4 ms·

There's a missed opportunity here .. movie companies should be forking Popcorn Time, whacking a brand on there, and putting their own version out. What a pity

There's a missed opportunity here .. movie companies should be forking Popcorn Time, whacking a brand on there, and putting their own version out. What a pity the world is run by lawyers..

tunnuz 13y ago
Netflix does this (the service, not the fork), too bad it is still unavailable in many countries.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  And its catalog is limited, too, even in the US.
  - sspiff 13y ago
    I have a Netflix US account (over VPN, since I live outside the US), and after all the coverage it had gotten, I was really disappointed with the catalog. A lot of the shows my girlfriend was hoping to watch are unavailable, and the movie catalog is also extremely restricted.
- girvo 13y ago
  The lack of Netflix in Australia really frustrates me. Id pay for it gladly and happily, but I can't, despite living in a first world country that has a very high amount of discretional spending (consider we pay twice what everyone else does, taking into account exchange rates, for software) and the highest rate of copyright infringement in first world countries. Sigh.
mehwoot 13y ago
Why?
- forrestthewoods 13y ago
  It's about volume. Sure the movie companies will be giving away their films for free. But if you give away enough films for free it becomes profitable!!
  - DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
    Amazon sells a number of things at a loss and still seems to be doing fine.
    - jrockway 13y ago
      What does Amazon sell for a loss?
      - DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
        At various times, books, e-books, and kindle fires. Amazon actually shifted the pricing on books and e-books by selling them at below what they were buying them at for prolonged periods of times, and drove rival book sellers out of business by doing so... and then didn't raise their prices.
        mcintyre1994 13y ago
        Do we know if they still sell books at a loss? I'm guessing with their volume and many competitors killed off they have an insane control over their own buying cost and can force that price to now be profitable, but it'd be interesting to know either way.
        kyllo 13y ago
        Well, from their earnings reports, their gross revenue has grown dramatically but their profit margin remains near zero because they spend every additional dollar they make on growing the company. http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/25/amazon_earnings_jeff_bezos_is_like_king_midas_in_reverse_chart/1382736441.jpg http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/future_tense/20...
- fit2rule 13y ago
  Control of your audience, first and foremost: the mainstay of the movie business. If you can convince someone to sit still and watch your art for up to 2 hours at a time, you've got an audience. If you can't, you've lost the audience. Its an artistic thing - do you have access to, and can you know about, your audience? This has got to be better than not knowing and not having any control whatsoever - or worse, allowing someone else to have your audience (which is what happens with piracy). But of course, with lawyers and accountants running the show, where they haven't quite figured out how to rate eyeballs in a spreadsheet without having $$-signs around, its no surprise that they're missing this opportunity. Imagine if Universal embraced Popcorn Time and called their fork "Universal Popcorn Time", and modified it such that their catalog was entirely available. They'd have a real chance against the iTunes/AppStore/Netflix's of the world. Alas, they appear to be asleep at the wheel here .. even though the extremely Great features of Popcorn Time as an app are wide open and available to them ..
  - k-mcgrady 13y ago
    >> "Imagine if Universal embraced Popcorn Time and called their fork "Universal Popcorn Time", and modified it such that their catalog was entirely available. They'd have a real chance against the iTunes/AppStore/Netflix's of the world." What? iTunes, AppStore, and Netflix are stores. Universal isn't competing with them and doesn't need to. They exist to sell Universal's content.
    - fit2rule 13y ago
      Yeah, they're stores that deliver content, and in which Universal must pay a (not insubstantial) fee to participate. Just like Popcorn App could be, without that onerous fee that is ..
      - k-mcgrady 13y ago
        Yes but if Universal did that they would then have to build a payment or subscription system into their app and spend a ton of money managing that and supporting it. Or are you suggesting they give their movies away for free on the app? If so then they're better off just letting the stores take a cut - that way they actually earn money. If they were to give away their movies for free (if that's what you're suggesting) how - exactly - would they monetise that successfully? Unlike the music industry which can make up losses on record sales through concerts and merch their isn't really an equivalent for the movie industry.

