Netflix is pretty good, but as soon as someone can bring to market an instant streaming service with more current/popular releases, they will get killed. It's really annoying how much isn't on streaming. But nobody else is any better, so meh.
Blame the studios. They certainly don't want to see the sales of silver discs keep declining. I'm actually suprised Netflix has been permitted to stream so much already.
the reasons for NetFlix success are simple - a great low price for the service and no time limits on watching anything. snailmail BD's and a huge DVD catalog (which can be ripped) add options for those looking for more. it's a great deal for consumers, hence its 60%+ market share.
all the more more expensive a la carte services like iTunes can offer for the home viewer is earlier access to the big hits. but only the impatient really need that. and you can just do it the few times you feel the urge. their biggest audience is probably mobil device users who are traveling and want to kill some time with a recent movie. there is no sales volume in that model. hence Apple's 4% share.
the problem is, the mediacos hate NetFlix. maybe even more than iTunes now. they see their product being sold too cheap and kicking back too little cash to them. and the telcos hate it too, because it uses them as "dumb pipes."
the new AT&T 150G monthly data cap is the first effort by these guys to get a bigger piece of NetFlix action. more telco limits will follow. and all the mediacos will demand sharply higher license fees when those contracts come up for renewal.
so the direct and indirect cost of NetFlix will be going up. a lot.
The only issue I see with the Netflix comparison is that iTunes streaming/dowloading doesn't account for the times a consumer re-watches a show/movie that they purchased. While our family streams a lot from Netflix some of that traffic is the kids watching the same episodes repeatedly. If we purchased this content that we purchased from iTunes it would only count once.
We don't currently buy TV shows from iTunes but we do occasionally buy new movies from iTunes. Basically if it's a movie we actually want to purchase we do it via iTunes not by purchasing a DVD. I have no interest in accumalting anymore CDs or DVDs.
Yes the telcos would love to marginalize "dumb pipes" which is usually at direct odds with what customers want and pay for.
Blame the studios. They certainly don't want to see the sales of silver discs keep declining. I'm actually suprised Netflix has been permitted to stream so much already.
I blame AT&T as well. They call me 3 times a week hawking Uverse, which I won't buy, but I use their dsl to access Netflix and other sources. I would guess that the upcoming restrictions will affect me.
Any source of information on these new restrictions?
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
The best part about iTunes movie rentals/sales is that they don't restrict access if you're traveling outside the US. As long as your account has a US credit card and address, you're good to go from any IP address. That's a huge plus. Trying to deal with a VPN and Netflix is extremely frustrating.
The worst part about iTunes is their selection is pretty terrible, and the UI is horrible.
You know you can pair your remotes, right? By default every device will see every Apple Remote, but you can pair them so that you won't accidentally trip the wrong machine .
Yeah, battiato pointed that out earlier. I have since clarified that particular problem. Thanks.
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
250GB is merely adequate and should be the bare minimum. I can regularly hit that number, and in months during which I'm at home a lot (December and January) I can easily hit 350-450GB.
If ISPs are going to give us modems and plans that have the theoretical capability of downloading upwards of 1300GB a month, then they should expect customers to want to get full value for their money. There is no such thing as a "bandwidth hog." Arbitrary limits are simply that, arbitrary. There is no basis in logic for choosing that number.
Oh, give me a break. Do you leave your damn house, or do anything that involves not being on the internet? 250GB is MORE than reasonable- it's fucking fantastic, and those who pass it would be on the extreme outliers- and from a corporate standpoint, its reasonable to punish outliers that have such extreme usage. How many movies, application, games etc do you pirate per month to hit those numbers?
You know what my bandwidth cap is? Do you REALLY want to know? 4GB. That's 1.6% of the bandwidth that you're bitching about. Basically, you get more than DOUBLE my monthly cap PER DAY. And you don't want to know how much I pay for that, the speeds I get, nor how much I'm overcharged per MB when I go over (which is every month obviously). And no, there aren't any alternatives at reasonable prices. Before I click a link, watch a youtube vid, I actually have to stop and think if it will be worth my while and the hit on bandwidth. I'd kill to get even 10GB/month, to give some damn breathing room. So please, don't even dare bitch about 250GB.
