4 ms·

Anti-Piracy Boss: TV Fans Are Unreasonable For Wanting Content Quicker

26 points by anons2011 14y ago

Turing_Machine 14y ago
A lot of companies have made fortunes by giving "unreasonable" customers what they want quickly and at an affordable price. Their slow, overpriced competitors...not so much.
- goostavos 14y ago
  I read a pretty interesting article, in Delta's Sky mag of all places, about GrooveShark and similar services. Companies that are successfully flourishing in spite of piracy seem to have a common thread among them; they view piracy as the competition. They ask the 'right' questions such as "what is it that sucks about piracy", and "how do we make our service fill that hole?" Similarly, the question Valve asked (and answered brilliantly) was "how do we make our service more convenient than piracy?" I found it to be an interesting contrast to these old media behemoths that view piracy as something wholly different than user experience/convenience. The customers want fast access to content. Piracy is currently the only way to achieve that with a lot of the media owned by these aging corporations.
WiseWeasel 14y ago
Damn unreasonable humans! Why can't they just contort their behavior around my business model?
pavel_lishin 14y ago
> Piracy will continue, he said, no matter what providers do. Of course it will. But this is like arguing that crime will never hit 0%, so why bother trying?
k-mcgrady 14y ago
"Aussies have to wait an additional week to view episodes of the show. Little surprise then that they turned to BitTorrent in droves..." I think this says a lot about how the internet has changed society. Waiting one week is not a big deal. There used to big release gaps between countries when movies were released in the cinema. Sure it sucked but life went on. I know that many people don't think piracy constitutes theft (although it sounds like these people would have paid, so it is a lost sale), but having to wait one week should not be justification for pirating content. A lot of money is put into making a show like Game Of Thrones. The £1.89 iTunes charges per episode would not be enough to cover the budget and I believe that's why this staggered roll out happens (deals with TV companies are more lucrative). If the episodes were priced higher (say £4.99) but released immediately I don't think very many people would pay. The internet seems to be fostering an attitude of "We want it now, and we want it free or very cheap". I think it's going to be very hard to ever find that sweet spot where people are happy with what the content company can viably offer, and they won't pirate. Edit: I think this article explains my first point well. http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-the-crown/ http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that...
- kapowaz 14y ago
  > Waiting one week is not a big deal. It is when the show in question is Game of Thrones, a story which revolves greatly around plot twists which could easily be spoiled if you're forced to wait longer than others to watch it. I already find I have to carefully moderate my online activity on a Monday before I can watch Game of Thrones in the UK, and we only have to wait one day!
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    I have to wait to watch it too. I just avoid TV websites and have never been spoiled. It's a legitimate concern though and it sucks when it happens.
  - UnFleshedOne 14y ago
    Just read the books and relax, no need to carefully monitor browsing. I don't get the problem with spoilers anyway -- there was a research somewhere indicating that spoilers enhance experience, not spoil it, even for people who don't like spoilers. My friends used to give each other complete plot summary for interesting books or movies. How else would you know if a book or movie is worth reading or watching?
    - kapowaz 14y ago
      Ah, that famous HN logic; this doesn't bother me, so I don't see why it should bother you.
  - betterth 14y ago
    To be fair, I'm two episodes behind on Game of Thrones, so two weeks back. I've seen only one spoiler for the most recent episode, but if I hadn't already read Books 1 - 3, it wouldn't have been a spoiler. I only knew what I was looking at because I've read what would happen. But you're right, it is very difficult. I think it comes down to: You want to be a part of the culture. Go online and talk when everyone else is excited. Get excited with the fans at the same. It fosters a sense of community that is rewarding, something many watchers love to participate in. It sucks when you get content a week or a month or six months later, and 90% of the fanbase is WAY past you, not interested in talking, not ranting and raving any more. For many people, good TV and culture is social, regardless of whether or not the old industries can see it happening in front of their eyes.
goostavos 14y ago
Along a very similar vein, in an interview with Forbes, HBO basically expressed the view that watching things on the internet is a temporary phenomenon. It shows how out of touch a lot of these people are. Wanting content fast is "unreasonable"? Pretty strange.
- chaud 14y ago
  I'm not sure that was the case: http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism
emehrkay 14y ago
Remember when we had to wait almost a year for a film to be available on VHS? For some strange reason, I clearly remember the first time I was wowed at how fast a movie made it to dvd. It was some movie with Lucy Lue that came out in like October and was on dvd by December. Found it http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308208/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308208/
ef4 14y ago
It's impossible to get the content to Australia so quickly, which is why the fans are already getting the content to Australia so quickly. Got it.
billpg 14y ago
Next week, car manufacturer says his customers are unreasonable for wanting his cars so much.

