5 ms·

It's probably not even possible to offer US cable networks outside of the US. They only have licenses from the content creators to show inside the US. Besides,

by guyzero 10y ago

It's probably not even possible to offer US cable networks outside of the US. They only have licenses from the content creators to show inside the US. Besides, all their competitors are US only as well - Sling TV, DirecTV Now. Someday who knows, but for now live linear is very region-locked.

frandroid 10y ago
Parent's point is still valid. There's another 3+ billion of internet users outside the U.S., it would be nice not to be an afterthought's afterthought. They just need to say "Sorry, this product will not be available outside the U.S. at launch." Is it so hard?
- bfred_it 10y ago
  Yes it is. From what I understand, a network will license a show to another network in another country, probably in an exclusive way. So they can't just "oh yeah you're paying us millions to distribute in your country? Let me just walk over you by streaming directly to your customers." It doesn't work like that. These contracts are worth more than the few users that are willing to pay to stream across borders. Sad but that's TV life.
  - khedoros1 10y ago
    >> They just need to say "Sorry, this product will not be available outside the U.S. at launch." Is it so hard? > Yes it is. No, notifying that the offering won't be available outside of the U.S. wouldn't be difficult. Actually offering it outside would (and I think that's the question you were actually answering, which wasn't the question that was asked).
  - mikepurvis 10y ago
    This kind of thing is part of why Netflix & friends are so keen to create a bunch of original content— it's theirs, exclusively, and they don't need to deal with navigating all these preexisting commitments.
- thewhitetulip 10y ago
  It was a running Joke about Netflix, "Available from anywhere across any OS [in the following regions North America, Europe etc]"
Nullabillity 10y ago
They aren't competing against traditional cable providers, they're competing against TPB, and they're behind by a huge margin. * Works with any player or device, vs you have to use their application * Free vs $35/mo * Has been available for 13+ years, vs available nowhere so far * Available worldwide, vs some unknown region-locking but certainly US-only for the foreseeable future * Has pretty much everything, vs "6 accounts" whatever that means
- nemothekid 10y ago
  Live TV isn't competing against TBP. You can't watch sports or other live events on TBP. Why would you sign up for a live TV service, if you prefer to watch things on demand on TPB? For any live TV offering they are competing against traditional cable providers. Netflix is already on their way on figuring out the "on-demand" content space. If you look at the blog post, 3/4s of the channels offered are either sports or live news. This simply isn't a service for on demand content.
  - martinald 10y ago
    You'd actually be surprised how good bittorrent live video streaming has got. I checked it out and it was pixel perfect 720p HD - absolutely fine for sports. But yes, it's still niche, but wow it has moved on a lot. The program I used was called acestream.
    - matsmith123 10y ago
      > 720p HD - absolutely fine for sports. Kek. Maybe for people who grew up with that. My country has had 1080p on all channels that broadcast sports for years.
    - kaishiro 10y ago
      This is still only true if you have the pipe. Attempting this from Melbourne and the streams still fall on their face.
      - 10y ago

by guyzero 10y ago

frandroid 10y ago

Parent's point is still valid. There's another 3+ billion of internet users outside the U.S., it would be nice not to be an afterthought's afterthought. They just need to say "Sorry, this product will not be available outside the U.S. at launch." Is it so hard?

bfred_it 10y ago
Yes it is. From what I understand, a network will license a show to another network in another country, probably in an exclusive way. So they can't just "oh yeah you're paying us millions to distribute in your country? Let me just walk over you by streaming directly to your customers." It doesn't work like that. These contracts are worth more than the few users that are willing to pay to stream across borders. Sad but that's TV life.
- khedoros1 10y ago
  >> They just need to say "Sorry, this product will not be available outside the U.S. at launch." Is it so hard? > Yes it is. No, notifying that the offering won't be available outside of the U.S. wouldn't be difficult. Actually offering it outside would (and I think that's the question you were actually answering, which wasn't the question that was asked).
- mikepurvis 10y ago
  This kind of thing is part of why Netflix & friends are so keen to create a bunch of original content— it's theirs, exclusively, and they don't need to deal with navigating all these preexisting commitments.
thewhitetulip 10y ago
It was a running Joke about Netflix, "Available from anywhere across any OS [in the following regions North America, Europe etc]"

Nullabillity 10y ago

They aren't competing against traditional cable providers, they're competing against TPB, and they're behind by a huge margin. * Works with any player or device, vs you have to use their application * Free vs $35/mo * Has been available for 13+ years, vs available nowhere so far * Available worldwide, vs some unknown region-locking but certainly US-only for the foreseeable future * Has pretty much everything, vs "6 accounts" whatever that means

nemothekid 10y ago
Live TV isn't competing against TBP. You can't watch sports or other live events on TBP. Why would you sign up for a live TV service, if you prefer to watch things on demand on TPB? For any live TV offering they are competing against traditional cable providers. Netflix is already on their way on figuring out the "on-demand" content space. If you look at the blog post, 3/4s of the channels offered are either sports or live news. This simply isn't a service for on demand content.
- martinald 10y ago
  You'd actually be surprised how good bittorrent live video streaming has got. I checked it out and it was pixel perfect 720p HD - absolutely fine for sports. But yes, it's still niche, but wow it has moved on a lot. The program I used was called acestream.
  - matsmith123 10y ago
    > 720p HD - absolutely fine for sports. Kek. Maybe for people who grew up with that. My country has had 1080p on all channels that broadcast sports for years.
  - kaishiro 10y ago
    This is still only true if you have the pipe. Attempting this from Melbourne and the streams still fall on their face.
    - 10y ago