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Let's be real, it's all about what will get ratings

As far as ratings go, Thank The Great Bird that this Trek won't ever have to go up against sitcoms, cop shows and wrestling, or have to worry about it's time slot or getting moved around the schedule. As a niche genre, this Trek should do VERY well on the net. 5 bucks or no.

Good point. I mean, does anybody really think that the new show would last for more than one season if it aired in prime-time on CBS? How many other hit SF shows does CBS air weekly?

That depends on what you consider to be SF, CBS has put on shows like Extant, Under the Dome, Limitless and Person Of Interest. But then we have no idea how long a streamed Star Trek series might last.
 
One thing we absolutely don't know is how CBS is going to measure this as a success. As I understand it, foreign sales makes a significant part of the bottom line. I also understand that CBSAA has commercials. But do we really have the measure of what a successful streaming show will be for CBS? It is so different than broadcast TV and Netflix doesn't really release numbers. I can't imagine CBS will either. The only thing I recall seeing on numbers on streaming only shows is that Yahoo lost a ton on several shows including Community.
 
Since CBS will be charging for the service and hosting the show, they should basically be able to tell to the dime how much of the viewer ship is putting into the show. AS long as they make enough to cover whatever "costs" they have, they'll keep making it. That means they can kill the show anytime they want by suddenly lumping in more costs and claiming it wasn't profitable any longer.
 
One thing we absolutely don't know is how CBS is going to measure this as a success. As I understand it, foreign sales makes a significant part of the bottom line. I also understand that CBSAA has commercials. But do we really have the measure of what a successful streaming show will be for CBS? It is so different than broadcast TV and Netflix doesn't really release numbers. I can't imagine CBS will either. The only thing I recall seeing on numbers on streaming only shows is that Yahoo lost a ton on several shows including Community.

CBS will have their own internal metrics. It will likely be some combination of subscriptions, ad sales, and international sales. The lack of public data will make it more difficult for people to predict what CBS will do, but it won't actually affect CBS's decision making.

Since CBS will be charging for the service and hosting the show, they should basically be able to tell to the dime how much of the viewer ship is putting into the show. AS long as they make enough to cover whatever "costs" they have, they'll keep making it. That means they can kill the show anytime they want by suddenly lumping in more costs and claiming it wasn't profitable any longer.

It's a little more complicated than that because it's hard to measure if a user subscribed only because of Star Trek or not. Also, depending on how long they stay subscribed effects revenue and connecting that to Star Trek is tricky. They will likely have a good estimate, and presumably they have target numbers decided before a budget is set, but it won't be accurate to a dime.
 
It's a little more complicated than that because it's hard to measure if a user subscribed only because of Star Trek or not. Also, depending on how long they stay subscribed effects revenue and connecting that to Star Trek is tricky. They will likely have a good estimate, and presumably they have target numbers decided before a budget is set, but it won't be accurate to a dime.

CBS will know exactly what the subscribers are watching. Star Trek, being new, original content will get "weighted" more than reruns of NCIS being watched. They'll have a very strong idea of how much the show is making. "To a dime" was obviously hyperbole.
 
Of course it's about ratings. It was about ratings in 1966 and 1987, wasn't it?


if i was put in charge of making the decisions and my priority was making as much money as I could, I do everything in my power to spin off from the popularity of the new movies, right down to a quinto cameo in the pilot. and then i'd try to appeal to the brainless masses.

Stupid brainless masses, not being obsessed with minutiae of Star Trek continuity....
 
It's a little more complicated than that because it's hard to measure if a user subscribed only because of Star Trek or not. Also, depending on how long they stay subscribed effects revenue and connecting that to Star Trek is tricky. They will likely have a good estimate, and presumably they have target numbers decided before a budget is set, but it won't be accurate to a dime.

CBS will know exactly what the subscribers are watching. Star Trek, being new, original content will get "weighted" more than reruns of NCIS being watched. They'll have a very strong idea of how much the show is making. "To a dime" was obviously hyperbole.

I don't think it's hyperbole. CBS would know exactly how much % of my time (per month) I spent watching Trek vs any other show that was streamed. Meaning $6 x % spent on Trek = monthly revenue from rahullak due to Trek on CBSAA. Foreign (non-streaming)distributions are a different matter though.
 
if i was put in charge of making the decisions and my priority was making as much money as I could, I do everything in my power to spin off from the popularity of the new movies, right down to a quinto cameo in the pilot. and then i'd try to appeal to the brainless masses.

Stupid brainless masses, not being obsessed with minutiae of Star Trek continuity....

It wouldn't be an Abrams thread without someone knocking the intelligence of those who like the movies. :techman:
 
It's a little more complicated than that because it's hard to measure if a user subscribed only because of Star Trek or not. Also, depending on how long they stay subscribed effects revenue and connecting that to Star Trek is tricky. They will likely have a good estimate, and presumably they have target numbers decided before a budget is set, but it won't be accurate to a dime.

CBS will know exactly what the subscribers are watching. Star Trek, being new, original content will get "weighted" more than reruns of NCIS being watched. They'll have a very strong idea of how much the show is making. "To a dime" was obviously hyperbole.

I don't think it's hyperbole. CBS would know exactly how much % of my time (per month) I spent watching Trek vs any other show that was streamed. Meaning $6 x % spent on Trek = monthly revenue from rahullak due to Trek on CBSAA. Foreign (non-streaming)distributions are a different matter though.

Not that simple. Sure, you spent x% of your time watching Trek, but why did you subscribe? Did you subscribe only for ST'17, but once you were subscribing you watched other shows? In that case ST'17 should get the credit for the full show. But what if you were going to subscribe for other shows regardless, and then decided to check out ST. Then ST gets none of the credit. And of course those are the extremes. If instead you were on the fence and ST put you over, but ST alone wasn't enough then maybe the credit is split. If you just look at viewer data all 3 possibilities look the same. You need to infer user intentions. There are models built to try and determine an answer, but it's an open academic question and no model is perfect.
 
I would think they would figure it out by which shows you watch first, which you watch most, which you watch closest to their actual release date, and by time of subscription/unsubscription. It's not that difficult to see patterns in the data and give attribution. There are probably several more variables that they factor in based on trends they observe.
 
Of course. And that's likely what they do. But the point is, they don't KNOW for sure. It's just an estimate that is likely good for their whole subscriber base.
 
Well, I think it is a closer estimate to actual intentions than what you could get through just cable or network broadcasting. And I suppose that's one of the main reasons for creating a streaming service. More accurate data, more accurate analytics and eventually better models.

Heck, almost all of business is about making decisions based on incomplete data, no matter how broad or deep your analytics package or models are. But the closer you get, the better those decisions.
 
I'll be happy if it's not the prime timeline and if it's not like game of thrones. Trek works best as a semi-serialised show so it can do varied 'case-of-the-week' adventures but factor in the mythological world building and character development week-to-week. The Best of Both Worlds doesn't require you to have watched 3 seasons of TNG or even just Q Who to understand that story, but also even most of DS9 built upon stuff from previous episodes without it feeling like a chore.
I'm very optimistic about this series. I really liked Kurtzman's film People Like Us and I think taking some cues from Fringe in creating story ideas could be a good idea. Even if I don't watch this show or don't like it I'm just happy that it's given a chance to come back and try to be good.
 
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