#6 - A film makes a profit if the number of people who see

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Resolve the Paradox. The correct answer choice is (D)

The author of this stimulus discusses one distinction between the goals of movie executives and television executives. Since films make profits when their ticket sale revenues exceed their production costs, movie executives are mainly focused on maximizing the number of movie viewers. For some reason, television executives are not comparably focused on maximizing the number of television show viewers.

The question that follows asks for a resolution to the discrepancy, so the right answer choice will provide some explanation for the difference between the goals of movie and television executives.

Answer choice (A): People’s willingness to sit through multiple viewings is not relevant to the paradox, which deals with the question of why television executives would be unconcerned with the total number of viewers of their programs. Since this choice does not resolve the discrepancy presented in the stimulus, it cannot be the right answer to this Resolve question.

Answer choice (B): Refreshment sales are not mentioned in the stimulus, so this choice does not resolve the paradox presented. The author only says that movie executives are primarily focused on ticket sales, while television executives are not concerned with maximizing their number of viewers.

Answer choice (C): The stimulus does not deal with production costs; the discrepancy lies in the difference between television executives, who are not concerned with maximizing viewer numbers, and movie executives, who are mostly focused on ticket sales.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. This is the only choice that explains why television executives would be less interested than movie executives regarding the total number of viewers; if, as this choice provides, sponsors are mostly concerned with their viewers’ purchasing power, then total number of viewers is less relevant than it is for movies.

Answer choice (E): Regardless of how many television shows have to be paid for, the paradox is based on the fact that movie executives want to maximize ticket sales, while television executives are unconcerned with maximizing their viewers. Since this choice does not resolve that discrepancy, it should be ruled out of contention.

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello,
So I have a clarification question. So this is a resolve the paradox because the question stem is asking to explain the difference between the goals of movie executives and those of television executives. So I had initially picked C, because of the last part of the stimulus that says its not the primary goal of television execs. to maximize the # if viewers for their shows. But upon further review, C is incorrect because the avg. cost is an irrelevant factor in the movie execs. wanting to maximize their viewership while the TV execs are not concerned with that. Is this correct?

Also its seems that when I'm reviewing my test, I'm in between two answers, is there a better way to pick the right one?

Thankyou
Sarah

[David Boyle]

Hello,
So I have a clarification question. So this is a resolve the paradox because the question stem is asking to explain the difference between the goals of movie executives and those of television executives. So I had initially picked C, because of the last part of the stimulus that says its not the primary goal of television execs. to maximize the # if viewers for their shows. But upon further review, C is incorrect because the avg. cost is an irrelevant factor in the movie execs. wanting to maximize their viewership while the TV execs are not concerned with that. Is this correct?

Also its seems that when I'm reviewing my test, I'm in between two answers, is there a better way to pick the right one?

Thankyou
Sarah

Hello Sarah,

Yes, the average cost per hour doesn't seem very relevant.
As for your second question, that is an extremely broad question that much of the PowerScore courses or materials are about answering. Besides saying "Think carefully", I'll say that you may want to go back and review the theory of any PowerScore books you have, to see techniques for choosing the better answer between two contenders. (One additional tip is to look closely at the conclusion of the stimulus, if there is one.)

Hope this helps,
David

[deck1134]

Hi PowerScore,

I don't really understand why answer E is wrong. If the Television network execs simply don't care that people don't watch shows, doesn't that resolve the paradox? It that a difference that accounts for the "paradox?"

[Sky Brooks]

Hi Deck,

The essential part of the paradox that needs to be attacked is, why is the money made from television shows, not directly proportional to the number of people who watch the shows?

Answer D is correct because it directly answers that question. "TV shows make their money from sponsors, who are chiefly concerned with the purchasing power of the viewers". They care more about how much the average viewer can spend than how many people generally tune-in. Therefore, the money made from a TV show is not directly proportional to the number of viewers, it's the "quality"/ability to spend money, that takes precedence.

Answer E is incorrect because even if half of the most popular shows are shows that viewers don't have to pay to watch, it could very well be that the number of people who do watch the other half is directly proportional to the amount of money made by the television shows. This answer does not attack the possibility that the money made is somehow not directly related to the number of viewers.

Hope this helps,
Sky

[Dave Killoran]

Hi PowerScore,

I don't really understand why answer E is wrong. If the Television network execs simply don't care that people don't watch shows, doesn't that resolve the paradox? It that a difference that accounts for the "paradox?"

Hi Deck,

Thanks for the question! The problem here is that (E) does nothing to "explain the difference between the goals of movie executives and those of television executives," which is what the question asks you to do. Sure, accepting your statement, we now know they don't care, but why is that the case? How do they make money? That's unanswered, and thus this doesn't meet what the question stem wants you to do.

I'd also take issue with your assertion that "Television network execs simply don't care that people don't watch shows." That's not what (E) is saying but above I wanted to treat that statement as true and proceed in order to show a problem with it. The problem with (E) is it just cites a fact about half of the most popular television shows, but it gives us nothing behind that fact, and we need a reason to explain the difference here. We're seeking active resolution of the difference, which (D) provides (it's sponsors paying!) but (E) does not.

Thanks!

[deck1134]

Thanks, Dave and Sky! I really appreciate it.

[lemonade42]

Hello!
I originally chose C because I thought that since it doesn't cost as much for TV executives to make TV as compared to movie executives making movies, then they would be less worried about viewership because they aren't worried about generating money from viewers like movie execs. Can you explain what I'm thinking wrong?

Is it because the comparison of production costs doesn't really tell us much about the actual production cost? Like just because it said movie production costs is "greater" than tv production costs, it doesn't mean that the TV productions aren't still high.

[Chandler H]

Hello!
I originally chose C because I thought that since it doesn't cost as much for TV executives to make TV as compared to movie executives making movies, then they would be less worried about viewership because they aren't worried about generating money from viewers like movie execs. Can you explain what I'm thinking wrong?

Is it because the comparison of production costs doesn't really tell us much about the actual production cost? Like just because it said movie production costs is "greater" than tv production costs, it doesn't mean that the TV productions aren't still high.

Hello, lemonade42!

We are told that films make profit if the # of people who see it generate revenues beyond production costs. Therefore, the primary goal of movie executives—who are primarily concerned with making a profit—is to maximize that # of people. Then we are told that TV executives do not share that primary goal.

So, operating under the assumption that TV executives are also primarily concerned about making a profit (that's what executives do, after all!), we are looking for the answer choice that demonstrates that TV shows make profit a different way.

Meanwhile, answer choice (C) tells us that the cost-per-hour of film is, on average, greater than the cost-per-hour of TV shows. However, this doesn't tell us anything about why TV executives wouldn't care about maximizing the number of viewers, right? So we still don't have that missing piece explaining the discrepancy between TV execs and film execs.

And yes, you're right—comparing the production costs doesn't tell us much about the production costs! I mean, even if TV costs less to produce than movies, it also is much cheaper to access—movie tickets are, let's say, $10 each, while watching an episode of TV just costs a fraction of the cable or streaming payment plan you're on.