Interesting Links for 30-07-2015

• Is your brain really necessary (and why is there a maths genius who only has 5% of one?)
  • (tags: mathematics brain water )
• Dozens of fathers among migrants to be forcibly deported tonight
  • (tags: migration family UK )
• Scots back women's right to choose as prospect of abortion laws being devolved to Holyrood discussed
  • (tags: abortion Scotland )
• Wi-Fi Sense in Windows 10: Yes, it shares your passkeys; no, you shouldn’t be scared
  • (tags: security Windows WiFi )
• Tax havens: Super-rich 'hiding' at least $21tn
  • (tags: tax wealth )
• The bee-sting theory of poverty
  • (tags: poverty economics psychology money )
• Our policy in the Middle East is bad and getting worse
  • (tags: middle_east politics military )
• Tom Cruise lip-syncing to Meatloaf is something to behold
  • (tags: TomCruise video music viaKillerWeasel )
• Is it wrong for a dad to want to pass on his surname?
  • (tags: names patriarchy parenting men OhForFucksSake )
• The difference between "Hispanic" and "Latino"
  • (tags: america brazil spain language Mexico )
• Music made from Pi (works really well)
  • (tags: music numbers pi video )
• Engineers, safety, why we're different and why it's complicated
  • (tags: engineering safety )
• No, scientists aren’t predicting 10ft higher sea level by 2050
  • (tags: globalwarming )
• The 3 Biggest Things That Bother Men In Bed
  • (tags: sex men stress viaTheFerrett )
• Prostate cancer is five different diseases
  • (tags: prostate cancer )
• QUIC Experiments
  • (tags: Google internet )
• China sets up first unmanned factory; all processes are operated by robots
  • (tags: robots manufacturing China )
• On Corbyn: What if the rules have changed?
  • (tags: politics UK Labour viaJennieRigg )
• Provocative new study finds bullies have highest self esteem, social status, lowest rates of depression
  • (tags: bullying status self-esteem )
• Programmers - Do Terrible Things To Your Code!
  • (tags: programming testing )
• 10 heavenly psychology studies you'll wish you'd participated in
  • (tags: psychology awesome )

The economics of subscription TV is interesting

I find the difference in behaviours between subscription TV (HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime) and broadcast TV fascinating. One thing that didn't really click for me, until today's announcement, is how ratings drive their behaviours very differently.

For a broadcast TV channel, they make their money from advertising. They want as many eyeballs watching them every second as possible, so they can charge their advertisers as much as possible.

But for a subscription TV channel, they don't care if an individual show has six-million viewers - they care whether it appeals to six-million viewers they don't already have. There's no point Netflix producing Blue Is The New Black, a spin-off which appeals to exactly the same people as watch Orange Is The New Black. Those people already have a Netflix subscription, and they don't pay more if they binge-watch two series a year. But if they can pick up Jeremy Clarkson: Swearing At Foreigners* then that's going to largely be several million different people, all of whom have to pay their monthly subscription in order to see what wacky hijinks Clarkson gets up to this week.

Of course, one must-watch TV series per year probably isn't enough to have people paying £60/year. But one must-watch TV series plus a bunch of reasonably good old TV and movies probably is. After all, HBO are happy to produce three dramas, eight comedies, and ten unscripted shows over the course of a year. It's not a lot - but clearly it's enough to keep people subscribing.

*Which Amazon just outbid them for.