Ember Regis

ITV have suggested that they could charge for access to previews or alternative endings of Coronation Street. The show, and ITV itself, would remain free, but less basic content would cost the viewer to watch.

On the positive side, such a move would allow ITV to make a profit from fans who already watch their programming for free and would be willing to pay for extra content.

However, with the amount of free content available elsewhere online, a concern should be that viewers would ignore anything which they had to pay for, or even turn to a rival show instead.

Attention has recently been focused on The Times’ online paywall – a concept soon to be implemented by the News of the World – and its subsequent loss of 90% of its online readership. While an important experiment for the future of online newspapers, a big problem right now is that, because anyone accessing the Times’ website is now “locked out” unless they pay, blogs and tweets are no longer going to link to articles there.

Similarly, no one is going to be linking to ITV’s extra content if its hidden behind a paywall. This is unfortunate, because such links could provide rather more exposure, and perhaps more significant revenue than the paywall. Today, music artists give away an mp3 or two, or even a full album, and find themselves blogged about across the internet, leading to increased sales in paid-for downloads and people rushing to order their limited-edition vinyls and cassettes. Some television shows that can be streamed in their entirety on sites such as Hulu find their physical DVD releases soaring as, thanks to this online availability, more people become fans and begin to promote it themselves.

Both newspapers and broadcasters like ITV may need to find a similarly successful balance between free and paid-for content.