BBC Now Joining the Streaming Bandwagon

heisenberg

Earl Grey
BBC director general Tony Hall said he wanted to "try out businesses that go direct to the public" to boost the income of BBC Worldwide.

The new service, which could launch in 2016, will not affect agreements with other services such as Amazon and Hulu.

One expert told BBC News the service would probably appeal to a "niche" audience.

It is obvious that other networks are trying to copy Netflix. Though lately Netflix has become cocky with this silly comment about Jeremy Clarkson and Co not worth the money Amazon poured into. LOL. Little do they realize is that the Netflix version of Top Gear is cut and butchered so why would anyone watch it? Anyway, I personally think it's going to get annoying with all these companies starting their own streaming services. We will be forced to have 50 billion accounts to watch our favourite shows which would be an inconvenience to us or we will be banned from using their services like how HBO's streaming service is banned here.


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34289852
 

Overmind One

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Staff member
It is obvious that other networks are trying to copy Netflix. Though lately Netflix has become cocky with this silly comment about Jeremy Clarkson and Co not worth the money Amazon poured into. LOL. Little do they realize is that the Netflix version of Top Gear is cut and butchered so why would anyone watch it? Anyway, I personally think it's going to get annoying with all these companies starting their own streaming services. We will be forced to have 50 billion accounts to watch our favourite shows which would be an inconvenience to us or we will be banned from using their services like how HBO's streaming service is banned here.


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34289852

This is interesting! Netflix is running on a business model the others cannot afford to follow. They were never a cable company nor are they online retailers or reliant on advertising. They can just rake in the monthly subscriptions and maintain their streaming servers and transcoders and they are good to go. They really have no competition, and when they do get it, it will not be coming from cable or Amazon. But MAYBE the BBC can pull it off.
 

heisenberg

Earl Grey
This is interesting! Netflix is running on a business model the others cannot afford to follow. They were never a cable company nor are they online retailers or reliant on advertising. They can just rake in the monthly subscriptions and maintain their streaming servers and transcoders and they are good to go. They really have no competition, and when they do get it, it will not be coming from cable or Amazon. But MAYBE the BBC can pull it off.
See, here the thing - right now they maybe at the top but they won't be at the top forever. All it takes is a better idea than Netflix and the tables can turn in an instance. To say they have no real competition, is jumping to conclusion.

At the moment, Amazon has a lot of Paid Prime subscribers worldwide. It gets close to what Netflix offers and with the Top Gear Trio moving to Amazon from the political correct BBC, and them been given a bigger budget to make a car show, there will be more people moving to Amazon Prime(me including). They can finally make a car show they want and don't have to come under fire from the sensitive idiots who can't take a joke and get sent hateful letters in the mail.
http://news.investors.com/technolog...n-prime-has-more-subscribers-than-netflix.htm

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) now has 40 million U.S. members for its Amazon Prime subscription service, up about 50% from a year ago, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners said Tuesday.

Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping on millions of items, a video-on-demand service that competes with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), and other benefits. Amazon Prime costs $99 a year.

If the estimate of 40 million subscribers is accurate, Amazon Prime now has more U.S. subscribers than Netflix, which reported 39.1 million domestic members as of the end of December.




I have looked at the catalogue and what Netflix offers - it's over-rated and stuff I already own on DVD or have already watched or stuff that doesn't interest me at all. I have found more engaging stuff on youtube.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
See, here the thing - right now they maybe at the top but they won't be at the top forever. All it takes is a better idea than Netflix and the tables can turn in an instance. To say they have no real competition, is jumping to conclusion.

It is a bit more than that...Netflix has no competition. That is a statement of fact. There are hundreds of streaming services available out there, but none of them have the brand recognition of Netflix, and none of them have the resources necessary to pay the expensive licensing fees Netflix pays (from their subscriber fees) to the studio conglomerates like Disney, Paramount, MGM, etc etc. Netflix has their own servers. If you run your own cloud system privately (it can be done very cheaply, and I am doing it myself), you can see how Netflix is making their money. They load their servers with material, and then transcoding software calculates your connection speed and identifies the type of client you are using, and then the material is streamed to your device. Doing that is CHEAP. Very very cheap. Even if you buy hosting space and do it that way, it is dirt cheap. If I could collect $8.99 a month from everyone who accessed stuff from my cloud based movie collection, I would be very very very wealthy. :)

At the moment, Amazon has a lot of Paid Prime subscribers worldwide. It gets close to what Netflix offers and with the Top Gear Trio moving to Amazon from the political correct BBC, and them been given a bigger budget to make a car show, there will be more people moving to Amazon Prime(me including). They can finally make a car show they want and don't have to come under fire from the sensitive idiots who can't take a joke and get sent hateful letters in the mail.
http://news.investors.com/technolog...n-prime-has-more-subscribers-than-netflix.htm

Yes, but Amazon is an online retailer. They also own physical warehouses and employ thousands of actual people who package and process real items. They are not competition because of overhead. Amazon is losing money on their streaming which it makes up on the retailing and Kindle sides. I am not arguing which of the services is "better" than the other. I am merely pointing out that Netflix has no competition because nobody else can really do what they are doing. But the BBC can. It has a taxation model which can easily be converted to a pay model. It has no warehouses or other arms it has to support financially. It already has client authentication built into it's infrastructure. It has it's own servers and transcoders.

I have looked at the catalogue and what Netflix offers - it's over-rated and stuff I already own on DVD or have already watched or stuff that doesn't interest me at all. I have found more engaging stuff on youtube.

I wont argue that, but that is not really what your OP is talking about is it? Of all the well known entities who might compete with Netflix, only the BBC makes me take pause. Amazon and cable companies are not going to be able to do what Netflix is doing. The BBC is the one entity who I think could be real competition.
 
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Joelist

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Staff member
It's hard to compare Amazon Prime and Netflix because they are two different animals. Netflix is all about video. Prime runs the video as a piece of a service bundle that includes video, music, shipping and now free ebooks. Also while Prime like Netflix has apps on all the platforms Prime also produces its own tablets and set top boxes (and their set top box is super powerful).

So two different animals.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
It's hard to compare Amazon Prime and Netflix because they are two different animals. Netflix is all about video. Prime runs the video as a piece of a service bundle that includes video, music, shipping and now free ebooks. Also while Prime like Netflix has apps on all the platforms Prime also produces its own tablets and set top boxes (and their set top box is super powerful).

So two different animals.

The bolded is it in a nutshell. Amazon (the whole company) is a completely different animal than Netflix. Even Hulu is a completely different animal than Netflix. BBC, however....

BBC could easily convert to a global pay model. And considering the similarity in both the model and the resources owned and needed to provide such a paid service, BBC could give Netflix serious competition for on-demand streaming services.
 
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