Not exactly. Since a pretty high percentage of the channels on cable television are all owned by AOL Time Warner, AOL doesn't have to pay anything for the ad space on channels like CNN, TNN, TBS, and the WB. On the other hand, it's far from free, since they're not getting anyone else's money for that same ad space. It's cheaper for them in the long run, though, since they don't have to go on the ultra-cheap to sell ads in unused space - They can just fill them with their own.

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The time I went through aohell, I actually got 4 months free instead of the one and never paid anything, being a heavy user as well. Though I would rather pay the $10 I'm paying now rather than get free aol.

And that's not the half of it. AOL actually must make more money off its marketing strategy than it does from the subscriber service. They're not just losing $23.90 a month when they keep you on their network. They also pay out employee bonuses to employees who do anything legal (and sometimes not) to keep you from withdrawing your service. There are many horror stories out there of people who called to cancel, thought they had, and then found out that the service was still on three months later. They wouldn't have found out if AOL hadn't started billing them again since their "giveaway" months had run out. The AOL operators will tell you what you want to hear, and then renew your subscription anyway, just to get the bonus.

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Well, wait a second. 25,000,000 x 23.90 = $597,5000,000 a month. Ok, I see how they make money. my 200 cd's probably cost them a penny. How much do commercials on Fox, CBS, NBC, WB, and ABC cost during primetime? Say 4 per hour.

Well, as you noted in the next post, your subscriber count is way off. Don't forget - That includes CompuServe as well, now, since AOL owns CompuServe. And as I mentioned above, they pay nothing for ads on the WB, since they own it now.

AOL's operating costs *are* high, but I wouldn't trust figures posted on their own site, seeing as how they're wide open for internal fudging and bias. Look up reports from the SEC for a (hopefully) more accurate view. Naturally, they'd paint only a pretty picture on their website...