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Expect the brickbats to come your way Andrew as l mentioned it the other day and was immediately seen as some type of ancient out of touch old fossil.;)

---------- Post added at 05:34 ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 ----------

Illegal too...;)

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Of course it is..... but you know.... i would say a very high percentage do use it and it is easier than torrenting or using Newsgroups.

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Well it is their preogative if they want to go down that road but its not for me.

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I am sure you have downloaded something in the past that you shouldn't have, even if it was a TV episode not yet available in the UK?

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The article is "typical" Guardian fare, especially the bit where the author says "There’s a huge difference between not being able to watch everything because there’s too much choice and not being able to watch everything because you don’t have enough money."

There's never been a opportunity, yet, to watch everything either on channels or on Netflix.

As the author says, if you wanted to watch whole tv shows, just one season would cost over £15 to buy the DVD and if the tv shows were long running over ten plus years, this got very expensive. There was never a time before Netflix where you could watch all of a tv show on a tv channel, something totally omitted from the article. Netflix provided an exceptionally cheap way to view content, which obviously people got very used to.

Another omission is that you couldn't even watch shows and films for a very long time on Netflix because the rights expired, which caused and still does cause, major headaches for Netflix as people complain when content is removed from the service. Sometimes the rights are renewed especially for major shows, but many times they're not. So, it was never a eat all you can bucket that the author quips about.

Each media company having its own streaming services brings the possibility, the possibility, of providing a permanent archive of all their back catalogues, something Netflix could never do with other company's content.

DVDs, TV licenses, pay tv subscription all used to add up each month. Fast forward to today and if the DVDs are gone and if the pay tv superscriptions are, or at least pared back, then adding in most of the main streamers will be affordable to many people, especially those paying hideous amount like £100+ each month for their tv and broadband needs.

And just a reminder, which the author forgets, Amazon, Apple and Netflix's original content are all new shows and films, so of course the prices would be higher, because that's additional new content which was never available before.

Netflix and other streamers haven't necessarily made things more expensive, especially when you throw in DVDs into the mix, they've made things more available and expanded the choice immeasurably.

Do you remember repurchasing Star Wars for the billionth time on different formats and then special editions, limited editions etc? That nonsense is gone and I welcome it.

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Hi i've been a lurker of these forums for around 2 years but decided to sign up as seeing some rubbish getting posted, i work in media law and Kodi itself is not illegal it is perfectly legal and is infact a media centre/streamer.
However some third party apps certainly are illegal this applies for plex and Emby too.
Regarding torrents. Torrents are not illegal as a lot of freely available open source content is provided via torrents, however copyrighted material such as movies/tvshows/games/music etc is illegal, there is however free music/movies/tvshows etc available via torrents that are perfectly legal.
I will have my six pence on streaming now too with companies getting greedy this i think will infact result in a spike in the number of people using illegal/grey area methods to obtain content, using a vpn to obtain content you pay for yourself from another country is not illegal say you use ESPN+ that is not illegal but may be against t+cs of your isp and ESPN so be careful, obtaining it via iptv service you see on facebook for example is illegal.

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None at all. SnoopZ.

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You're a very very rare breed Den! :D

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Well if you don't agree with it that would be the usual default comment one would expect.

---------- Post added at 12:02 ---------- Previous post was at 11:59 ----------

Don't bet on it as companies are generally greedy and will squeeze out every last penny they can.

---------- Post added at 12:06 ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 ----------

Don't think that will suddenly disappear because it won't.

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 ----------

Don't worry SnoopZ as extinction is not that far away.;)

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Denphone, DVD's sales are in permanent decline, so not a sudden disappearance, just a withering into nothingness over the next few years.

Agree with your earlier comment though, about the media companies being greedy, but they still have to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

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l know DVD's are in decline as my point is whatever the format of delivery they will still try to squeeze out every penny they can from customers.

---------- Post added at 12:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 ----------

There is a big consolidation coming in the streaming world and many smaller streamers won't survive it in my view.

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Yeah, and the end of the world is nigh! :rolleyes::D

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I'd imagine the majority of people paying £100 + are taking Sport so I fail to see how they'll save in the world of broadcasters moving content onto their own OTT offerings.

I doubt it, history shows that old technology dies hard. Don't you know of the mini-revival of vinyl albums and cassette tapes?

