The $ Value of a Subscriber

[lmsmedley]

I'd like to solicit opinions on this issue. Let's say I'm a super genius who has come up with some great new way to attract new subscribers, perhaps I've gotten Steven Spielberg to create and direct all the episodes of a new TV series exclusively for The 101.

Steven says, "Hey, get DirecTV to put up a $10 Million total budget for my show, and I'm in".

Question:

Since there's really no way to determine if a new subscriber has joined DirecTV solely because of Spielberg's new show, DirecTV has no way to specifically determine what the investment returns are on the show.

The best I can do is to say: The ARPU of a subscriber is about $80. If you back out the direct costs attributable to a subscriber, you net out about $50 per subscriber per month. Given that the churn rate is about 1.5%, doesn't this suggest that it won't take very many of these unidentifiable subscribers to turn the show a healthy profit, given the low rate of churn?

Obviously, this scenario ignores many other issues, but at the core, what are people's thoughts?

 

[Aridon]

They run survey's of statistical representative portions of their subs and get their information that way.

 

[jcrandall]

Ignoring most of your theory, DirecTV uses the phone connction and ethernet connection to "see" what people watch. Not individually necessarily, but they compile the data similiar to ratings systems. Take a look at the "what's hot" screen under the actie menu. That is a quasi-real time example of directv's data collection.

 

[gondwana321]

Ignoring most of your theory, DirecTV uses the phone connction and ethernet connection to "see" what people watch. Not individually necessarily, but they compile the data similiar to ratings systems. Take a look at the "what's hot" screen under the actie menu. That is a quasi-real time example of directv's data collection.

Just like Tivo does.

 

[ktk3438]

Do they still do that if you "Opt Out" on your account online?

 

[downthedoor]

D* spends over 200 dollars in advertising for every new sub. (I am not sure if that number includes the commission to the dealers). Also, the 101 is no longer in the family pkg, so you have to think of how many sup will up to the choice to get the new show.

Those savings would help reach the 10 million figure.