it affects my group directly or not.
Ate some tasty chicken biryani and am now pounding a Bell’s Amber Ale (kinda meh, I like their Two-Hearted Ale better). Fat Wednesday for me after several days of crushing some serious workouts.
schrodinger's cat
I have always steered clear of Fox News, even when I had cable. I don’t like people screeching at me. Of course I am not 65 years old.
El Cruzado
@schrodinger’s cat: Yet you still paid them a dollar.
BGinCHI
Pork chops slow cooked in homemade sauerkraut.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: I am, so what?
Poopyman
So what happens in 10 or 20 years? I don’t see aging fogeys like myself changing viewing habits to include Fox News (all bets are off if Alzheimer’s hits), so do they have a plan? Or are Murdoch and Ailes assuming they’ll be safely dead when the last viewer dies off?
BGinCHI
@PsiFighter37: Had a Bell’s Double Cream Stout two nights ago. Hubba.
OzarkHillbilly
Learn? LEARN?!?!??? I already forgot more than most of you fwcks will ever know! Oh yeah, and GET OFF OF MY LAWN! ;-)
On the slightly more serious side, I put in 8 at work, and another 3 at home. I am too tired to think.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Nothing wrong with being 65, I was just pointing out that I am not their target demo.
@El Cruzado: Not anymore. I don’t get cable where I live.
Keith G
One of my crushes, Paulo Nutini (a Scot no less) is putting out a new album. He just released a video of an acoustic version of one of the singles. Go ahead and listen. I guarantee it will help you feel better.
Karmus
@PsiFighter37: Oh, how weird. I encountered Two-Hearted for the first time at an Agent Orange concert last night. Good stuff (by which I mean the beer, not agent orange, although I did enjoy the band).
NotMax
Haven’t seen it mentioned here that Murdoch was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame last week (ceremony was held March 11).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BGinCHI: Damn that sounds good. Do you bury the cabbage in the backyard for a year?
Also, too, a Republican writes Shaheen a campaign ad
Cervantes
I remember Roger Ailes when he was an obsequious, oleaginous prop boy on the old Mike Douglas Show in Cleveland. If only Nixon had never gone on the show and met him, Ailes might still be toiling in obscurity. (Maybe.)
Suffern ACE
Two more days and it’s vacation for me. I’ve overcome the flu. I’ve crossed off my work todos. It’s already Thursday and no one has called with a work crisis and blown up my plans. Slow and steady wins the race? That’s never been true in the 19 years I’ve been at this company. I should feel good, but I’m anxious.
Gin & Tonic
@Cervantes: Oleaginous is a word that’s not used often enough these days.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah, but how many of us are studying for our SATs.
Schlemizel
Almost done with Jury duty. Its been an interesting 2 weeks. One big change is they no longer let you go after one case. I got to learn about more than just one major asshole the last two weeks. I hate people even more now :)
The good thing that has happened to me is I have regained some of my saliva production. 1 1/2 years after radiation destroyed it. One of several good things about this (the big one being I am not suffering eternal dry mouth now) is that I could actually eat meat for the first time since treatment. I have been a part-time vegetarian for years but was never comfortable as a full-time one.
srv
How come John Cole never asked Ted to blog here?
I think it would be very ironical for Ted to blog at a blog that lurved to lambaste him back in the day.
Mike in NC
@Gin & Tonic:
These days Ailes isn’t so much oleaginous as he is fat and bald.
Baud
Newsmax has the follow-up story to this post.
gene108
Increased T.V. subscriptions is not the way forward for cable operators.
The growth areas are in broadband and bundled phone service.
Comcast bought NBC/Universal from GE to have additional revenue streams beyond what it can charge people for access to their pipes.
I assume so.
Murdoch’s in his 80’s and Ailes is in his 70’s. They are older than the average Fox News viewer.
The family civil war that will erupt, when dividing the News Corp “empire”, will be interesting. I wonder, if Rupert’s kids and grandkids, who will inherit the business will try something different.
Baud
@efgoldman:
I recently revisited my Internet options, and the choices were few and prices too high for my taste. Not good.