So long as there are people like me who insist on buying DVDs as I want the security of having discs instead of relying on the vagaries of streaming, then DVDs will be on sale.

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So how much do you reckon you'd save if you no longer had to pay for the linear pay tv channels?

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Absolutely squat diddly do you seriously think that a company like Sky will just lose all its pay TV channels even if it did you'd still be required to take its streaming package instead likely costing the same.

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You could have a point Vince

https://torrentfreak.com/video-pirac...w-long-190628/

While this is positive news for entertainment companies, there is also reason for concern. Increasingly, the legal video streaming landscape is becoming more fragmented or siloed. This means that people have to pay for more services to see what they want.

These new restrictions could push people in the direction of pirate sites again.

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Hi welcome aboard , its always nice to get a new perspective especially from someone with legal knowledge of the media market.:welcome:

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Thankyou the company i work for advises for a very big media company i won't mention names and we have warned them in the past about blocking kodi itself and torrents outright, but their hands are tied and courts often order sites to get blocked and innocent sites get caught in the mess which opens up a new can of worms.
We have suggested to many companies that the way forward could be to make content available on as many platforms as possible and to get rid of region locks (live sport excluded ofcourse) our client is considering the latter.

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You're criticising the article for making points that it does not make. It does not claim that Netflix had all the content. The article says the "whole point of Netflix was that it was a relatively affordable bucket that contained an awful lot of television".

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Very good point Andrew , many choose Netflix currently for its low entry cost and content from many broadcasters they may not have it all but they a good selection.

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That is the reason why Netflix has been investing so heavily in original content. I don't see Netflix audiences collapsing any time soon!

I agree that some people find Netflix useful for old TV series, and indeed, some of those do attract large numbers. However, as long as Netflix keep expanding their content until it reaches the desired numbers, I believe that the number of subscribers will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.

We did not see a reduction in audience when their biggest competitor, Amazon, came on the scene, and the new streamers that will come in over the next few years I believe will be the second or third choice for most.

Rumours of the impending demise of Netflix are a little premature, if you ask me!

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Netflix isn't going anywhere anytime soon, they must however be careful with their price rises as people will eventually say "enough is enough."
I see one or two on here forecasting streaming will struggle, it won't struggle but companies need to think about their actions of launching seperate services and instead look at working with the likes of Netflix and Amazon to get their content on their platform.
If companies continue to launch their own streaming services the end game could be streaming would become more expensive than say a subscription from SKY/VM etc and this in turn could push people back to these subscription tv services.

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Nobody is predicting the demise of Netflix more the numbers signing up could slow.

With lots of third party content gone Netflix will be forced to increase its Original spend even further and it will be the subscriber who foots that increase so expect further increases in monthly subscriptions.

Comcast (NBCUniversal) , Disney and Warner will soon enter the market all of which have huge content libraries of both TV Shows and movies this will also add pressures to the Netflix numbers.

Netflix isn't going anywhere but it's certainly won't find it as easy going forward attracting the vast numbers of new subscribers it currently does.

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Do we have any idea if Amazon will launch on the tivos in July or August? Usually then they say "summer" virgin media mean late september....

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I'm hoping Amazon can show sport at a smooth frame rate. I think a lot of people will not be impressed with the Premier League on Amazon/Virgin at xmas otherwise @ Amazons current sports frame rate.

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That's the biggie for me too - the very latest live sport on Amazon Prime was still at 25Hz and with sport that is very noticeable.

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Let's hope Amazon pull all the stops out for the footie. If they do it well, it should start to make people more comfortable about streaming.

It's good that there will be no extra charge to view it.

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I have seen premier football on a large screen tv with the feed from a laptop - I won't say watched as the picture doesn't flow properly so I don't watch it.

Presumably this is what you are talking about or very similar?

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You get a fast stuttering effect on the picture.

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Well the BBC can do it, if only recently switching to 50fps for live sports events.

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Netflix have no plans to run ads https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/no-n...ng-to-run-ads/ they do however have product placement in their shows.

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Despite Netflix continuing to deny that they will run ads, people keep suggesting the opposite. I guess those people think they know best whereas they are clearly deluded!

I think it is possible (wouldn't put it stronger than that) Netflix might allow an advertising option at a cheaper price or maybe without a subscription altogether, but that is many years off, if it happens at all.

