5 ms·

I hope whatever kills hollywood also kills distribution by regions. In the third world we are people too.

Typhon 15y ago
It's obvious that many new forms of entertainment will use the web as a medium which, barring dictatorships, is worldwide, so you don't have to worry about it, insofar as you have enough bandwidth.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
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  - merryandrew 15y ago
    nice
    - marshray 15y ago
      (psst... there's a button for that :-)
  - pjscott 15y ago
    You know what's available in all regions? BitTorrent. And then Hollywood complains about people in unusual regions torrenting things.
- tincholio 15y ago
  Right... go tell that to Hulu and Netflix. I'd do it myself, but it's not available on my region. And I'm not even in a 3rd world country! Go figure...
- olex 15y ago
  Many new-ish forms of entertainment already use the web as a medium, but that has not helped the region problem much. Hulu, Netflix, Turntable.fm and many many other services are US-only.
  - Xylakant 15y ago
    Incidentially I wouldn't call Hulu, Netflix and the likes "new-ish forms of entertainment", they're basically just new distribution channels for the old form and thus dependent on the content creators. And it's the content creators that impose the regional limits. I'd assume given the choice Hulu and Netflix would open up their offers to anyone with bandwidth to spare.
- fl3tch 15y ago
  GeoIP data is 99% accurate at the country level, so it's trivially easy to enforce regional restrictions on the internet, and some web sites have been doing it for a while. Sure, there are ways around that too, but most people are not technically inclined enough to figure them out. As one article recently posted on HN said (can't find it right now), we need to stop thinking only about technical solutions, and start attacking problems at the political and cultural level. After all, using a VPN to get around a restriction will only work until the authorities (government, RIAA, whoever) find a way to block it. It's a never ending arms race. We need to fix the political problem of censorship in order to achieve a permanent solution.
  - Typhon 15y ago
    In the context of a replacement for Hollywood by something new, most likely something new on the internet, why would anyone bother to restrict the market to a specific region ? My comment wasn't about technical feasibility, it was more about the fact that, by default, the web is a planetary medium, therefore, any new entertainment made on it is available without regional restriction unless the authors take steps to create such restrictions.
dexen 15y ago
Don't hold your breath just yet. If the new thing gets funded chiefly by ad revenue -- and that's the popular way of funding freemium now -- it will remain regionalized. Ad sponsors prefer certain demographics and third world countries aren't high on their lists.
- staunch 15y ago
  That's not necessarily a problem. Facebook isn't restricted to high-ad-revenue countries. Their costs are so low that they don't mind making much less money in some places than others. The same is true of YouTube. The reason so much content is region restricted is traditional Hollywood licensing deals. Just another example of their outmoded business methods.
- dspeyer 15y ago
  If it's funded by ad revenue, there will be no reason to deny the third world. In a sale model, dropping third world prices to locally affordable carries a risk of those copies being brought to the first world and resold. Viewers would buy the imports because they were cheaper. In an ad model, the viewers don't pay. Instead watching an import would mean watching ads which were placed more cheaply, but are probably also less artistic and less targeted. No real incentive.
- icebraining 15y ago
  Ad sponsors from the third world countries themselves have no problem paying for advertising in their own countries. Here in Portugal (not third world, I know) I get plenty of AdWords from national companies, much more than from international ones.
sbt 15y ago
The regional distribution is definitely something that needs to die fast. I live outside the US, where TV networks buy American tv-series and broadcasts them a year after they are released in the US. No one I know under 30 actually waits for that. They see their friends in other countries talking about the new episode on Facebook and eventually they just end up downloading it. Which is sad, because if they could actually buy it on iTunes (without a US account), they probably would if the price was right.
tlb 15y ago
It was supposed to be just price discrimination in favor of the third world. Regions allowed Hollywood to sell the same movie for less in Africa or China than in the US. But because of weird business arrangements in international distribution, it sometimes meant they got movies late or never.
- marshray 15y ago
  Alternatively, we might say regions allowed Hollywood to sell the same movie for more in the US than in Africa or China. Same with prescription drugs, also a subject of these SOPA/PIPA laws.
- waterlesscloud 15y ago
  Global distribution territories are like a maze of twisty passages, none of which are alike. Combining the other recent pg essay about schlepping, this is a major schlepping window of opportunity. If someone could find a way to make it easier for filmmakers to reach markets around the world, that would help the overall issue. I don't just mean slap up a youtube clone and call the problem solved, I mean provide access to theatrical and tv gobally. Major schlepping there, but probably a good opportunity too.

