Shhh..... remember my cable bill used to be 40 bucks 22 years ago. That includes hbo.

I think it would be interesting to see rise of actors' fees over that period of time. Sure cable companies make money but most money seems to be going to TV networks and in turn TV actors.

Most of the cost of blockbusters is marketing.

> Hollywood continues to wrestle with rising marketing costs, particularly overseas, which can make up 70 percent of a film's gross.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/200-million-rising-hol...

I would not be surprised if they did that to move money into the "costs" column for the movie, while still funneling value into advertising companies owned by the parent.

   Sure cable companies make money but most money seems to be going to TV networks and in turn TV actors

Do you have figures on that? I would surprise me if actor salaries were major cost, but I don't know the industry.

I guess you are right. This is one link I found about TV show economics http://priceonomics.com/the-economics-of-a-hit-tv-show/

I bet pro athletes, sports leagues, and college conferences take home more of the money than actors.

Mine includes 8Mbps internet access. I'd love to "cut the cord" but I don't want to give up regional sports and live network news.

> regional sports and live network news

Precisely the things I don't watch :P

>$10/mo. is incredible value for Netflix

Let's see what the price is when they are entrenched as a global monopoly with a vast catalog of culturally relevant content that you can't get anywhere else. It may very well act as Hollywood on steroids.

$10 sounds unsustainable for this catalog (heck, €8 in France for single-watchers). The expectable price is rather $30. That's just an initial promotion, the customer lifecycle value they are ready to extract should be much, much higher.

Crunchbase tells us that the only investment was $36m. The rest is regular debt, $1.7bn! It just shows how much banks trust their business model.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/netflix#/entity

Of course it will. If there isn't adequate competition, every company will do this. If you have an executive in place who refuses to do it, the shareholders will fire and replace him. This is exactly why free markets that stimulate competition are extremely important. Our current copyright laws make competition very difficult, especially if you're not starting with a multi-billion dollar war chest.