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It is obviously spreading then...;)

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It will happen despite your kicking and screaming reticence towards it.

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Maybe in future yes but it is not in Netflix's plans in the foreseeable future, product placement can often be more effective than running adverts after all we're less likely to fast forward product placements right?

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They only need to change their mind once in the entire future of human civilisation for you to be wrong. Once. In a very long time.

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True. And what evidence do you have for your distopian future?

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Er, so you know better than Netflix?

OK. Link? Evidence?

No, I thought so!

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Several were posted several weeks ago but you seem to have developed convienent memory loss as usual..

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On the contrary it’s not my dystopian future. It’s yours!

Advertising spend is at something like $600bn globally. TV accounts for an estimated 40% of this and TV (as we know it), you continue to remind us, will cease to exist.

That’s people that advertisers need new and innovative ways to target. Or, you could just offer a wad of cash to a streamer that’s in debt to the tune of $20bn. As ever it’s simply a matter of economics.

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Those links were just journalistic speculation. Netflix have just confirmed again that they will not introduce advertising. I think I would rather put my money on what the company says than on any wild rumours.

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So what if 40% of advertising is via TV? Is that supposed to worry Netflix?

Anyhow, TV advertising will not dry up simply because the linear channels disappear. There will be plenty of AVOD services around by that time.

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Again NETFLIX themselves have said they are not going to run adverts, they will instead continue to use product placement.
I'd rather go by what Netflix themselves are saying rather than various websites or rumours.
However this does not mean that Netflix won't change their mind in the future as a poll was ran and viewers said they'd be fine with adverts at a much lower subscription cost.
But for the foreseeable future adverts are not in Netflix's plans.

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For once we are in agreement - TV advertising won't dry up. Anything that has people with eyeballs looking at it, like Netflix or others, will succumb to pressure from advertisers ($$$) and the average subscriber will just have t wear it.

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Exactly.

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Companies say things to attract customers - that's a natural thing to do. That doesn't mean there aren't long term plans to do something in a slightly different way once people are 'in'.

It's easy for Netflix to say they won't now - indeed it could be a selling point in a market of company A through to company Z. Once the market consolidates into company A, B, C, D, E or F it'll be a quick way to fetch a large and substantial dividend.

As I've pointed out before - these companies don't just know what you watch - they can ascertain information about your lifestyle, wider household and others than present commercial broadcasters cannot. That's far more valuable on a localised level and personal level that how many ABC1s watch Love Island.

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BIB very true for example Gmail monitor your shopping habits and use that information to place relevant ads to you.

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Indeed - it's not going to be 18 minutes of random ads per hour. It could even be just one advert at the start of a programme. However it'll be so targeted it's talking to you.

It could be for a Mercedes, a beach holiday in Tenerife, a trip to Disneyworld, it could be Just Eat. The last of which could tell you popular local places, live estimated delivery times etc. Just Eat can then take that to their vendors and charge higher commission. If you've got kids they'll know the rough age (based on viewing habits) and could sell you all kinds of local 'days out' and even factor in the local weather forecast for the weekend into it (indoor or outdoor events).

The capability is genuinely immense.

The largest and most popular providers will be able to harvest the most data, and therefore attract the highest fees. Netflix, or someone else, could take the higher ground. However the evidence base from the vast majority of cable and satellite providers all over the world is that the added value of going 'no ads' doesn't outweigh not actually showing adverts.

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In terms of info on people, Netflix pulled off a blinder here and became the daddy of them all never to be repeated by anyone else.

It is highly unlikely that any other streamer will ever have the kind of access to the full spectrum of content from multiple companies that Netflix has enjoyed up to now. And by having all that content, Netflix has built up a mountain of info on user's viewing habits. That in itself is priceless.

On ads, like you, lets wait and see. Netflix is gradually turning the corner now from being a pure growth company into actually becoming a proper company that must make a profit.

We've already had phase one of this with the recent price rises, phase two is the brakes being put on content spend which some speculators are saying is just about to happen and the third phase may well be ads.

Netflix is on the top of the perch and it will take a awful lot for even someone like Disney to knock them off now, but they do need to start making money in the next few years and bringing that debt down.

