Just a few short years ago, you didn’t have much say in answering that question.  It wasn’t a conspiracy, just the opposite – everyone from the gaffer in the studio to the cable guy wanted you to find something you liked to watch so much you would pay good money for the opportunity.  They really cared and care that you like what you see, their livelihoods depend on it.  From a choice of three networks a few decades ago, you can now pick from a few hundred.  Missed a show you like?  First came syndication.  The VCR came along, letting you record a show to watch later (if you remembered, or had a friend who was willing to share.) Then came official VHS tapes and DVDs collecting episodes for you to buy.  Cable got into the act with Video On Demand.  TiVo invented the PVR.  Broadband internet connections reached enough households that suddenly a whole new path for finding something to watch opened up.  YouTube and BitTorrent revolutionized video distribution.  The content owners came back with managed web services such as Hulu.  Today, if you are persistent and perhaps a bit creative, you can find just about everything ever filmed, though you may have to rely on something like the mail (Netflix) or eBay (old video tapes).

So how do we, the consumers, actually end up financing all this great (and perhaps not so great) content we voraciously consume?  The simplest answer is that we pay for it directly, through our cable bill, buying DVDs, or going to the movie theater.  Under the hood, though, the mighty advertising dollar ends up paying the vast bulk of the “cost” of producing and distributing all of this content.  While most of us will admit we are willing to accept an occasional advertisement as the cost of watching what we really want, our viewing behavior actually shows that ads are content too – we still watch ads even on our DVR, people post and view ads on YouTube for entertainment, and we all get really, really annoyed at watching the same advertisement over and over again. Kate Sirkin of Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group notes (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132884) that “while it takes only three ads to cause wear-out in print — about the same as it did 10 to 15 years ago — a TV ad these days can reach the same point after only eight showings, down from 15 to 20 during the same time period. Consumers are more aware of a greater range of entertainment choices, she said, and are ‘all multitasking, less patient, and don’t like to have [their] time wasted.’”     

The internet has shown that we like having help finding things, whether it is a video to watch or to buy some new device to watch it on.  The basic ability to link the moment something catches my attention to a wealth of information about it has been revolutionary to the world of brand building and successful marketing.  The antiquated model of shotgun advertising, hoping that a handful of those millions of impressions actually stick in someone’s mind, is actually driving the modern consumer away from television.  We’re smart, and we want to know more about things that interest us, but give us some credit and for heaven’s sake give us some control or we’ll take it ourselves and not look back.