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> Most movies / tv shows are already currently available digitally or without DRM (Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, etc). NO. NO. NO. Where did you get this infor
by sentenza 13y ago
> Most movies / tv shows are already currently available digitally or without DRM (Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, etc).
NO. NO. NO. Where did you get this information? It might be that the US of A is nearing such a state of affairs, but over here in Europe, these services are either not available or devoid of content.
For instance, I like to follow Continuum, Justified and Game of Thrones. The only one of these that is available online over here is Justified.
"Watchever", the service that carries it, however, is crippled by weird licensing deals where seasons of TV series appear and disappear seemingly at random, because they only get the rights for a limited amount of time. So if I get a Watchever subscription, I _might_ be able to watch Justified _some of the time_.
As for the other two, they are just not available online. The poor sods that can stand to watch it in the dubbed version with commercial breaks will get to see both series on free TV with a delay of more than a year.
There is no reason to assume that watching Game of Thrones with a one year delay is problematic in any way. After all, everybody (in Germany) watches it at the same time, one year later, right?
For GoT there is actually a third option. I can get a subscription with Sky for 35€ per month, where I'll get tons of sports television and one TV series of interest: Game of Thrones.
Oh, and that subscription? First time you can cancel it is after 24 months. So if I want to watch two seasons of GoT, it'll cost me a mere 840€.
Do you see the problem here? If HBO were to shut up and take my money, I'd gladly pay ten bucks per episode to stream it. But that would be soooooo 21st century, wouldn't it?
- res0nat0r 13y agoAll of those shows are created in the USA. Like most content it is going to take a while to move to other markets, there is no way around this. I really like watching shows on BBC, I have to wait for them to show up here. This is the way of life, and price discrimination (because it makes business sense). > Do you see the problem here? If HBO were to shut up and take my money, I'd gladly pay ten bucks per episode to stream it. But that would be soooooo 21st century, wouldn't it? Unfortunately HBO doesn't want your $7/month on Netflix to watch an entire season of Game of Thrones, then cancel. It costs $6 million/episode. They make more money by not catering to you as a customer even at $10/episode with no locked in money like they currently have via subscription model.
- sentenza 13y agoThe thing is, there is no Netflix here. Neither is HBO by the way (yes, we _can't_ subscribe to HBO in Germany). There is currently no way for me to give them any money directly and the indirect methods are all horribly unattractive, as described above. HBO is making money over here with licensing deals that cater to old-money television channels. This is short-sighted, since there are only two options regarding what can happen: a) Everybody pirates GoT b) There is long-term brand damage (to the GoT brand, not HBO), since the entire country is de-coupled from the viral GoT-hype.
- res0nat0r 13y agoThey've found they are making more money as they currently stand, than if they switch which is why they unfortunately haven't. HBO revenue is at an all time high.