VOD Netflix/Streaming Services - Page 325

denphone · 17-12-2018, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by muppetman11

More the land of make believe

Well at least OB has a award to collect tonight as the dawn of OB has arrived on this forum.

**Chris** · 17-12-2018, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Well, what if, as an example, Virgin had a deal with Amazon whereby those with the existing subscriptions offers would be able to access Prime through their Virgin Media boxes and new subscribers through Virgin were offered a lower rate, but without the 'perks' and without the Amazon channels? Just one idea, but I think that with the range of streaming services Virgin could offer, together with the existing packages that are available for now, this could be made to work.

I do not share your distopian views of the future!

The problem here is not what could be done, but whether the vendors consider it to be in their interests. Just because you can describe a package, doesn’t mean Amazon would want to do it.

Amazon’s strategy is bundling as many services as possible into Prime membership in order to build a loyal customer base. As a Prime member, you only have to have a mild grumble at them in the event of a late delivery in order to get another month’s free membership. They sell their smaller tablets almost at a loss because it gives them another way of showcasing their services to potential new subscribers. That’s how badly they want Prime members to stay Prime members.

So yes, they absolutely could make a carriage deal with Virgin Media. But are they going to? No, they are not. It would undermine a strategy they have thrown many millions of dollars at. Ultimately, OB, these things are determined by cold, hard business considerations, not the utopian dreams of a couch potato.

OLD BOY · 17-12-2018, 20:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

The problem here is not what could be done, but whether the vendors consider it to be in their interests. Just because you can describe a package, doesn’t mean Amazon would want to do it.

Amazon’s strategy is bundling as many services as possible into Prime membership in order to build a loyal customer base. As a Prime member, you only have to have a mild grumble at them in the event of a late delivery in order to get another month’s free membership. They sell their smaller tablets almost at a loss because it gives them another way of showcasing their services to potential new subscribers. That’s how badly they want Prime members to stay Prime members.

So yes, they absolutely could make a carriage deal with Virgin Media. But are they going to? No, they are not. It would undermine a strategy they have thrown many millions of dollars at. Ultimately, OB, these things are determined by cold, hard business considerations, not the utopian dreams of a couch potato.

Of course they are, and it may well be that Amazon isn't interested in such an arrangement, but that was just an example of a different approach.

However, it is likely that Amazon would be happy to do a wholesale deal with Virgin, even on the basis of what they currently offer their customers. On the basis of, say, 5% commission, Virgin would stand to make about £4m from Amazon alone, assuming that there were, say, 1m customers on the Full House package. Multiply that by the number of additional streaming services coming our way and Netflix, and that provides a reasonable sum of money, half of which could be used to discount the amounts charged to customers.

This would be a good strategy to avoid the potential downsides of content reduction on the pay channels that muppetman was referring to, and of course this would be at a time when the number of pay tv channels are likely to be dropping back as well, meaning less cost for Virgin's TV service.

buckeye · 17-12-2018, 20:44

Just to let you all know Mubi are currently offering 3 months access for £1

https://mubi.com/

SnoopZ · 21-12-2018, 00:52

For anyone with a PlayStation Plus account you can get a FREE NOW TV Sky Sports week Pass, just enter your PSN ID in the link.

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/ex...y-sports-week/

muppetman11 · 21-12-2018, 10:50

Comcast/NBC Universal OTT

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-style-service

Unknownguy · 23-12-2018, 16:04

Amazon are currently offering 90 day free trials for StarzPlay, MGM, Discovery and Hayu. I snapped up all but Hayu. Ho ho ho

denphone · 23-12-2018, 16:22

Just the job for OB methinks..

pengedragon · 24-12-2018, 13:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeye

Just to let you all know Mubi are currently offering 3 months access for £1

https://mubi.com/

thanks for this. great stuff

muppetman11 · 27-12-2018, 12:33

Do Amazon not sell the Fire TV box anymore ?

SnoopZ · 27-12-2018, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Do Amazon not sell the Fire TV box anymore ?

Discontinued i think, looks like they want you to buy the 4K fire stick.

https://www.cordcutters.com/amazon-f...endant-no-more

Joedm45 · 27-12-2018, 22:59

A random thought popped into my head...

Wasn't Now TV due a 1080p upgrade by the end of 2018? I appreciate there's a few days left of the year but highly unlikely anything will happen now.

I've had a quick look on their forum and it is radio silence from the Now TV staff on there.

Even the mighty Sky get it wrong sometimes

Chad · 29-12-2018, 00:14

Anyone else notice how streaming services are becoming more like linear TV?

Finding more and more of the channels I subscribe to are now posting "Premier" videos which lists the time and date the video will stream for the first time. Here is an example:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qlb1R7Fns-0

This is scheduled to Premier tomorrow at 9pm. From my experience of this the video will play from 9pm just like a TV broadcast. If you join the broadcast late you can't rewind the video to the start. You join it as its live and can only watch it from the start once the uploader has streamed the content in full for the first time.

Slightly different scenario but seeing more and more content on netflix and prime, mainly US imports, where they confirm the time and date the next episode will be available from. How's this any different from broadcasting as we know it?

spiderplant · 29-12-2018, 10:34

Sounds like they are using multicasting, where they transmit one copy from source, and the network routers replicate it to all the people who are watching. It avoids capacity problems at the servers for very popular content.

Stephen · 29-12-2018, 11:03

To me it has a date and time due to it being live sport? That is not linear. It's just live.

Also when Netflix state a date and time for a new episode of a series, that is just the availability of it on the service. It's still not linear. You can watch it any time after its added. It's usually new shows that air weekly in the US, so they areaking them available as soon as possible. For example Star Trek discovery added new episodes each week last year at 8am the morning after it aired in the US.

Doesn't make it linear.