Weeds spread
Tonight is the premiere of the third season of Weeds. I’m a huge fan of the show. And, no, it’s not just because Mary-Louise Parker is the sexiest mom in America west of my backyard. That helps. But it is a brilliantly over-the-top portrait of the ills of suburbia and the pressures of families. And the cast is stellar. I inhale every episode. (Sorry.)
But I don’t watch Weeds on Showtime. My cable system’s deal for getting the channel is ridiculously priced and so I missed out — until I watched it via iTunes. And I ended up buying every episode of the first two seasons: $1.99 each.
This season, because I’d blogged my affection for the show, Showtime let me watch the first episode on the web — and it has opened this up to other “insiders” (all you have to do is register, I think). They also sent me the next three episodes and a nice little schwag garden bag I’d give to my daughter of it didn’t says WEEDS on the side. And now I’ve watched them all. Sucked them right up.
Only problem is, now I’ll have to wait a very, very long time for the rest of the season — until it is off Showtime and some contractual time has passed and it finally shows up in iTunes.
Damn. This is no way to run an industry based on popularity. If I’m willing to pay for the show, I should be able to watch it now.
I was thinking about this the other day when I saw other cable shows — free cable shows — advertised on my subway. I might want to watch some of them. But there’s not much of a chance that I’ll even go to the trouble of telling my TiVo to record them. And I certainly will never shedule my life around them. But I’d still watch them, if only I could watch them on my schedule.
All TV should be on demand. If you can charge and get money, fine. If you can charge for watching early and get money, fine. If you just want to expand your audience, great.
But TV networks are horribly inefficient means of distribution from our side of the equation.
I want my fix of Weeds and I want it now. What a silly industry it is the denies me this pleasure. Even drug dealers are smarter.
Tags: Exploding_TV, weeds
August 13th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I don’t think there’s any doubt that drug dealers are smarter than TV managers. Drug dealers are focused on making money, not on getting a corner office and high place on the corporate totem pole. Drug dealers can get high any time they want.
I figure TV is moving to an on-demand model, and the Tivo is just a step in that direction. The founders of Tivo and Replay all cut their teeth in the VoD trials of the mid-90s, after all. But we can’t have a fully on-demand model until everybody has the means to store TV shows in or around the TV set, and that move is still taking place kinda slowly.
Personally, I have two DVR’s and a PC connected to my HDTV set, and I seem to watch programs from the Internet and from DirecTV more or less interchangeably. I’m probably 5 years ahead of the curve, however.
In order to have full-scale HDTV on-demand for everybody, a few little upgrades are going to be required to the delivery network, be it Internet or carrier-mediated IPTV. Paying for those upgrades is still a sticking point, and the Net Neutrality hysteria of a year ago didn’t help.
It seems to me that Showtime’s strategy is pretty clear: rather than collect a dollar a show from iTunes for Weeds, or $4 a month, they’d like to sell you the whole channel for $10/month. That would certainly appear to make economic sense to me, but I’m a network engineer, not an accountant.
Are you simply complaining because you’re too cheap to pay for Showtime?
August 13th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Personally, I’m a huge fan of Big Love (also on tonight!), but unfortunately HBO has yet to come to any kind of agreement with iTunes–probably because they’re more concerned with their DVD sales. I suppose it’s the midnight repeat for me….
August 13th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I don’t have a TV but often end up renting whole seasons of shows after they come out on DVD. I would gladly spend a couple bucks for a download or stream to watch them as soon as they are released.
August 13th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I just fall into those eyes of hers - even when I’m not stoned.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
FWIW the “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Mom’s?” chapter of Freakonomics argues:
Instead of trying to game customers old media needs to sell product before potential customers lose interest and move on to competing available product.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Reminder: The word “schwag” and the word “swag” are mixed up quite a bit these days.
“They also sent me the next three episodes and a nice little schwag garden bag I’d give to my daughter of it didn’t says WEEDS on the side.” is a really interesting sentence.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Totally. Frickin’. Agree.
I would buy Weeds in heartbeat from iTunes - but only Season 2 is available there (why not season 1?).
I don’t want to subscribe to Showtime for this one show!! Sell it a la carte!
August 13th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
“. If I’m willing to pay for the show, I should be able to watch it now.”
Then subscribe to Showtime. Weeds will eventually out on DVD and iTunes, but if you want it NOW you subscribe. If you want it cheaper, or in a more convenient form. Wait.
Think of it as it’s out in hardcover, but later it’ll be out in a more convenient and economical package.
Now if you’re talking about an extra premium for early iTunes availability (3-5 dollars an episode?) that would be an intriguing model, and one that may steer some traffic away from bittorrents.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:48 am
I “inhaled every episode” from social video sites. It’s just too easy…
August 14th, 2007 at 7:55 am
[...] Looking forward to a new season of Weeds. [...]
August 14th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Got this message on Facebook, you can watch Weeds for free on their own site through October, 1st episode already up: http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/video.do?source=M_FB_bvp
August 14th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
An absolutiely brilliant analysis, as usual.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
You’re catching on, Jeff. I saw this coming some time ago, with ‘on demand movies.’ If movies, why not regular a regular series? It was only a matter of time before someone else had the thought…and a bigger venue in which to share it.
To answer Don’s referenced Freakonomics question, ‘Why do drug dealers live with their Moms?’…answer: no rent and a FREE live-in housekeeper and CHEF. Duh.
August 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
fyi - i just watched the first 4 episodes of new seasons.
They are on line - p2p etc… they are pristine and i am assuming showtime or production company posted. I subscribe to showtime but i watch things on MYTIME
August 14th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
[...] l’instar de Jeff Jarvis, je suis également un fan absolu de la série “Weeds“, dont la diffusion de la [...]
August 15th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Australian TV networks are going to start showing US shows within days of the US showing. They used to be shown 6 months or more later, to fit with our ratings period, but an increasing number of people were downloading shows after they were screened in the US. It’s a good move, as I’ll be seriously watching broadcast TV (and its ads) for the first time in years, having downloaded Heroes, Veronica Mars, Big Love and Spooks before they were shown on Australian TV.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Shawn has the economics correct. You can buy it now. You just don’t like the price.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
“I want my fix of Weeds and I want it now.”
That sounds vaguely like my little cousin, complaining about Harry Potter circa two months ago.
Instant gratification isn’t a given.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
I completely agree that it should be available for download immediately on itunes and other sites. Hell, even showtime should put it up on their website for download the night it airs. I don’t have cable–who the hell has cable anymore? not to mention i don’t have premium channels like showtime. this is generation y-we want what we want when we want it and we’re not gonna pay for a bunch of bullshit we don’t want. so, please, showtime, give us weed(s)!!!! this, of course, comes from a man who has spent the last 4 hours trying to download the first four episodes on bitorrent sites and p2p programs all over the net. i’ll pay for it, just give it to me.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:39 am
The Internet forces consumers to value the “consumption experience” over the “content experience.” Yes, we still want our favorite content, but, there are so many ways to get it. Gerd Leonhard put it best:
“on the Internet, every hurdle is treated as damage, and the traffic is simply routed around it. Create friction and be side-stepped.”
http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2007/08/gerd-leonhards-.html
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
hey!! I’m a huge fan of the show too!!
Im sure this could be very very interesting for you. Here u can watch weeds episodes for free! S03Eall !!!
on http://www.iwatchweeds.com
hope u like it
regards,