Netflix Pursues Cable-TV Deals 93
An anonymous reader writes "Netflix is making a push to make its online video service available as an app on set-top boxes. 'A deal would mark the online video service's first such tie-up with a U.S. cable provider and would come after a similar agreement it recently announced with U.K. cable operator Virgin Media Inc. The talks are in early stages and no deal is imminent, the people cautioned. Netflix and U.S. pay-TV companies are rivals in some key respects. Netflix's subscription video offering is an attractive alternative for some consumers who are frustrated with costly cable bills. And both sides want to be the go-to destination for consumers to find on-demand TV programming.'"
Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Exactly. I live in the metro area of a major US city, and my only choices for home internet are ComCast and AT&T, and AT&T only became an option this past year.
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Unfortunately, this doesn't always work. Building the infrastructure costs money. Even if you could cover the cost of setting up a rival service with reduced profit margins, you run the risk of the rival service undercutting you. Of course, Google have shown it can be done, but they have a lot of cash to burn.
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Everyone streaming Netflix will overwhelm any current or currently planned wifi tech for the next decade.
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That's fine, there are alternatives.
In most of the U.S., no there aren't. Most of us have one Cable and one DSL option at the most, and the DSL usually sucks.
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People are mobile now, walking around, getting more exercise. yet still having weight issues, even more than before. I think it's time to drop the old way of thinking, the senseless ideas of sitting on the Couch or Desktop Computer makes you overweight. It's clearly wrong.
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You mean to tell me that I can't just pick up the solution to my problems by doing whatever the super hot model on TV tells me? My problems might be unique to me and require my own, tailored solution?
How dare you contradict the super hot model! She told me that for 5 easy payments of $9.99, I could look just like her and if it fails then it obviously isn't that her solution isn't right but that I am doing it wrong and must be lazy...
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> People are mobile now, walking around,
No, not really.
"Mobile" in this instance means little more than sitting some place besides the living room in front of the living room TV.
It might not even mean that.
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Exactly. Besides, their move to cable misses the point of why people were cutting cable for Netflix in the first place.
(Cutting both, of course, would be better.)
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I will happily trade the open web for access to television shows, movies and cheeseburgers.
- An American Patriot
Re:Netflix wants to DRM the web (Score:4, Insightful)
The same way DRM destroyed the open computer? I dunno about you but I can still do whatever the hell I want on my computer, and can circumvent DRM if needed.
I'm no fan of DRM, but it's a compromise I'd be willing to make to bring the movie and tv studios inline with the music industry, and if history is any guide, after a few years the tv and movie people will agree to drm-free releases as did the music industry. Play the long game, not the reactionary steadfast to ideology game.
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Netflix wants to DRM the web
You misspelt 'MPAA and RIAA'.
Netflix is starting to worry me (Score:2)
I'm more concerned about the fact that their content of late seems to be shrinking. I've noticed that a lot of TV series that I had in my queue, that had every season available, are suddenly being cut back to 1 or 2 seasons or just a fraction of the episodes being available. And a lot of movies have been disappearing too.
Looks like their push towards exclusive series and big headlines is starting to take a toll on their mainstay broad content. If they're not careful, they're going to hype their way right ou
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They've gotten better in some areas, and worse in some areas... but I think they are also feeling the pinch of the content owners jacking up the licensing feeds dramatically upon renewal and things like Comcast pressing them to pay them for the bandwidth use of its customers that use Netflix.
It'll never work. (Score:4, Funny)
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The bits are run through a block of wax infused with raven's blood, which accelerates their speed through the Dark Heart processor.
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No kidding. The boxes Time Warner gives its customers are the purest grade of crap. They can barely handle their own OSD without the damn things overheating and lagging to hell.
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Streams found through Google are rarely worth the trouble of watching. Most don't even have the decency to be any higher than 360p. It's gross.
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27? What part of my comment got your panties in a twist, there?
Re:Or just use Google: show/movie site:eu OR site: (Score:4, Informative)
I'm amazed at how much work people go through to get content.
If spending two minutes setting up an automatically recurring payment is too much work, then installing Firebug and searching for streams will feel like 24-hour slavery.
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Who in the hell needs another recurring payment in their lives? Because you have something I might want to watch now you expect me to pay you next month, the month after, and the month after that!? Geez, and here you talk are bringing up slavery.
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who cares? (Score:3)
All this means is if I already have cable I can watch Netflix on my TV without having to own a computer, Apple TV, Roku, TiVo, Smart TV, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, or Android device.
If I already have cable, I can pick up an Apple TV for about one month's cable bill.
So who cares?
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Don't forget regular stand-alone blu-ray players, too.
I'd say the vast majority of people interested in using Netflix already own one of these devices and don't need to have it added to their cable box.
Maybe that's Netflix's whole game. They're reaching a market saturation and need to find a way to continue that "neverending growth" bullshit Wall Street expects now.
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That's already happening.
