Around
the world, pay-TV audiences sometimes complain about programme re-runs,
preferring to be served fresh content every time. Legitimate
preference. But it is the nature of pay-TV that programmes are re-run.
In an era of 24-hour programming, multichannel and multimedia broadcast,
it is impossible not to repeat TV content.
A
major reason is that costs associated with pay-TV content are so huge
that subscribers will be unable to pay if fresh content were to be
served every time. Content, it bears repeating, is acquired by pay-TV
companies at very huge costs from the producers and owners. It also
costs a king's ransom to produce.
For a pay-TV company to continually show fresh content, the cost has to be borne by somebody: the subscriber.
Movie content, for example, is produced in huge quantities by movie industries worldwide, with Hollywood, Nollywood
and Bollywood accounting for the greatest number of productions. Movie
content, or any content for that matter, takes time to produce. Movies,
in particular, are often first shown in cinemas before being broadcast
on other platforms, through which producers earn additional income.
Content owners, like the big TV networks,
allow their content to be distributed by pay-TV companies only of
successful exposing them on other platforms like the Cinemas, video on
demand (like the DStv BoxOffice)
and DVD. This strategy is financially viable only when enough episodes
of a television programme are produced to make the series valuable to
distributors through syndication.
The re-run system, particularly as it
supports syndication, has become the economic foundation on which the TV
industry does business. Deficit from production can only be recouped if
the programmes goes into syndication. It is only when a programme is
sold into syndication that the profits to owners are likely to be huge
and sufficient to pay off the cost of financing of original original
productions and to support the development of other programmes. The
entire system is dependent on a sufficient market for re-run programmes,
a market composed of independent television stations, international
television systems and on an economical means of reproduction.
Without re-runs, pay-TV companies will
have to buy tonnes of content to keep up with the demand of fresh
content. Can they afford to pay? Certainly not. Is there enough time to
produce enough programmes to fill the 24/7 requirements of modern
television? Very unlikely.
Re-runs and repeats are not used merely to
ease production schedules and cut costs. They are also a product of
contractual agreements between content owners and pay-TV companies.
During contractual negotiations, content owners often demand from pay-TV
companies that their content be broadcast, say 10 times, at peak
viewing periods and less frequently at other times. This means that the
control over how many times TV content is shown is shared with the
owners and not pay-TV companies, which are merely content vendors. Movie
content producers specify the number of times their films are shown
when negotiating with pay-TV companies. Going against such agreements
will certainly spell breach of contract.
It will also put a defaulting pay-TV company in the bad books of a content creator. And if a top-notch
content creator withholds its content from the pay-TV company, the
latter is at a big risk of losing subscribers.
Aside from this, programme re-runs are
actually necessary for TV because one person's repeat is another
person's chance to watch. Since occupational and social demands make it
impossible for everyone to watch TV at the same time, programme re-runs
afford those unable to watch at a certain time the opportunity of
catching up on their favourite content. They also serve the purpose of
those who may want to want to re- watch.
Even
in these days of video-on-demand (VOD) services and Value Added
Services like DSTV Catch-up, repeated content still has its place. Not
everyone uses VOD or DSTV
Catch-Up, meaning that many have to depend on re-runs to watch their
favourite content if they are not available when it is first broadcast.
And for kids' programming, research has
shown that repetition has positive implications for education by
providing optimal comprehensibility and audience retention.
In the early days of television, most
programming was live. This required the continuous production of new
programmes which, once aired, were gone. Certain program formats, such
as variety, talk, public affairs, quiz, sports, and drama were dominant
on the airwaves. With the exception of variety and drama, each of these
formats is inexpensive to produce, therefore the creation of live weekly
or daily episodes worked well for broadcasters. Television at the time
was not a 24 hour event.
But the nature of television like
everything else has changed. The financial and logistical demands for
twenty four hour programming has made program re- runs unavoidable.