There's a missed opportunity here .. movie companies should be forking Popcorn Time, whacking a brand on there, and putting their own version out. What a pity the world is run by lawyers..

tunnuz 13y ago

Netflix does this (the service, not the fork), too bad it is still unavailable in many countries.

ekianjo 13y ago
And its catalog is limited, too, even in the US.
- sspiff 13y ago
  I have a Netflix US account (over VPN, since I live outside the US), and after all the coverage it had gotten, I was really disappointed with the catalog. A lot of the shows my girlfriend was hoping to watch are unavailable, and the movie catalog is also extremely restricted.
girvo 13y ago
The lack of Netflix in Australia really frustrates me. Id pay for it gladly and happily, but I can't, despite living in a first world country that has a very high amount of discretional spending (consider we pay twice what everyone else does, taking into account exchange rates, for software) and the highest rate of copyright infringement in first world countries. Sigh.

mehwoot 13y ago

Why?

forrestthewoods 13y ago
It's about volume. Sure the movie companies will be giving away their films for free. But if you give away enough films for free it becomes profitable!!
- DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
  Amazon sells a number of things at a loss and still seems to be doing fine.
  - jrockway 13y ago
    What does Amazon sell for a loss?
    - DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
      At various times, books, e-books, and kindle fires. Amazon actually shifted the pricing on books and e-books by selling them at below what they were buying them at for prolonged periods of times, and drove rival book sellers out of business by doing so... and then didn't raise their prices.
      - mcintyre1994 13y ago
        Do we know if they still sell books at a loss? I'm guessing with their volume and many competitors killed off they have an insane control over their own buying cost and can force that price to now be profitable, but it'd be interesting to know either way.
        kyllo 13y ago
        Well, from their earnings reports, their gross revenue has grown dramatically but their profit margin remains near zero because they spend every additional dollar they make on growing the company. http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/25/amazon_earnings_jeff_bezos_is_like_king_midas_in_reverse_chart/1382736441.jpg http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/future_tense/20...
fit2rule 13y ago
Control of your audience, first and foremost: the mainstay of the movie business. If you can convince someone to sit still and watch your art for up to 2 hours at a time, you've got an audience. If you can't, you've lost the audience. Its an artistic thing - do you have access to, and can you know about, your audience? This has got to be better than not knowing and not having any control whatsoever - or worse, allowing someone else to have your audience (which is what happens with piracy). But of course, with lawyers and accountants running the show, where they haven't quite figured out how to rate eyeballs in a spreadsheet without having $$-signs around, its no surprise that they're missing this opportunity. Imagine if Universal embraced Popcorn Time and called their fork "Universal Popcorn Time", and modified it such that their catalog was entirely available. They'd have a real chance against the iTunes/AppStore/Netflix's of the world. Alas, they appear to be asleep at the wheel here .. even though the extremely Great features of Popcorn Time as an app are wide open and available to them ..
- k-mcgrady 13y ago
  >> "Imagine if Universal embraced Popcorn Time and called their fork "Universal Popcorn Time", and modified it such that their catalog was entirely available. They'd have a real chance against the iTunes/AppStore/Netflix's of the world." What? iTunes, AppStore, and Netflix are stores. Universal isn't competing with them and doesn't need to. They exist to sell Universal's content.
  - fit2rule 13y ago
    Yeah, they're stores that deliver content, and in which Universal must pay a (not insubstantial) fee to participate. Just like Popcorn App could be, without that onerous fee that is ..
    - k-mcgrady 13y ago
      Yes but if Universal did that they would then have to build a payment or subscription system into their app and spend a ton of money managing that and supporting it. Or are you suggesting they give their movies away for free on the app? If so then they're better off just letting the stores take a cut - that way they actually earn money. If they were to give away their movies for free (if that's what you're suggesting) how - exactly - would they monetise that successfully? Unlike the music industry which can make up losses on record sales through concerts and merch their isn't really an equivalent for the movie industry.