In the last year, we've had House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Lillyhammer, and Hemlock Grove (for pure original episodic content you can't get anywhere else in the world and which isn't a sequel). There's also Arrested Development (semi-original, given the history of AD, of course), and Derek. There are other things coming down the pipeline this year. So ... yeah, more than two series/seasons of TV a year.
people still have cable? (Score:1)
Really? I haven't had cable for years...and can't say I've missed it (or the $70 bill).
People Still Use Cable? (Score:4, Insightful)
At that point cable very quickly becomes pointless. Netflix delivers more than enough great content to fill our idle hours, and costs us roughly $75 a month less. I can't count how many TV series we've plowed through (Currently working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and how we don't care if they were originally broadcast a few years ago.
In all seriousness, the business model for cable is looking more and more like the business model for the music industry.
Re:People Still Use Cable? (Score:5, Insightful)
So you ask a really dumb question in the subject and then you preface the message by listing basically all the things that people traditionally use the service for as something you don't care about.
Why do people do that? It's great you have no use for the service but your needs are not the needs of everyone.
People still use barbers? Don't care about fancy shampoos and conditioners. Don't care about different hairstyles. Cut my own hair in front of the mirror. At that point, barbers very quickly become pointless... etc.
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If barbers charged comparable amounts of money as a cable tv service, then you'd see a lot of people quite going to barbers. I like the idea of watching sports and news from my own couch, but it's just not worth $60/month to me. Obviously some people do think it's worth it, which is why the cable companies are still alive, but that situation is rapidly changing.
What people care about (Score:1)
Actually, a lot of people I know DON'T care about those things, they've just settled into a pattern where paying for monthly cable/satellite is routine. If anything, most I know keep cable (or at least the extended package) around to have cartoons that keep the kids occupied. Netflix has lots of those, and no commercials to brainwash kids into buying the latest useless thingamajig.
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People still use cable because they never got rid of it. It's like how people had land lines long after they stopped giving out their landline number, and an ever-increasing number of people have abandoned them. At this point, I think people don't understand they have alternatives, even for keeping up on those four shows a week that they can't miss. The only thing I can't find on Google Play (as an example) that my inlaws (who have cable) "can't miss" other than sports is Mad Men, which they usually just
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I often joke that my kids are the "On Demand" generation. They watch shows via Netflix or, if from cable, our DVR. They get the shows they want to watch WHEN they want to watch them. Tuning into a channel just to see what that channel has in store for them is a rarity. It's to the point that, if they are watching a show live and a commercial comes on for an upcoming special they want to watch, my 6 year old has a hard time understanding that Daddy can't load it on Netflix or the DVR *right now.* If my
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But some of us want the latest seasons and episodes, and live sports! Also, I am waiting for Netflix to have a downloadable copies (bandwidth and stability sucks for streaming for me) and non-subscription payments like Amazon, iTunes, etc.
Piracy is still the best option (Score:3, Insightful)
Piracy is still the best, or in some cases the only option until companies wake up.
Lets see
- If I want a particular show, not the entire channel or package that requires that channel
- If I don't want to wait months (or years if in a different country) after it has aired to watch it
- If I want to have it in a standard format that doesn't require proprietary crap (e.g. mkv, avi, mp4)
- If I want to watch it ad free
- If I want to watch something that isn't otherwise released to Netflix or whatever...
Oh, and for the anti-piracy whingers:
- It's not stealing, it's copying. You may think the activity morally wrong, but that doesn't make it stealing
- Every download is not a lost sale. A bunch of stuff I wouldn't pay for in the first place.
- It has nothing to do with entitlement. It's about opportunity and choice.
I would Gladly pay $5/episode for something like Breaking Bad, a show I enjoyed greatly.
I had to download it, as I'm not going to pay for an entire package of channels just to watch one show, and there is no way to watch it the night it airs in a way I can play on mplayer with Linux or stream to my TV using DLNA.
Your loss media companies....
Re: Piracy is still the best option (Score:2, Insightful)
Breaking Bad was able to be purchased through iTunes by the episode or as a season.
So, horseshit you would have paid for it. You are just trying to justify your piracy when it is not justifiable.
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Whether it is or is not justifiable is 100% subjective; same with morality in general.
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What you say is only true for a ONE SHOW and perhaps true for ONLY ONE COUNTRY.
That leaves everything else and the rest of the planet.
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Did you miss the part about wanting to watch it on Linux or through DLNA?
iTunes is a massive fail, and I don't believe it was on iTunes the night it aired.
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"I would Gladly pay $5/episode for something like Breaking Bad, a show I enjoyed greatly."
You mean, like $2.99/episode on iTunes or Amazon offered ~1day after broadcast of not just Breaking Bad but the majority of all broadcast and basic cable shows (with a few dumbass holdouts)?
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> So they're DRM free and play on Linux? Oh, wait, no, they're not.
PPV streaming video does play on Linux actually.
PC decoders are crap and don't reliably take advantage of fancy GPU hardware on ANY platform, but that content is available to be played on Linux.
I just wouldn't use an HTPC for it (regardless of OS).
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Your bullshit is readily apparent here. Breaking Bad was sold per episode and season online almost instantly after initial broadcast. You probably didn't even look before you whipped out your favorite torrent site. Not surprising at all, really.
