DISQUS

Digitalwerks: Piracy, streaming and “what works” for online video

  • Davis Freeberg · 10 months ago
    For as much as the studios like to complain about piracy, it's hard to be very sympathetic when they put those ridiculous geographic restrictions on the content. I don't know the details behind the policy, but I'm sure that it has to do with trying to charge more for the content. If you're going to tease a consumer with major marketing campaigns and then tell them sorry Jack, you've got to wait an extra year to get the film or TV show, it shouldn't be surprising that people will rebel and undercut their efforts. When you consider how far online video has come over the last decade, it's really depressing to see how little the content owners have budged. Hopefully, at some point they'll quit trying to fight the pirates and embrace business models for monetizing them instead.
  • Jorgan · 10 months ago
    Businesses should focus first on what customers are interested in. The failure of the music industry could not be more significant in their inability to adapt to their customer's desire for digital forms for their music. One reason piracy flourishes is when business fail to provide their customers what they want.

    I agree that TV and Movies are different models. Most customers, I believe, want different things from those mediums.

    A few things I think will dictate who will be the winners in the next few years:

    1) I want to view video content on whatever device I want. DVD, Tivo, Xbox, PS3, iPhone, PC, whatever. Figure out a way where I can watch my movies and shows wherever I want. Piracy already allows someone to do this, but there is a lot of room for a better experience. Video distribution sites that do this will succeed. Customer's don't like to be told "no".

    2) Make a LOT of movie titles available, with high audio and video quality. If you own a big screen tv, and surround sound, you don't want some crummy camcordered version of a movie. Make it easy to search the library, and have plenty of titles available. Movie distribution is competing against Netflix. The only advantage it offers is not waiting 2-days. Understand this, and market it accordingly.

    3) Provide 5.1 surround and high-def. The most common place to watch content is on the home theater. Anyone who is interested in downloading video right now is a technophile. Technophiles have 5.1 and high-def. Why do video download services still have 2 channel sound?

    4) TV Show download is different. Don't have "selected" episodes available, but provide entire seasons. Don't charge $2-$5 per episode for something someone could have Tivo'd for free. Find a payment or advertisement model that works. #1 is even more important.

    Davis, I couldn't agree more with your final statement. "...quit trying to fight the pirates and embrace business models for monetizing them instead".
  • ZeoTiVo · 10 months ago
    No mention of Netflix in all this??
    They are the ones that have sucessfully made it onto all kinds of devices and will soon show how to monetize that advantage, I am willing to bet.

    Hulu needs to move beyond browser based as that severely limits their reach onto the TV,

    and yes - content owners need to get off their restrictions and realize that TV is sucessful because it is subscription based.
  • kosmonaut · 10 months ago
    ZeoTiVo brings up Netflix, and that is an excellent point. They are doing a great job in delivering content where and how people want it, and I personally think Hastings and his team are doing great, great work. That said, they are still very much caught in the geographic limitations trap, and for that reason alone, are imo still something of a half-step towards where we will ultimately end up.
  • Sander van Zoest · 10 months ago
    Just to be clear, Joost, currently does not support UGC and went straight for licensed content. They certainly are trying to do it the right way from the start, but having been on both sides (Stage6/Joost), I would say that it isn't easy either way.
  • kosmonaut · 10 months ago
    Sander is absolutely right, of course, I should have been more precise in differentiating how Joost is different from the other "MeTubes." It's difficulties are not UGC oriented, but likely more attributable to the initial requirement to download a special user client.
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