Rook
And this is why ala cart cable pricing is important. You just know that Fox News couldn’t survive unless it was forced onto you by the cable companies.
Alison
@Keith G: Ooooh yay!! Love him :)
Sonora
This sounds an awful lot like a socialistic business model.
Sailor
That’s bullshit. Faux News is free.
Villago Delenda Est
@Rook: Exactly. If people were actually given the opportunity to keep Faux Noise and be charged for it, or drop it and see their monthly cable bill go down a buck, Faux would be gone within a few months.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sonora: ALL Corporate America business models are socialist. It’s just socialism for the 1%, law of the jungle for the 99%.
chopper
@srv:
Love the stupid pro-bush comments in that thread. he’s been to Bermuda, asshole!
catclub
@El Cruzado: every month
catclub
@Mike in NC: “Oleaginous”
what a great word. Greasy sweat in folds of flabby flesh.
Debbie(aussie)
Sorry if this has already been stated somewhere.
PM Tony Abbott just made a statement to parliament regarding the possible sighting of wreckage in the Indian Ocean. An Orion aircraft should be at the co-ordinates as we speak.
RaflW
What I wish was on the agenda would be getting Comcast to let me opt out of f*#^ing Fox News. I deeply resent that they’re getting more than 10 bucks a year from me.
And no, I can’t cancel my cable. I live in a condo with an association and it’s in the damn HOA agreement that cable is provided (and of course ultimately paid by each of us in the bldg).
Plus, HGTV is my late evening brain-dump drug of choice.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
I am officially tired of the Nate Silver business.
Citizen_X
@Sonora:
What. A fucking. Surprise. Teh Free Markit’s most fervid cheerleaders exist solely due to funds extorted from millions of people who either couldn’t care less about them, or despise them utterly.
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
I am (or actually will be very soon) and I don’t like people screeching at me.
Ruckus
@Poopyman:
The only good thing about Alzheimer’s is that your short term memory is gone so you won’t remember if you’ve seen it or not. Of course that could explain why people with Alzheimer’s are frequently very mad and are prone to yell racial epitaphs.
Steeplejack
I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel tonight and loved it. I know Wes Anderson is an acquired taste, but I have acquired that taste. Gorgeous visuals, quirky music, good performances.
And, just as I was pulling up in my car in front of my rooms in Threadkill Lane, SiriusXM played the number one song from this date 50 years ago. Perfect end to a nice evening.
Bob In Portland
Which side are you on?
Fred
@Poopyman: What happens to FOX when their stupid foagey base dies off? Vegi-Magic and Pocket Fisherman infomercials might be a good bet. Then again that may be the same demographic. Oh what will the grifter-smut peddler spawn of the grifter-smut peddler king do to keep body and soul together?
Sherparick
@Villago Delenda Est: They call it “rent seeking” in Econ 101.
Sonora
The same model is used by ESPN. We cable consumers pay more to them weather we watch or not.
Sonora
The same model is used by ESPN. We cable consumers pay more to them weather we watch or not.
ron
another reason to cancel cable forever.
since i do not have cable, the only time i see fox news is at the gym. i enjoy all the catheter ads.
StringOnAStick
@Fred: Like everyone here, I’d like to believe that Faux will die off when it’s old demo does the same, but the sad truth is I know some people who are my age or younger who love Faux and will watch nothing else. I make myself feel better about that by recognizing that all of these mid-40’s Faux lovers are fairly low on the intellectual achievement scale, and not what I’d call active in politics other than yelling at the TV screen and voting, but not doing GOTV or contributing much (all are too broke).
The university students I work with every day may be mostly engineering students, half of which are in oil & gas, but most of them have no interest in Faux. I suspect that once you get into the 30’s and lower demographic, TV and cable might as well be making buggy whips. That fact alone is heart warming.
We went to internet TV 2 years ago, and I would never go back. To the sub 30 set, that is the only thing they would even consider doing, though mostly they watch on other devices.
The Other Chuck
If we had ala carte cable instead of these forced bundles, Fox News would be out of business. I sure as hell wouldn’t buy it.