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I made no such implication. I merely called him out very specifically on an untruthful argument he made. Even if you want to make the argument that he has been conditioned not to even try checking in the first place, that really is just a cop out. It's not as though AMC actually released them all under cloak and dagger. Their online availability had been alluded to a number of times during the shows progression.
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Breaking Bad was sold per episode and season online almost instantly after initial broadcast.
It was licensed, not sold. Show me the DRM-free download.
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I knew BB was available, it still wasn't available without DRM.
Sorry, but I'm not installing iTunes, which doesn't let me play it through DLNA anyway.
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- Every download is not a lost sale. A bunch of stuff I wouldn't pay for in the first place.
In your case with Breaking Bad, it IS a lost sale because you said you would gladly pay $5 for an episode. In fact, you can purchase episodes for $2.99 on Amazon on Demand and they will work with Linux (AOD can use Flash too). And they are HD. What is your next excuse? That they don't come with Swahili subtitles?
You can tell yourself that it's not worth paying for to justify your stealing, but no one believes you. At this point, there's tons of good options for purchasing TV episodes: iTunes, Amazon,
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1) It's not stealing, stop repeating that ignorant nonsense
2) You seemed to miss the DRM free part of my post. That isn't due to an ideological stance, but a practical need.
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I just subscribed to Netflix explicitly for Breaking Bad. Say what you want about Netflix and DRM but I have never seen anything as easy as this. Not bad for 8 bucks a month and will pay that any day of the week.
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I too happily use Netflix.
I think the price is fair, and thought the DRM can be annoying (fast forward and rewind are awkward), the fact that it doesn't purport to be be selling me anything makes it not too bitter of a pill.
$8/month gives me access while I pay, and there are dozens of devices to play it on.
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The DRM gets stored in an obscure file somewhere in the Silverlight plugin. Once every so often, the Microsoft-specific database file that keeps your keys around will corrupt itself for no good reason (probably because it's attempting to update the DRM keys) and you'll have to go uninstall Silverlight, manually delete that file (because uninstalling does NOT remove EVERYTHING), then reinstall Silverlight just to get it back to work.
When you have ANY other media player open that has audio/video capture (VLC,
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> Copying something that is explicitly prohibited by or without specific consent of the copyright holder is called stealing.
Only by shameless liars with no sense of morality.
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How about $1.99 per episode? ($1.89 if you subscribed to the whole season.) Amazon VOD had that price. I didn't check, but I'm sure iTunes was similar in cost. Add a Roku box or AppleTV (depending on where you get your shows) and you could get the shows legally for much less than your stated price of $5 per episode.
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That's not the point though.
I don't want to have to install a shitty roku box just to play certain premium content, when I invested in a SmartTV and should be able to play it through DLNA.
What's that? My SmartTV has an App for Amazon VOD? That's great, except for when I am traveling for work and want to watch it on my Linux Laptop....
It's not just about making content available, it's about making it available in a standard format.
At the moment piracy offers a better product for free than the paid product.
I'
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I have a full cable package because Comcast decided the bundle was cheaper than just internet. I have a cable card network tuner, tried out windows media center (the only software cable cards will work with do to required bribe and DRM). At the end of the day automated usenet/torrent down loaders like sickbeard were far easier. MCE's UI is atrocious, slow, and clunky the inability to format shift was the kicker though. XBMC does nearly everything I want, pause a show int he living room, resume in my bed
Great idea for cable companies but... (Score:2)
Right now cable companies have to maintain a server system for providing and tracking payout of Movie and Pay on Demand services. In essence Netflix becomes a cloud service which removes a ton of their headaches. The cable company only has to provide current tv show episodes and special events on demands like sports (Olympics, WWE.)
The downside is that a Hulu could come in replace their TV Shows and Demand. Again sounds good but that means they slowing become just an internet provider and are loosing thei
But can they agree? (Score:2)
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Maybe, maybe not. Netflix is already on a wide variety of app-enabled TV's and Blu-Ray players, on TIVO, on Roku, etc... etc... Among the various boxes that make up my home entertainment system the only ones that Netflix isn't available on are my ancient steam powered VCR/DVD player and the sound system.
The cable companies could very well decide to get themselves a piece of that action.
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But yes, there is some incentive to include NF from a competitive, customer retention & attraction standpoint. There is also incentive to get as many cable boxes into homes as possible and collect the rent. I don't see Time Warner making that move any time soon.....we
Just wondering... (Score:2)
What Is This Article Talking About? (Score:2)
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> Netflix, join the dark side, we have snookies.
I dunno. Lack of snookies might be the reason to join the dark side here.
Take over a broadcast channel while you're... (Score:1)
slumming the wrong direction in time.
If they're bright, they'll negotiate a deal for a prominent position in the onscreen overlay, including a prized position near channel 200, or wherever the HD default portal entry is. Perhaps also a Netflix orange button on the remote even.
Otherwise they'll turn into just another channel, on demand maybe, but their favored economic ground other channels are trying to overtake with their own custom series will begin to evaporate.
I have a better suggestion (Score:2)