SpongeBob SquarePants Coming to Google Video

OK, this is probably a function of my having a 10-tear-old daughter who is a devoted SpongeBob Square Pants fan, but I had to include this. I do, however, have an important question (read on):

Google gets its MTV
Google Inc. later this month will begin distributing clips from 100 hours of MTV Networks shows -- including "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's Video Music Awards -- to other Web sites. Under the deal, which is in a test phase, MTV parent Viacom reportedly would receive more than two-thirds of the ad revenue; in addition, the companies will sell 17 Viacom shows for $1.99 each via Google Video. (This was reported in a variety of publications 7 August 2006.)

My question is what are consumers willing to pay. Once again it would be great to sneak a peak at industry proprietary research (if they have it) and see what prices viewers are willing to pay. I, Bruce Klopfenstein, maintain that viewers (especially of SpongeBob SquarePants) will accept advertising in lieu of pay-per-view. In other words, I'd pit a Google video site with SpongeBob preceded by a 30-second spot and no charge for the episode against an identical site that instead charges $1.99 per episode which also slows down the process as many viewers enter their credit card information for a $1.99 purchase. Please, cite me. It's been my view that the PPV industry would have generated much more interest (and revenues) had it priced movies lower than it did in the last 10 years. (See my earlier posts in this blog documenting advertiser-supprted context elbowing out pay-per-view online content.)

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos! Don't smite me, let me know!