Free products also depress the value of close substitutes. While it may require charging $100 per ticket to recover the costs of a $1 million theater play, some filmmakers can make money on a $200 million film by selling $10 tickets to consumers who are unwilling to wait a few weeks until their cable TV provider offers it.
在许多其他产品，比如维基百科和公共电台，却难以实现收支平衡。因为免费的产品同时也压低了近似替代品的价值。有些花掉100万制作费的舞台剧可能需要100块钱门票，但某些电影制片人可以通过出售10块钱门票给那些不愿等到电视播放才看的消费者来赚钱，虽然他们的电影成本是2个亿。