It's not a workable model. (Score 1)

Actually - whilst not being an expert in the matter - I can't see how it's a workable business model across the board from many perspectives. I'll ignore most aspects I can think of immediately and just state that the most glaring aspect is that they are certainly partially in a niche which if extended to the rest of the marketplace would result in increased costs of production coupled with reduced revenue from subscribers. Think about it - on the subscriber front - more content competition means the same number of subscribers to a larger number of services -- on the costings front - the competing networks who are now the sole providers of content are NOT going to be providing pricing to their competitors in a fashion to be considered representative of true cost. I'll admit presently show producers have a vested interest in making their show profit but they also have a vested interest in making their product as available as possible to many consumers. Putting this solely into the hands of the networks is a conflict of interest IMHO. Apart from that - how would we ever find out about the new shows which nobody has heard of or is willing to pay for. What about the business case of funding days of our lives Vs an untried show concept like mythbusters. We all love mythbusters after the fact but before the fact we could hardly have been described as a fan. I think the comment that it's a workable business model in so far as 'everybody should operate like this' is a bit shallow in real world interpretation, shortsighted and rooted in the 'mythology' of the present dynamics of the market.