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> Even if it were possible to make money under this model, it would be much less than the big media companies are making now. Why would they switch?

Well, they're not making money from these people anyway, why not find a way to monetize them? You don't cease your current distribution practices, you are merely creating an alternate way to monetize those people who you viewed as "stealing" in the first place.

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There's some obscure home improvement shows from overseas that I really enjoy watching. I'm surprised a local-to-me cable channel doesn't pick it up as cheap content, because it's well produced and pulls in big audiences in it's home market.

I'd happily pay $20 or so to be able to download/stream a season of it. But I suspect there's not enough people like me in the foreign-to-them markets who would pay the money to make it worth their while to get it on to iTunes (or similar), write some press releases, update their website to say it's available, etc.

Because trying to bring in $0.05/week from all these new people will completely destroy their existing market.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckie...

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