It's obvious that many new forms of entertainment will use the web as a medium which, barring dictatorships, is worldwide, so you don't have to worry about it, insofar as you have enough bandwidth.

pavel_lishin 15y ago
[ This comment is unavailable in your region. ]
- merryandrew 15y ago
  nice
  - marshray 15y ago
    (psst... there's a button for that :-)
- pjscott 15y ago
  You know what's available in all regions? BitTorrent. And then Hollywood complains about people in unusual regions torrenting things.
tincholio 15y ago
Right... go tell that to Hulu and Netflix. I'd do it myself, but it's not available on my region. And I'm not even in a 3rd world country! Go figure...
olex 15y ago
Many new-ish forms of entertainment already use the web as a medium, but that has not helped the region problem much. Hulu, Netflix, Turntable.fm and many many other services are US-only.
- Xylakant 15y ago
  Incidentially I wouldn't call Hulu, Netflix and the likes "new-ish forms of entertainment", they're basically just new distribution channels for the old form and thus dependent on the content creators. And it's the content creators that impose the regional limits. I'd assume given the choice Hulu and Netflix would open up their offers to anyone with bandwidth to spare.
fl3tch 15y ago
GeoIP data is 99% accurate at the country level, so it's trivially easy to enforce regional restrictions on the internet, and some web sites have been doing it for a while. Sure, there are ways around that too, but most people are not technically inclined enough to figure them out. As one article recently posted on HN said (can't find it right now), we need to stop thinking only about technical solutions, and start attacking problems at the political and cultural level. After all, using a VPN to get around a restriction will only work until the authorities (government, RIAA, whoever) find a way to block it. It's a never ending arms race. We need to fix the political problem of censorship in order to achieve a permanent solution.
- Typhon 15y ago
  In the context of a replacement for Hollywood by something new, most likely something new on the internet, why would anyone bother to restrict the market to a specific region ? My comment wasn't about technical feasibility, it was more about the fact that, by default, the web is a planetary medium, therefore, any new entertainment made on it is available without regional restriction unless the authors take steps to create such restrictions.

dexen 15y ago

Don't hold your breath just yet. If the new thing gets funded chiefly by ad revenue -- and that's the popular way of funding freemium now -- it will remain regionalized. Ad sponsors prefer certain demographics and third world countries aren't high on their lists.

staunch 15y ago
That's not necessarily a problem. Facebook isn't restricted to high-ad-revenue countries. Their costs are so low that they don't mind making much less money in some places than others. The same is true of YouTube. The reason so much content is region restricted is traditional Hollywood licensing deals. Just another example of their outmoded business methods.
dspeyer 15y ago
If it's funded by ad revenue, there will be no reason to deny the third world. In a sale model, dropping third world prices to locally affordable carries a risk of those copies being brought to the first world and resold. Viewers would buy the imports because they were cheaper. In an ad model, the viewers don't pay. Instead watching an import would mean watching ads which were placed more cheaply, but are probably also less artistic and less targeted. No real incentive.
icebraining 15y ago
Ad sponsors from the third world countries themselves have no problem paying for advertising in their own countries. Here in Portugal (not third world, I know) I get plenty of AdWords from national companies, much more than from international ones.

sbt 15y ago

The regional distribution is definitely something that needs to die fast. I live outside the US, where TV networks buy American tv-series and broadcasts them a year after they are released in the US. No one I know under 30 actually waits for that. They see their friends in other countries talking about the new episode on Facebook and eventually they just end up downloading it. Which is sad, because if they could actually buy it on iTunes (without a US account), they probably would if the price was right.

tlb 15y ago

It was supposed to be just price discrimination in favor of the third world. Regions allowed Hollywood to sell the same movie for less in Africa or China than in the US. But because of weird business arrangements in international distribution, it sometimes meant they got movies late or never.

marshray 15y ago
Alternatively, we might say regions allowed Hollywood to sell the same movie for more in the US than in Africa or China. Same with prescription drugs, also a subject of these SOPA/PIPA laws.
waterlesscloud 15y ago
Global distribution territories are like a maze of twisty passages, none of which are alike. Combining the other recent pg essay about schlepping, this is a major schlepping window of opportunity. If someone could find a way to make it easier for filmmakers to reach markets around the world, that would help the overall issue. I don't just mean slap up a youtube clone and call the problem solved, I mean provide access to theatrical and tv gobally. Major schlepping there, but probably a good opportunity too.