26 points by anons2011 14y ago

A lot of companies have made fortunes by giving "unreasonable" customers what they want quickly and at an affordable price. Their slow, overpriced competitors...not so much.

goostavos 14y ago
I read a pretty interesting article, in Delta's Sky mag of all places, about GrooveShark and similar services. Companies that are successfully flourishing in spite of piracy seem to have a common thread among them; they view piracy as the competition. They ask the 'right' questions such as "what is it that sucks about piracy", and "how do we make our service fill that hole?" Similarly, the question Valve asked (and answered brilliantly) was "how do we make our service more convenient than piracy?" I found it to be an interesting contrast to these old media behemoths that view piracy as something wholly different than user experience/convenience. The customers want fast access to content. Piracy is currently the only way to achieve that with a lot of the media owned by these aging corporations.

WiseWeasel 14y ago

Damn unreasonable humans! Why can't they just contort their behavior around my business model?

pavel_lishin 14y ago

> Piracy will continue, he said, no matter what providers do. Of course it will. But this is like arguing that crime will never hit 0%, so why bother trying?

k-mcgrady 14y ago

"Aussies have to wait an additional week to view episodes of the show. Little surprise then that they turned to BitTorrent in droves..." I think this says a lot about how the internet has changed society. Waiting one week is not a big deal. There used to big release gaps between countries when movies were released in the cinema. Sure it sucked but life went on. I know that many people don't think piracy constitutes theft (although it sounds like these people would have paid, so it is a lost sale), but having to wait one week should not be justification for pirating content. A lot of money is put into making a show like Game Of Thrones. The £1.89 iTunes charges per episode would not be enough to cover the budget and I believe that's why this staggered roll out happens (deals with TV companies are more lucrative). If the episodes were priced higher (say £4.99) but released immediately I don't think very many people would pay. The internet seems to be fostering an attitude of "We want it now, and we want it free or very cheap". I think it's going to be very hard to ever find that sweet spot where people are happy with what the content company can viably offer, and they won't pirate. Edit: I think this article explains my first point well. http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-the-crown/ http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that...

kapowaz 14y ago
> Waiting one week is not a big deal. It is when the show in question is Game of Thrones, a story which revolves greatly around plot twists which could easily be spoiled if you're forced to wait longer than others to watch it. I already find I have to carefully moderate my online activity on a Monday before I can watch Game of Thrones in the UK, and we only have to wait one day!
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  I have to wait to watch it too. I just avoid TV websites and have never been spoiled. It's a legitimate concern though and it sucks when it happens.
- UnFleshedOne 14y ago
  Just read the books and relax, no need to carefully monitor browsing. I don't get the problem with spoilers anyway -- there was a research somewhere indicating that spoilers enhance experience, not spoil it, even for people who don't like spoilers. My friends used to give each other complete plot summary for interesting books or movies. How else would you know if a book or movie is worth reading or watching?
  - kapowaz 14y ago
    Ah, that famous HN logic; this doesn't bother me, so I don't see why it should bother you.
- betterth 14y ago
  To be fair, I'm two episodes behind on Game of Thrones, so two weeks back. I've seen only one spoiler for the most recent episode, but if I hadn't already read Books 1 - 3, it wouldn't have been a spoiler. I only knew what I was looking at because I've read what would happen. But you're right, it is very difficult. I think it comes down to: You want to be a part of the culture. Go online and talk when everyone else is excited. Get excited with the fans at the same. It fosters a sense of community that is rewarding, something many watchers love to participate in. It sucks when you get content a week or a month or six months later, and 90% of the fanbase is WAY past you, not interested in talking, not ranting and raving any more. For many people, good TV and culture is social, regardless of whether or not the old industries can see it happening in front of their eyes.

goostavos 14y ago

Along a very similar vein, in an interview with Forbes, HBO basically expressed the view that watching things on the internet is a temporary phenomenon. It shows how out of touch a lot of these people are. Wanting content fast is "unreasonable"? Pretty strange.

chaud 14y ago
I'm not sure that was the case: http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism

emehrkay 14y ago

Remember when we had to wait almost a year for a film to be available on VHS? For some strange reason, I clearly remember the first time I was wowed at how fast a movie made it to dvd. It was some movie with Lucy Lue that came out in like October and was on dvd by December. Found it http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308208/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308208/

ef4 14y ago

It's impossible to get the content to Australia so quickly, which is why the fans are already getting the content to Australia so quickly. Got it.

billpg 14y ago

Next week, car manufacturer says his customers are unreasonable for wanting his cars so much.