Anyways, it's not surprising that Netflix is far in the lead. I pay $9/month, and can watch as many movies on streaming as I want to. Granted, most of the ones I want to see they don't offer on streaming, but still.
The cable companies also have some streaming content available for free to subscribers. Of course their free offerings are pathetic unless you subscribe to a premium channel. Still with a number of free offerings in addition to their paid offerings, it is impressive that iTunes can compete.
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
Sheesh I had forgotten all about that show. Do they still play that awesome base riff from Fleetwood Mac's The Chain at the start?
I won't buy movies from iTunes until DRM is removed or it at least becomes cross platform. Sadly, I think this would be need to be regulated by government, since the studios seem to think DRM is worthwhile.
I'd be more inclined to rent movies if the rental charges could be applied as a discount off the purchase price should I decide to purchase after renting. I'm only really interested in renting movies that I might buy, but I don't want to rent a movie if I'm going to end up buying it because then the rental money is wasted...
I think there is still a market for purchases, but they need to be offered in a more attractive package than they are right now.
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
I cut the cable cord, entirely using iTunes. (Thankfully, the shows I wanted to watch were on iTunes.)
How's iTunes for getting live Japan disaster updates?
Quote:
iTunes fills a niche for me, as does Hulu, but I plan to resume using Netflix as my top video service. The selection can?t be beat.
I can't find much that I want to download from Netflix. I think they have a pretty sparse offering compared to the dvd selection. Another issue I have is the poor download speed and frequent buffering. That alone makes it unwatchable for me.
With 50 billion in the bank, Apple should really use 10 billion of that to buy Netflix.
I doubt if Netflix's agreements with the movie studios would survive a merger. In addition, Apple would have absolutely no interest in the physical disk storage/shipping/management part of the Netflix business. Don't expect this to happen.
Comments
Netflix is pretty good, but as soon as someone can bring to market an instant streaming service with more current/popular releases, they will get killed. It's really annoying how much isn't on streaming. But nobody else is any better, so meh.
Blame the studios. They certainly don't want to see the sales of silver discs keep declining. I'm actually suprised Netflix has been permitted to stream so much already.
If Doctor Who were the only thing, it would be worth it.
I hear you
the reasons for NetFlix success are simple - a great low price for the service and no time limits on watching anything. snailmail BD's and a huge DVD catalog (which can be ripped) add options for those looking for more. it's a great deal for consumers, hence its 60%+ market share.
all the more more expensive a la carte services like iTunes can offer for the home viewer is earlier access to the big hits. but only the impatient really need that. and you can just do it the few times you feel the urge. their biggest audience is probably mobil device users who are traveling and want to kill some time with a recent movie. there is no sales volume in that model. hence Apple's 4% share.
the problem is, the mediacos hate NetFlix. maybe even more than iTunes now. they see their product being sold too cheap and kicking back too little cash to them. and the telcos hate it too, because it uses them as "dumb pipes."
the new AT&T 150G monthly data cap is the first effort by these guys to get a bigger piece of NetFlix action. more telco limits will follow. and all the mediacos will demand sharply higher license fees when those contracts come up for renewal.
so the direct and indirect cost of NetFlix will be going up. a lot.
The only issue I see with the Netflix comparison is that iTunes streaming/dowloading doesn't account for the times a consumer re-watches a show/movie that they purchased. While our family streams a lot from Netflix some of that traffic is the kids watching the same episodes repeatedly. If we purchased this content that we purchased from iTunes it would only count once.
We don't currently buy TV shows from iTunes but we do occasionally buy new movies from iTunes. Basically if it's a movie we actually want to purchase we do it via iTunes not by purchasing a DVD. I have no interest in accumalting anymore CDs or DVDs.
Yes the telcos would love to marginalize "dumb pipes" which is usually at direct odds with what customers want and pay for.
