Topic 'Re: Interesting' in forum '' - dslreports.com

Re: Interesting

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:57:46 EDT

BF69 posted :

said by pnh102:

No. HBO costs you $15 + whatever you pay for cable TV and a box rental. That would probably make it well over $50 and possibly clost to $100 or so a month. You can't get HBO programming any other way, and for someone who doesn't want cable TV, but who wants to watch HBO programming, it is a pretty steep hill to climb just for that one set of channels.

That assumes one decides to finally cut the cord because they can get HBOGo separately. That's simply untrue. If you cut cable you may still get HBO if HBOGo is offered separately but you're not getting all those other channels your cable provider provides. How many people are willing to give those up? My guess is not many. And for every person that cuts the cord because they can get HBOGo standalone you have another person keeping their HBO cable subscription because of HBOGo. So it evens out. The only reason I got HBO was because they offered it for $5 a month for a year. Well when it goes back up to regular price I'm considering keeping it because of HBOGo. Without HBOGo I doubt I keep HBO.

Re: Interesting

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 07:32:11 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by BF69:

said by pnh102:

1. It becomes a radically different business when you have to do billing and content delivery all by yourself.

How are the doing it Scandinavia then?

It could be they are testing the waters in an area where they purportedly do not offer their cable channels for viewing through cable TV.

According to Wiki, HBO doesn't have its cable channels offered in Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Finland. This is probably why they chose to do this there.

said by BF69:

That is untrue. HBO costs me $15 via cable I get 6 HBO channels and HBOGo. HBOGo standalone for $15 is LESS of a value.

said by BF69:

HUGE difference between someone downloading HBO shows because they are too cheap to pay for HBO and someone WANTING to hand their money over to HBO. And HBO says "Nah we don't want it" then fuck 'em.

Well, until the number of total pay-tv subscribers in the US goes from ~100 million to say, ~70 million or so, my bet is that HBO will maintain the status quo here. Right now, the number of cord cutters is in the low hundreds of thousands at best.
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 03:11:57 EDT

BF69 posted :

said by pnh102:

I'm not sure what to think here... HBO is more or less "stuck" with its current business model:

1. It becomes a radically different business when you have to do billing and content delivery all by yourself.

How are the doing it Scandinavia then?

2. If you offer an easy-to-use alternative, more people will drop cable... the cable companies upon who you depend for 100% of your current customers won't be thrilled with that.

That is untrue. HBO costs me $15 via cable I get 6 HBO channels and HBOGo. HBOGo standalone for $15 is LESS of a value. Why would I get that instead of regular HBO? Now someone who is already a cord cutter is ADDITIONAL revenue for HBO and is not lost revenue for cable because if they wanted cable they would have it.

I used to preach anti-piracy to people all the time. I try to show them what they were doing wasn't right. But the more companies pull this bullshit the more I'm inclined to say fuck it and not bother.

HUGE difference between someone downloading HBO shows because they are too cheap to pay for HBO and someone WANTING to hand their money over to HBO. And HBO says "Nah we don't want it" then fuck 'em.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:37:42 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by mackey:

And who forced people to learn how to pirate by not providing any other choice? Perhaps if they offered this from the get-go people would never have gotten used to getting it for free.

I generally agree but I would not say that anyone was "forced" to pirate anything. To pirate or not is a conscious, willful and voluntary decision.

But going beyond that, piracy, whether content providers want to accept it or not, is a de facto distribution method for their work. For most content providers who aren't tied to a distributor (the way HBO needs pay tv providers to get their product to the customers), they are free to price their products in such a way as to make piracy a less attractive alternative.

I just don't see how HBO can do this without burning the bridges with the cable companies.
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:35:12 EDT

mackey posted :

said by pnh102:

The problem of course is that as so many people pirate HBO content, they will be less inclined to be drawn into a legitimate alternative that will cost them more money they are paying now.

And who forced people to learn how to pirate by not providing any other choice? Perhaps if they offered this from the get-go people would never have gotten used to getting it for free.

/M

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:45:21 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by praetoralpha:

All it takes is some marketing douche to say that cord cutters are the hot new customers, it will be big enough immediately, regardless of how few of them there are. No decade needed.

