"...that just smacks of opportunism and parasitism to me" – especially when you consider that this particular local cable-TV special – "a showcase of the area's open mike denizens" as Marion put it – is for all intents and purposes an advertisement for the local pubs. Clearly, the message being conveyed is "If you want to see and hear these people, come out to the open mike nights at this bar and that bar and the other bar." If I were in the situation, I would not want to pay even if I had won an audition to be on the program, because I wouldn't want to pay any part of the bars' advertising bill for that TV spot.