Nowadays people prefer doing everything online as it makes life easier for everyone. Such is the case with traditional television, which has been declining in viewership due to the comfort of people being able to watch nearly anything anytime they want online. More and more people are "cutting the cord" and watching television content via their computers, connected TVs, or on mobile devices.
Noticing this shift, most major broadcasting companies have typically made full episodes of their television shows available 24 hours after they premier. That's about to change for Fox television. Users wanting to watch Fox's full episodes online will have to pay a monthly fee or have a paid cable/satellite TV subscription in order to access their content. In our opinion, this is a major step back for Fox and doesn't embrace the image of the Internet, which was made primarily to have information readily available and free for users.
According to a recent
Wall Street Journal report, not every user will have to pay to view Fox TV shows on their website. On one hand users with a cable/satellite TV subscription will be able to enjoy the shows anytime at no extra charge. On the other hand, users with no subscription to either service will have to wait a minimum of eight days or pay up before they can watch the shows.
As a result, making non cable/satellite TV subscribers pay to view shows made by Fox will have a negative impact on their image and the social media effect. Was Fox not generating enough money from advertising revenue? Prior to this move, Fox would include 30 second ads in between segments of their online TV shows. Or is Fox clearly afraid of too many people cutting the cord?
Unfortunately, it has gotten to the point where companies want more and more money no matter what the final outcome is, even if it means them losing thousands of fans in the process. Another possible negative impact, as <a href="http://gigaom.com/video/fox-tv-everywhere-piracy/" rel="nofollow" target="_new">reported by GigaOm</a> in response to their own news story, is that viewers will "go back to pirating content." We can't help but question the value this move will add.