On consolidation, as I'm sure you'll know, CBS and Viacom are about to recombine in the next few weeks and we'll see what streaming plans they come up with. Like Disney and all the traditional media cos, so far their plans are still based on having multiple streamers each, which I think is the wrong way to go about it. We may then see Discovery gobbled up by this company too, or get taken over by Comcast which again, will all effect what and how many streamers there will be in the future and how expensive it will be for us!

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But Netflix won't have too much of this wider info, as they're a pure streamer. If you're talking Amazon, Google etc, then yes. Oh yes. Far too big brother for my liking.:td:

My main investments at the moment, beyond companies like Netflix and Disney, are ones involved in all things cloud, especially digital ads and there is a lot more coming down the "wires" in regards to ads and other stuff - 5G.

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For anyone with Amazon Prime you can now watch on Chromecast which for me is a very welcome addition.

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It's been announced the name for the new WarnerMedia streaming service is HBO Max.

Interesting they are using HBO brand to house shows like Friends.

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Good spot - HDR too on the Ultra.

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I just knew i'd be famous one day.........:D

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Apparently the YouTube app is also now back on Amazon devices but haven't checked mine yet.

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Yes - that came back a few weeks ago - but no HDR on their HDR stick.

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HDR is on the 4k box.

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Yes - the brand NEW app does HDR for Youtube on the HDR Firestick.

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Question. When watching Netflix through the V6 is it pulling the stream through the cable or over your wi-fi?

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Think it is delivered over broadband.

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There is no modem in the V6 unlike VM's original Tivo so it uses the customer's separate broadband router via wi-fi. This is why TV-only customers can't have a V6 box, only broadband and TV customers can.

If I was being really pedantic the broadband uses the cable into you home and the router turns that into wi-fi, so technically the cable is always part of the equation. :)

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Will a streamer seek to defy economics and go for 3 seasons of La Liga rights?

Probably not.

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Not a chance.

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And you know this for certain do you?

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No one knows for certain but business economics suggest its very unlikely.

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I still don't get how you think that a streaming service cannot afford to bid for football rights, although Sky and BT can.

As it has been pointed out before, streaming is just another means of delivery. The only obstacle remaining is the extent of fast broadband coverage throughout the UK.

It will be interesting to see the viewing figures for Premiership football on Amazon at the end of the year.

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I don't mean any offence but the way you post things like "not a chance" makes it look like you know for certain, a better way might be "i don't think so."
Not having a go at you.
However i do think streaming services will increase their sports content, maybe we'll see something like a seperate sports pass from the likes of Amazon in the future.

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Amazon are wanting to get into the sport market. Getting la liga rights for the uk may intrigue them. I hope they do anyway...

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Existing Amazon Prime subscribers are getting Premiership football at the end of the year for no extra charge, and while we can't expect them to give us huge quantities of high quality sport for free, I think they will give us better value than Sky or BT do if they win some decent packages with the next round of bidding.

However, nobody knows for sure what will happen so let's hope there will be better value for all in relation to sports viewing in the future. Some of the short term sports streaming arrangements have not exactly filled everyone with confidence, but I think there will be significant improvements in the medium term, particularly if Amazon go for it sooner rather than later.

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l somehow doubt that Amazon will be interested in La Liga though? as you saw what happened last season with Eleven Sports as personally l think it will be on ITV4's channel along with probably Premier Sports.

https://www.sportindustry.biz/news/l...hts-uk-ireland

---------- Post added at 13:44 ---------- Previous post was at 13:42 ----------

That is only my own personal opinion though that l doubt very much that Amazon will pick up some of the La Liga rights.

---------- Post added at 13:48 ---------- Previous post was at 13:44 ----------

Well we shall see Legendkiller what the future holds but my own personal opinion is that the big premium sports rights will still very much be the domain of the PTV linear broadcasters.

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Haven't tennis fans moaned about Amazon's coverage ?

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It's got a LOT better over the last year. There was always going to be teething problems.

It will be easier for football. One match one channel.

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I was meaning more the frame rate issues and complaints on picture quality.

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The 25Hz issue is the biggest complaint here.

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I do think the big sports aka Premier league etc will remain on PTV linear but say for example smaller sports such as La liga could end up on a streaming platform such as Amazon.

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The current Amazon packages were not originally sold and are likely to have been attained dirt cheap. Therefor not much to lose by giving free viewing.

