This price index would attempt to show how much it costs the average consumer to watch 1 hour of his favorite shows. It would be created by multiplying average cost per show per viewer by the percentage of each kind of show that consumer is watching, averaged across the entire spectrum of audio- visual content.

We can then recognize that cost as what needs to be covered by a mix of payment by the consumer and advertising. A comfortable mix of percentage of advertising time and direct payment can be arranged with some people choosing to pay for all of their content up front and others choosing to watch ads for a great percentage of their time and pay nothing directly for their shows.
-- Voice, Nov 24 2013

This idea is predicated on the assumption that consumers of media are capable of making an informed choice on the basis of simple, easily comprehended numerical data, and is therefore intrinsically foredoomed to immediate, spectacular and disastrous failure.

[+]

(From the title, we construed that this was something to do with the cost of producing software, which would allow us to make the commment that one hour of bad programming can be infinitely more expensive than many hours of good programming)
-- 8th of 7, Nov 24 2013


//some people choosing to pay for all of their content up front and others choosing to watch ads for a great percentage of their time and pay nothing directly for their shows//

And this is different from the current system how exactly? When I want to watch TV now, I just stream it. Some is included with my various services (Amazon, Netflix, etc.) and some I pay for directly. I think the last time I had to watch commercials was during the Olympics, which I had to go out and buy an antenna just to watch, since I haven't gotten ad-supported TV (i.e. cable or satellite) in years.
-- ytk, Nov 24 2013


Apple?
-- ytk, Nov 25 2013


// but without it they become an unknown rband over time. //

Not necessarily. IG Farben are still suffering from their association with Zyklon-B. You don't get many leaflets advertising Kalashnikov falling out of your Sunday newspaper; and with an advertising budget of nothing, Semtex-H has become remarkably well known …
-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2013


// Is this what is commonly known as semtex ?//

Yes.

// Should any buyers of the previous 7 iterations be worried about defects ? //

No, because (a) it's always been called that apart from by ignorant journos, and (b) anyone who buys cheap, nasty rubbish like that is not the sort to bother about quality of product.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2013


I think Sun was a much better candidate for continued dedication to quality (and contributions to humanity) than Apple.

(Recycled joke, because I thought the same as [8th]:

Q. Did you hear about the man who programmed in his sleep?

A. He had a code in his doze.
-- spidermother, Nov 25 2013


// I wonder if anyone can name a brand whose standards haven't dramatically dropped in the last 10 years ?//

Rolls Royce? they use to make cars that few could afford and didn't really work, now they make cars that few can afford and work really well.
-- bs0u0155, Nov 25 2013


// I wonder if anyone can name a brand whose standards haven't dramatically dropped in the last 10 years ?//

Microsoft. Because when you're already down at the bedrock, the only way is up.

Sadly, they seem to have missed that option, so they're still utterly crap.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2013


I was hoping this idea would be an app that programmers could use to calculate how much their opportunity cost is for each TV show episode they view.
-- sninctown, Nov 25 2013



random, halfbakery