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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (29526)	8/17/1999 9:45:00 AM
From: RocketMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

And keep in mind that free TV can afford to be free because of several factors unique to the broadcast industry. For example, they are regulated by frequency and location, so that gives each station a local market niche and controls the amount of competition they have to deal with. If barriers to entry were as low for them as they are to ISPs, their profit margins would be so low as to drive all but the strongest out of business. Furthermore, their infrastructure cost per additional viewer is negligible to zero. For ISPs, every new sub means one more modem port that has to be supported, and one more transmission through the lines that has to be paid for. Another factor is that their advertising model is mature, and advertisers can predict their sales growth as a function of TV advertising profiles. With ISPs, the models are still being developed. If free TV had to deal with these and other factors common to ISPs, they would not be free for long. That is why I think free ISP is a gimmick in the early days of the internet, trying to build a sub base before they start charging. AOL already has the sub base, and that is a hard mountain to climb for others. P.S. I needed a wide screen TV to fit your last post.