To win any of the serious packages will involve a much larger investment - if you believe you will get this for nothing dream on (just my opinion of course but time will tell)

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I find it a strange complaint. Cant get much quicker than tennis. Never seen any blurring of any sort :shrug:

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It doesn't blur - it gives an odd stuttering effect.

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Not on either TV that i own. I got Prime specifically for the tennis. I watch a lot! Both my TV's are Samsung.

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You are just not seeing it then.

25Hz is the old rate for streaming - most stuff is now 50Hz which is smooth.

For some reason Amazon have kept sport at 25Hz - and sport is where it is most noticable.

Once you see it - you never not see it.

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Good to know you're telling me what i see and what i don't.

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I'm not intending to be rude or anything - the internet is full of complaints about 25Hz sport and the bad effects it can show up.

Sport is shot at 50Hz for a reason - but Amazon choose to down-convert it.

BBC looks really good and is at 50Hz.

Also, Amazon doesn't seem to be as good HD quality for their sport.

I see the issue on both my 4K Samsung and 4K Panasonic. And also a cheap HD only tv.

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Nobody is saying they can’t “afford” to do it, just questioning if they can develop a business model to support it long term.

Sky/BT are established in the market, it’s hundreds of hours of content for what’s is relatively loose change absorbed across millions of subscribers who are already interested in sports content.

The same challenges would exist for a new entrant third party on Sky, Virgin or online.

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I didn't say they would give it away. That would be a bit of a stretch! But they may come up with a better deal for the punters.

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There’s the small matter to of the £4.5bn.

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BT are relative newcomers, but they have managed it. If existing providers are making a profit from showing Premiership football, then so can Amazon.

Clearly, if football subscribers to Sky Sports and/or BT Sport no longer find their matches broadcast there, they will migrate to whichever company then delivers the service. That's pretty obvious to me.

There is no secret magical formula that makes Premiership football work for existing broadcasters screening the sport but not for others.

---------- Post added at 11:43 ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 ----------

There are different ways Amazon could decide to play this. For example, it is quite possible that Amazon may make this a loss leader and charge less than is required to make a profit to draw more people into the Prime service. They may decide to top up their income from selling the rights to certain matches to the terrestrials.

My point is that Amazon could make this work and it is crazy to believe that only Sky or BT can pull this off. There is absolutely no reason to believe such a thing.

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No shareholders worth their salt are going to sign off on a £4.5bn loss leader in a single market of 27 million homes.

There’s actually a very good reason to believe Amazon couldn’t pull it off it’s that they didn’t make any meaningful bids for any of the packages last time round.

Selling to the terrestrials is a non-runner. Be lucky to get a couple of million per game for it.

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This is one of the big things we're all waiting to find out about, but the fact that Amazon has dipped its toes into Premier League and the fact that many of the PL teams are recognised globally, would seem a perfect fit for a global streamer.

If Amazon, Apple, Google etc decide to get involved in premium sports in a big way, they will blast away all existing pay tv companies, literally, as sports is one of the main linchpins of pay tv.

TBD - to be decided.

---------- Post added at 12:19 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

They had almost know "original" content of their own then, so it wouldn't have made much sense and why the single market?? Lots of markets on the globe.

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What are you on? I never said they would give it away for free, did I? But they may make it cheaper to subscribe, which of course will attract more subscribers. Nor did I suggest that they would allow the terrestrials to screen all the matches - of course they won't. They will want to ensure that as many people as possible take out a football subscription with them. But that doesn't mean they need to hog it all for themselves. They might do a deal with YouTube, for example, to show highlights - there are all sorts of things they could do to make more money from the Premiership rights.

It remains to be seen whether Amazon would aim to make a direct profit, break even or make a loss from such a venture, but if they went for a loss, it would be with the aim of increasing their overall profit across the business.

Not having made a serious bid last time around doesn't mean to say they won't do so next time.

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There are a lot of markets indeed, I think it’s quite arrogant to assume Amazon would seek to use England and it’s relatively expensive football rights as a test bed for this.

There’s other European countries with on average faster broadband, and cheaper football rights.

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I can assure you Amazon could afford that no problem if and it's a big if they went for more Premier league rights.
£4.5billion is what Amazon make in 6 months.
Another potential one to watch out for is Facebook with the launch of Facebook video they may and again it's a big may want to piece of the football pie.

