Satellite broadcaster YES has begun charging for viewing television content via the Internet. The company will charge NIS 5 for each chapter of the series "Heroes" for a 48-hour viewing period.
This is the first time that YES is charging for Internet content.
Two months ago, YES announced that it would offer the series "Heroes" on its joint website with Walla Communications Ltd. (TASE: WALA): YES Walla!
18 months ago, YES and Wall launched the site, which carries exclusive television content from YES. The programs, including full chapters of original and purchased programming, and Israeli and foreign movies, are also available to visitors to the site who are not YES subscribers. Most of the joint venture's revenue is based on online advertising, but the companies have decided to try to sell content.
YES CEO Ron Eilon recently told "Globes" that the company was definitely considering offering pay-per-view online content. "There is no current model that supports Internet content. If we have to make productions based solely on Internet revenue, there would be no productions at all," he said.
Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua said in response today, "This is a small trial poject. The joint venture works on a free basis."
The announcement is an admission that YES and Walla's revenue is falling. Walla is mainly suffering from a drop in online advertising revenue, which will probably worsen over the coming months. YES will probably see revenue fall as recession-hit subscribers seek ways to cut spending and as more people watch content online for free, rendering their television obsolete.
The decision to charge for online content also reflects a bleak truth affecting all websites worldwide: it's very hard to make money from free websites.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 5, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009