6 People Are Speaking Their Mind

1. nick Says:

   October 20th, 2008 at 7:30 am

   shows originate in the us and the delay them to other countries. they dont want the programming getting out earlier before they are released in the other countries

   now that im on holiday in germany from the usa i feel your pain. its much better surfing online in the usa than in europe

2. dali Says:

   October 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

   agreed.
   It took them years to realize that to lower piracy, just offer your EXACT SAME CONTENT online for free WITH the advertisements, and people will go there. Let them see the ads that you choose. People are lazy…they would rather easily go to the source site and be guaranteed to find the episode, albeit with commericials, rather than take the time to search/download.

   Slowly, they will realize that the world is the market…

   Slowly.

3. Facts Says:

   January 21st, 2009 at 6:26 am

   Your blog is very good, but quite often you commenting the geo blocking makes is feel quite unprofessional.

   You say you know the facts, but still…

   Geoblocking and territorial licensing is there to stay for a very long time.

   Just compare the market sizes: the _whole_ EU online ad market is the size of the music market and licensing and video market is way above music market ->

   even if online video ad market would be size of the whole online ad market, it’s still way below the licensing market.

   studios are not that fucking stupid that they’d cannibalize their licensing biz with open ad model.

   AND uk market is the only beach-head market, penetrating whole europe with ad model is far more expensive than doing the same in US, plus you have to localize and adapt to local laws in Europe. UK is easy, the rest is not.

   stop bitching about the blocked Hulu etc. geofiltering is there for a very rational reason. bring those reasons up and track the market sizes instead of writing stuff like a dumb consumer.

   otherwise your comments have been very objective.

   maybe should think outside UK to understand better.

   keep it up!

   .G

4. Chris Tew Says:

   January 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 am

   Territorial licensing is bad full stop in my opinion. I understand the business well and the purpose is to create scarcity. Scarcity of access to content people want to watch so they are forced to pay more.

   It is also about fear from content holders about releasing something worldwide potentially causing them a loss in revenue.

   It is about old and out dated business models being forced upon a new era of technology where they are no longer needed.

   As long as rights holders play this game piracy will continue to flourish and get bigger and bigger, as it has been doing over the past decade.

   Moving to a more direct ad supported model is just one sensible solution – in traditional TV licensing is usually just cutting out a middle man anyway, the licensing fee is often paid by advertising with the middleman broadcaster taking their cut.

   The technology exists to allow geo-targeted advertising and demographic targeted advertising within video. It is not making progress because rights holders are refusing to embrace it and going against consumer will, good ethics, and the ultimate direction of this business.

   That does not mean licensing is out though as licensing to online broadcasters or offline broadcasters will still remain a model, as will pay per view models. It will just be competing against a model which ultimately benefit everyone far more than the old model.

   Until this model is embraced piracy will remain a massive and unsolvable problem, because in many ways piracy is offering the better user experience at the moment.

5. ed Says:

   May 16th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

   I couldn’t agree more. I live in Australia and am now beginning to use my computer more and more as a TV. Hulu and the likes of NBC have made this harder and harder. As you have pointed out, for most non-US internet users, the immediate solution to getting full TV episodes is piracy. This is a lose lose situation.

6. Mika D'Alvis Says:

   August 6th, 2009 at 5:56 am

   I agree. Territorial liscensing is a load of rubbish – if I were to see a really good movie or something on there, I would go and buy the DVD as I would watch on a bigger TV screen in better quality. Why don’t these people realise that to go global would mean more profit?!?
   As I reside in the UK, LOADS of sites say that I’m not in the right country. Why should people from another country get things that I don’t? There’s nothing wrong with England…so why aren’t they letting us watch these things?