True enough... but I think at HBO at least those guys got overruled by the accounting team haha. :D
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:40:59 EDT

praetoralpha posted :

said by pnh102:

Cord-cutting is still a very, very, very small segment of the population. If the current rate of complete subscriber dropoff continues, it will be decades before cord-cutters are a large enough market for us to be taken more seriously by content providers.

All it takes is some marketing douche to say that cord cutters are the hot new customers, it will be big enough immediately, regardless of how few of them there are. No decade needed.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:48:47 EDT

talz13 posted : It can be difficult, but some programs make it as easy as:
1. Type in the name of a show
2. Select the one you meant from the list
3. Hit "Add Show"
4. Get new episodes downloaded automatically from that point onwards

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:59:17 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by ITALIAN926:

quote:
I'd pay $9.99 a month for HBO during the Game of Thrones season rather than pirate the episodes.

Cmon man.

I'd rather pay $9.99 a month for HBO than pirate the episodes too.

I do not pirate the episodes though.

This kind of thinking makes me wish our civil court system was set up so that the plaintiff would have to prove that the defendant is liable for what is claimed in the lawsuit, instead of the current system that enables someone like you to make spurious claims, and then the defendant must prove that he is not at fault.
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:31:37 EDT

ITALIAN926 posted :

quote:
I'd pay $9.99 a month for HBO during the Game of Thrones season rather than pirate the episodes.

Cmon man.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:16:14 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by kaila:

#2 is the real problem, and if cord-cutting reaches critical mass ...

Therein lays the rub. Cord-cutting is still a very, very, very small segment of the population. If the current rate of complete subscriber dropoff continues, it will be decades before cord-cutters are a large enough market for us to be taken more seriously by content providers.

The other problem is this. Most of us who cut the cord did so for financial reasons. We *don't* want to pay a lot of money for content. That's not exactly a major incentive for content providers to come jumping.
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:13:33 EDT

pnh102 posted :

said by ITALIAN926:

See, for people overseas with no other options, I can almost sympathize with. You are choosing to engage in illegal behavior. You dont get to pick when , where, and how you can follow the law. Holy shit I hope you get a $100,000 bill in the mail.

"AnonFTW" using a roadrunner email, lol , I hope the RIAA/MPAA subpoena this website for IP addresses of users LMFAO.

Way to be Judge Dredd there... why do you presume that the previous poster is pirating content simply because he/she said "alternative sources?"
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:09:32 EDT

kaila posted : Point #1 has never stopped anybody from trying. #2 is the real problem, and if cord-cutting reaches critical mass, cableco's and content providers alike will have to seriously consider the options they now consider taboo.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:56:27 EDT

ITALIAN926 posted : See, for people overseas with no other options, I can almost sympathize with. You are choosing to engage in illegal behavior. You dont get to pick when , where, and how you can follow the law. Holy shit I hope you get a $100,000 bill in the mail.

"AnonFTW" using a roadrunner email, lol , I hope the RIAA/MPAA subpoena this website for IP addresses of users LMFAO.

Re: Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:25:57 EDT

anon posted :

said by pnh102:

The problem of course is that as so many people pirate HBO content, they will be less inclined to be drawn into a legitimate alternative that will cost them more money they are paying now.

I cut the cord but pay for most of the services that offer compelling content. The rest I download from alternative sources. I'd pay $9.99 a month for HBO during the Game of Thrones season rather than pirate the episodes. Pirating can be a much more difficult and laborious process than opening an app and clicking "Buy" or "Rent."

Interesting

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:14:45 EDT

pnh102 posted : I'm not sure what to think here... HBO is more or less "stuck" with its current business model:

1. It becomes a radically different business when you have to do billing and content delivery all by yourself.

2. If you offer an easy-to-use alternative, more people will drop cable... the cable companies upon who you depend for 100% of your current customers won't be thrilled with that.

3. It stinks even more when you have very popular content:

»gizmodo.com/5916885/more-people-···s-on-hbo

The problem of course is that as so many people pirate HBO content, they will be less inclined to be drawn into a legitimate alternative that will cost them more money they are paying now.
--
Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.