Self-paced
Conclusion Selling syndicated reruns of a popular network television program while the program is still running on the network can lead to decreased revenues for that network. ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ████ █ █████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████████ █████ ████████ █ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that selling the right to air reruns of a network TV show while new episodes are still coming out can decrease revenues for the network. The reasoning is that while selling the rerun rights brings in a lot of money, ratings typically drop for the new episodes that are coming out.
Notable Assumptions
One assumption is that ratings are positively correlated with revenue. The premise is that when there are simultaneously reruns and new episodes, ratings for the new episodes drop. The conclusion is that revenue will thus decrease. We need a bridge that lets us conclude that lower ratings will mean less revenue.
Another assumption is that the drop in ratings is significant enough to outweigh the “great deal of revenue” from selling rerun rights. It could be that the ratings decrease reduces revenue by less than the benefit from rerun rights.
15.
The argument depends on assuming █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Programs that are ████ ████ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████
This isn’t necessary for the argument. It could even undermine the argument, by suggesting that the shows being sold for reruns aren’t making much money on their new episodes anyway.
b
A drop in ███████ ███ █ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████
This is necessary to bridge the premises and the conclusion. If a ratings drop didn’t affect revenue, then it wouldn’t matter for revenue that selling reruns leads to a ratings drop, and there wouldn’t be any support for the conclusion.
c
The price of ███████████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████████████ ███ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████
This isn’t necessary, and could actually undermine the argument. If the price of buying rerun rights includes extra to compensate the network for losses on new episodes, then this would reduce the likelihood of selling rerun rights leading to a revenue drop.
d
The audience of █ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████
A premise is that when reruns and new episodes air simultaneously, ratings for new episodes drop. (D) might deal with why ratings respond the way they do when a network sells rerun rights — but it doesn’t impact the core argument that reruns affect ratings which affect revenue.
e
Most programs are █████ ████ ████ ████████████
It doesn’t matter how many programs are sold into syndication — the argument isn’t impacted. If most programs were sold into syndication, the argument would stay exactly the same. The stimulus doesn’t say anything that’s dependent on the number of programs being syndicated.