Hotel TV Companies Struggling to Get Your Cash
We will admit we love to walk into a hotel suite and see a high-def flatscreen TV with surround sound and a DVD player. At the luxury end, that's becoming more of a given rather than something special. What about all those pay-per-view shows and movies they want to charge you for though?
According to this article that ran in the Wall Street Journal recently, hotel-room TV is struggling. Two of the biggest providers of pay-per-view entertainment in hotels rooms have merged: LodgeNet Entertainment and Ascent Entertainment. The combined company has operations in a staggering 1.8 million hotel rooms, mostly in the U.S. and Canada.
The problem is, we're now carrying our own entertainment with us on laptops, portable DVD players, and Slingboxes, or we have video iPods we can hook into the TV. So the number of people choosing to pay extra money for to see Scary Movie 4 on their hotel TV is declining. (Though we're guessing the hotel porn offerings are doing just fine. Who wants to have their luggage searched at the airport and have porn DVDs spread out on the counter?)
The combined company hopes their expanded size will give them more leverage with content providers and they'll be able to offer current shows on an on-demand basis. So if you missed last night's episode of 24, you'd be able to pull it up whenever you want for a fee. They also hope to get current movies faster since DVDs are now showing up just a few months after the theater release. Will it all work? Stay tuned.
Related Stories:
·
Technology Journal: Hotel-Room TV Tries to Freshen Itself Up [MediaInfoCenter.org]
· 2006 Must Have Hotel Amenity: Flat Screen TVs [HotelChatter]
Leave a Comment
Not yet a member? Click here to become a member.
Already a member? Login below: