Network license fees should be based partly on how much content a programmer keeps exclusive to multichannel video providers, Rainbow Media Holdings CEO Joshua Sapan contends in an opinion piece in the current Multichannel News.
Sapan, whose programming company (with networks AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE TV) is owned by a big multichannel video provider (Cablevision Systems), proposes a "Video Value Index." A subscriber fee would be adjusted up or down based on how much over-the-top content a network offers, he writes in the piece.
AMC, he notes, does not offer full episodes of popular series Mad Men and Breaking Bad free on the Internet.
For the full Access piece from the magazine, headlined "Setting Sub Fees In an Era of Free," click on this link.