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Ah another poster who confuses having money and having a business model to get a return on investment. They’re not a charity, nor do they engage in philanthropy.

---------- Post added at 12:46 ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 ----------

It was only last year. There’s a lot of speculation and “it remains to be seen” but no real insight on offer as to how they turn £4.5bn burning a hole in their pocket into £6bn+.

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What precisely is it about their business model that prevents them from bidding for the football rights? You seem to have a very blinkered approach to this. Obviously, Amazon exists to make a profit, but how precisely they achieve that objective isn't as black and white as you seem to think.

---------- Post added at 12:54 ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 ----------

Well, according to your rigid view of commerce and economics, Netflix shouldn't exist with all these 'originals' it is putting out. And yet...it does. It will be many years before they turn a profit, and similarly Amazon will not be concerned with the very short term implications of investing in UK sport.

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What prevents them bidding is no plan for a return on investment. How many times do I have to repeat it? They know it themselves (hence no meaningful bids and Sky getting more for less than in the previous auction).

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You can repeat it ad nauseum but l somehow doubt it would change his intransigent stance on it.

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I'm sure we went over all this last month or so, but if Amazon "do" premier league properly, it would be on a global basis, their streamer is global, it wouldn't be limited to one country all the time.

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True, but there's another £1bn, and you're not selling 'must have' content to the rest of the world. You're selling the equivalent of La Liga to us.

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How do you know that Amazon doesn't have a plan? Where is your evidence for this? You are making so many suppositions with this theory of yours and frankly, I don't find your conclusions to be credible.

I accept it is your view, but you present this as fact. I know full well that Amazon may not go down the route I have put forward, I am simply speculating on what might happen. But you are very dogmatic in saying that Amazon will not do this that one wonders what it is that makes you so sure.

It was not long ago that people on this forum were saying that Virgin would never get Prime onto its system because of the competition with its own channels, despite the fact that John Malone had already expressed his desire to see his cable companies becoming super aggregators of content.

Perhaps you just enjoy being perverse, in which case I will try not to spoil your fun too much! :D

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If Amazon had a credible plan they'd have made a bid last time out, when the value of the rights fell overall. This has all been a myth peddled by Richard Scudamore, and others, to try to push the value of the rights up and it failed.

My confidence comes from the fact it's a lot of money that is difficult to recoup in such a short timeframe without the existing and established high ARPU customer base. Does your average Amazon prime customer, of which I am one, want to pay £40/50 a month for a TV package that includes the Premiership?

It then creates a model where Prime in the UK diverges from Prime in the rest of the world, a low cost fast delivery option with a TV/music add on. Unless of course they want to swallow up key content in those markets too, in which case you'd be into tens of billions a year on content.

So with £5bn, why England? why football?

They'd arguably get better value buying an existing media company it's content and customer base and integrating Prime into it's products.

Re: Netflix/Streaming Services
 

Don't understand the £1bn comment, but on must have content, the premier league is not La Liga, it's the sporting equivalent of Hollywood and it has a massive fanbase across the globe and for many it would be must have.

There's loads of articles about this out there, but here's the first one that showed up on Google when I just looked up viewership figures:

https://contexts.org/articles/englis...de-popularity/

Re: Netflix/Streaming Services
 

12 million people out of 7 billion is still minority interest content on any level. It's not going to massively influence provider choices around the world.

Re: Netflix/Streaming Services
 

A couple of things here.

Firstly, none of us, including Amazon probably, know whether they will make a massive bid for rights in the future. What they have done is dip their toes in the water and see what the temperature is like. If its favourable to them, then I suspect in three years time it will be gloves off and they will try and by up all the rights. Evidence of this will come beforehand if they start to lobby regulators and government about being allowed to buy all the rights.

Secondly, on customers and recouping costs. I think you know Amazon has a "few" customers and currently at least 200m prime customers. Who knows how many other customer credit card details they have, but I'd suggest it's a "few".

There's a massive up-sell potential in terms of traditional "old" linear tv advertising to more targeted methods... The data they have on customers must be immense and very valuable.

Finally, Look at what Amazon themselves have said about Prime. They want people to view it as another utility like a cable tv bill or water bill. Then extrapolate where they might go with this and look at how much other utilities like gas/electricity/water cost...

Whatever Amazon may pay out for rights in the future, if they choose to do so, I would expect they would get their bucks back ten fold.