Hollywood Backs Swedish Movie Streaming Site 156
paulraps writes "Forget Spotify and Skype: the latest strangely-named-but-hey-it's-free service from Sweden offers users streamed on-demand movies free of charge, has deals with two major Hollywood studios, and is called Voddler. Since its launch two weeks ago, the service has signed up a quarter of a million users and has almost the same number queuing for an invitation. After signing deals with Disney and Paramount, the company provides access to thousands of films, which are shown uninterrupted after a barrage of ads. The target is the file-sharing generation: 'Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files,' says executive vice president Zoran Slavic."
Re:I'm a beta tester of voddler (Score:3, Interesting)
That hole is plugged, but there could be more which hasn't been discovered yet.
Re:Anyone skim the summary and read (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm always concerned that "legitimate" sources will contain a dodgy driver or a rootkit.
A poster later on in this thread says that Voddler (the mac client, at least) continuously uploads to other users, even when you're not actively downloading, and the only way to stop it is to uninstall it. I'd consider a bittorrent client that acted this way as at least partly malicious.
There IS a third way (Score:2, Interesting)
Between pirating and DRMed adware delivery. How about these digital content guys try to sell their stuff at some low price that reflects the reality that making digital copies is incredibly cheap, that we have had bona fide tech advances that make this possible, rather than sticking to now ancient history "per unit" pricing models? Instead of a buck for a song, how about a buck for a download movie and five cents for a song? Something like that. Figure out what bandwith costs them, double that, and offer their stuff legitimately at that price.
People really started pirating about the same time it became apparent to just about everyone that any legitimate way to get content was blatant price gouging. People looked at plastic disks and went "hey, how come I can make a copy with my home equipment for 25 cents, yet these big places with even better equipment, who can do it cheaper at wholesale rates, want 25 bucks for a copy"? And when it comes to pure downloads, it was worse than that.
What these big content guys kept trying was "digital prohibition", if I can use this analogy, just like the government tried with booze and failed at, and that is just never going to work. The black market moonshiner rates and "home brewed" and "bath tub gin" methods just routed around obvious market inefficiencies and stupid laws.
The ad method won't work for them in the long run, people will figure out how to skip the ads, or just ignore them. Just offer the product way cheap with at least some profit in there (that's why I like a clean "double the bandwith costs and no more" method, easy to figure out and still a cheap price), and try volume sales instead. There are potentially six BILLION customers out there who ARE willing to buy things if the price is right and not blatant price gouging.
Re:barrage of ads; been to the theater lately? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not going to excuse the ads, I hate them too, but you do realize that most (if not all) of the money that you paid to get into the movie went right back to the movie studios? Why do you think that popcorn and a soda cost to much at the movies? They need to pay their employees and run the entire facility on popcorn sales. When those didn't cut it (probably due to them costing so much), they turned to ads in front of the movies to bring in money.
Of course, the bigger issue is the home video market slowly killing movie theaters. Sure, movie theaters provide a bigger screen and possibly a better sound system (depending on your home system and the movie theater's sound system), but your home theater comes with cheaper snacks, more tailored to your tastes. (Sushi during the movie? Sure, why not?) It lets you pause to go to the bathroom or rewind to watch a favorite scene again and again. It comes without idiots talking to each other or on cell phones, revealing plot twists before they happen. And it comes without sticky floors. (Well, if the floors are sticky, at least it is your own fault for not cleaning them.)
Plus, it is cheaper. Last I checked, it costs about $8 per ticket. Renting a movie costs about $5 and unlimited people can watch. Plus, you can get them cheaper from your library (free) or Netflix. A couple seeing a movie will save at least $11 by renting versus going to the movie theater. A family of four will save $27 at minimum. That's hard to ignore.