Blame the studios. They certainly don't want to see the sales of silver discs keep declining. I'm actually suprised Netflix has been permitted to stream so much already.
I blame AT&T as well. They call me 3 times a week hawking Uverse, which I won't buy, but I use their dsl to access Netflix and other sources. I would guess that the upcoming restrictions will affect me.
Any source of information on these new restrictions?
And I wish we could get the iPlayer here in the States.
its coming this year.
I hear you
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
The worst part about iTunes is their selection is pretty terrible, and the UI is horrible.
You know you can pair your remotes, right? By default every device will see every Apple Remote, but you can pair them so that you won't accidentally trip the wrong machine
Yeah, battiato pointed that out earlier. I have since clarified that particular problem. Thanks.
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
Nah, that would be Doctor Who.
250GB is merely adequate and should be the bare minimum. I can regularly hit that number, and in months during which I'm at home a lot (December and January) I can easily hit 350-450GB.
If ISPs are going to give us modems and plans that have the theoretical capability of downloading upwards of 1300GB a month, then they should expect customers to want to get full value for their money. There is no such thing as a "bandwidth hog." Arbitrary limits are simply that, arbitrary. There is no basis in logic for choosing that number.
Oh, give me a break. Do you leave your damn house, or do anything that involves not being on the internet? 250GB is MORE than reasonable- it's fucking fantastic, and those who pass it would be on the extreme outliers- and from a corporate standpoint, its reasonable to punish outliers that have such extreme usage. How many movies, application, games etc do you pirate per month to hit those numbers?
You know what my bandwidth cap is? Do you REALLY want to know? 4GB. That's 1.6% of the bandwidth that you're bitching about. Basically, you get more than DOUBLE my monthly cap PER DAY. And you don't want to know how much I pay for that, the speeds I get, nor how much I'm overcharged per MB when I go over (which is every month obviously). And no, there aren't any alternatives at reasonable prices. Before I click a link, watch a youtube vid, I actually have to stop and think if it will be worth my while and the hit on bandwidth. I'd kill to get even 10GB/month, to give some damn breathing room. So please, don't even dare bitch about 250GB.
Yeah, 250GB is a LOT.
Anyways, it's not surprising that Netflix is far in the lead. I pay $9/month, and can watch as many movies on streaming as I want to. Granted, most of the ones I want to see they don't offer on streaming, but still.
The cable companies also have some streaming content available for free to subscribers. Of course their free offerings are pathetic unless you subscribe to a premium channel. Still with a number of free offerings in addition to their paid offerings, it is impressive that iTunes can compete.
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
Sheesh I had forgotten all about that show. Do they still play that awesome base riff from Fleetwood Mac's The Chain at the start?
I'd be more inclined to rent movies if the rental charges could be applied as a discount off the purchase price should I decide to purchase after renting. I'm only really interested in renting movies that I might buy, but I don't want to rent a movie if I'm going to end up buying it because then the rental money is wasted...
I think there is still a market for purchases, but they need to be offered in a more attractive package than they are right now.
Nah, that would be Doctor Who.
Haven't seen that since Tom Baker ... didn't it go down hill after that?
Top Gear will make iPlayer worth it if they post the episodes the next day. They have 2 series a year, which is nice. Best show on either side of the pond, IMO.
No fees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhxB5m_4VMs
I cut the cable cord, entirely using iTunes. (Thankfully, the shows I wanted to watch were on iTunes.)
How's iTunes for getting live Japan disaster updates?
iTunes fills a niche for me, as does Hulu, but I plan to resume using Netflix as my top video service. The selection can?t be beat.
I can't find much that I want to download from Netflix. I think they have a pretty sparse offering compared to the dvd selection. Another issue I have is the poor download speed and frequent buffering. That alone makes it unwatchable for me.
With 50 billion in the bank, Apple should really use 10 billion of that to buy Netflix.
I doubt if Netflix's agreements with the movie studios would survive a merger. In addition, Apple would have absolutely no interest in the physical disk storage/shipping/management part of the Netflix business. Don't expect this to happen.