Dawn Osteroff Is Galactically Stupid

[heidi]

And yes, I know the risks involved in my criticizing a WB exec, but given the issues between the CW and WB itself these days, I hope nobody will get too irked at me.

Wired has an article today about Ms Osteroff's recent decision about Gossip Girl:

She's shutting down streams. From now until the end of the season, all new episodes can only be seen on Monday nights at 9 p.m. in front of the TV, recorded on DVR or via iTunes.

As Wired says, "hundreds of thousands of viewers who were watching directly on the CW's site will either have to tune in or turn to P2P networks to download the show illegally...." This Monday's episode drew in 2.44 million viewers, which is only 1% higher than the last pre-strike episode, although the 18 - 49 demo did go up by 7% from the pre-strike average.

Dawn herself told TV guide in an interview that ran last week, "The streaming numbers are quite large." But she doesn't seem to care, or she only thinks of iTunes in terms of streaming, perhaps. TVByTheNumbers said, "People watch on the web so they can watch it if they missed it on TV or just so they can watch whenever they want. With those people, for the most part, if you make it inconvenient? They just won’t watch at all."

They're right; most of us self-select our tv-watching times by time-shifting the programs we want to see.

It's long seemed that Dawn either doesn't care about certain (large) segments of the audience, or doesn't understand certain (large) segments of the audience. And I'm curious as to what is going into her business decisions.

Comments

[anchoredhope.livejournal.com]

They're also forgetting the number of kids who watch this that might live in dorms/shitty apartments and not have tv at all.

i mean, I have one, but it only gets three channels, and they're all fuzzy... and that isn't one of them. Most people I know have functioning tvs, but I can't be the only person who exclusivley watches tv online.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Exactly - and what about people who watch on their iphones? Because people are doing that now. It seems ridiculous to say to a segment of your market, "We don't give a fig about you." But they are.

[storydivagirl.livejournal.com]

Well, now it makes me not want to download it on ITunes anymore. I do that just because of how I like to watch it while I'm walking...but jeez.

And I am totally one of those people who makes her own tv schedule. There are only two shows that get watched when they're on (sorta - waiting until the time so I can speed through commercials and still finish with everyone) - Supernatural and american idol. If I couldn't make my own schedule for other things, I'd probably be less of a tv addict.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The only show I'm watching on tv while Heroes and Chuck are on hiatus is SPN, and while I am happy to enjoy my DVR, I recognize that others don't have one - and she's closing off a whole section of her market.

Why?

I mean, it would be one thing to say, "no more streaming of Medium" because I don't think the streaming-crowd is its primary market.

But GG?

Please.

[keytothecage.livejournal.com]

Steaming is the one of the only successful arms of a solution for networks to combat illegal P2P sharing. Any exec who closes off that avenue NEEDS to have other solutions that consumers will choose. I don't buy tv shows or movies off of iTunes because of their lack of options (you can't put those onto a DVD even though you can burn their music *rolls eyes*).

I agree with you. She'd better have a good explanation for this.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Exactly - people are happy to get things legally if it's easy to do so - and they generally don't mind some ads in the mix.

But without the legal methods?

Why bother, a lot of people will think.

Re: Dawn Osteroff Is Galactically Stupid

[redina]

And I'm curious as to what is going into her business decisions.

Hm, I'd wonder about 'new media' costs now being figured into paying writers where iTunes is paid downloads and CW is 'free' downloads. After all, Supernatural also got a budget cut for S4 and Smallville... Heh, the actors want out and even the writers dumped it.

Re: Dawn Osteroff Is Galactically Stupid

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

But with the writers' strike setup, streaming for a week or three after airing won't mean extra payments. I mean, under the setup I can understand not streaming older episodes because you have to deal with the accounting hoops - but recent eps?

Why?

Re: Dawn Osteroff Is Galactically Stupid

[redina]

Why?

Bandwidth costs money and I thought they were budgeting to cover more writer costs. Also, where did you gather streaming for a week or three afterwards wouldn't equate to extra payments? Streaming is still 'repeating' and advertising revenue is incorporated into these online eps. Just curious because that's how I initially translated some of the early proposals.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I have still not forgiven Dawn Ostroff for cancelling Everwood when she took over things, so criticise all you want. (But hey, she kept around Seventh Heaven! Way to make good network decisions, there....)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Iirc, TPTB at WB aren't thrilled with her either, but control over the CW is more in the hands of CBS/Viacom. So there isn't much they can do about it at this point - although I thought they said they'd be *beefing up* their online offerings.

Maybe next season?

[gorgeousnerd]

This is just my POV, but since I've heard enough of my online friends speak favorably about Gossip Girl, I was considering giving the show a try. The minute I heard they weren't going to be streamed online, I gave that up.

It's not that I don't have the CW (that's how I watch SPN), it's just that I'm not going to sit by my TV and wait for the show to try it. I mean, today's Thursday, and GG's on Mondays. Why should I wait that long, especially considering there are a bunch of other shows that are readily available online?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me!

[bitterbird.livejournal.com]

thats such a crazy decision
they really just will encourage illegal downloads which is worse for them...*sighs*
hope this doesnt affect the show because I like gg

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

At least it's been renewed for a full 22 for next season - but the ramifications could go beyond that.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Do you watch it on tv, or were you streaming it? Or both?