Survey: business idea

To post in this sub-forum you must have made 100 posts or have Trust status or have completed our ID Verification

Forums › Startups › Survey: business idea

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#108578 1-Sep-2012 19:52

Hi all,
I am trying to gather some numbers on a potential business idea that is going to be pretty tough to get going (already well into it with distributors though), so I thought I would put out a quick poll on Facebook to see how many people would be interested.

The idea is a NZ version of Netflix. Yes you can use VPNs to get onto Netflix, yes you can download TV series, but this is a legal way of doing things. So I understand there are people doing both, but I also understand that there are people who wish to remain law abiding citizens. So please, spare a moment, answer the poll (leave a comment if you want to suggest something or contact me about it) and then be sure to share with your friends.

The site will be primarily looking at TV series, and back seasons of shows... Not current stuff you can just watch on TV (for now).

http://www.facebook.com/questions/10151051008287963/

Many thanks for your time.

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#680204 1-Sep-2012 20:38

If you want to say anything, or vote here rather than there, please do so. The feedback would be hugely appreciated, and would go along way to getting this venture off the ground.

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#680297 2-Sep-2012 10:03

Can't seem to find an edit button for the link, I have had to make a new poll, to include a couple more options.

Please now vote here:
http://www.facebook.com/questions/10151051769567963/

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

gzt

18724 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7860

Lifetime subscriber

#680298 2-Sep-2012 10:08

Not a facebook user recently. Cannot see questions without login. Can you post the questions here?

GeoffisPure

459 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 73

#680304 2-Sep-2012 10:11

I assume you're aware of Quickflix? How would you differentiate, aside from being NZ owned?

gzt

18724 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7860

Lifetime subscriber

#680307 2-Sep-2012 10:26

waterfront:

VPN is nothing but a barrier for the vast majority.

You will not have a problem gaining customers.

I was with Quickflix until recently. The lack of specific email notification for new titles or RSS feeds for new titles was a factor in dropping it. There were other problems with content discovery. As I commented at the time content discovery was actually easier in a physical store.

Quickflix had hardly any nonfiction/documentary/science titles. Those may be neglected areas and there may be content going begging.

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#680308 2-Sep-2012 10:28

gzt: Not a facebook user recently. Cannot see questions without login. Can you post the questions here?

Sure thing, the questions is:

If you could go to a NZ owned and operated site, pay a small monthly subscription fee (far less than Sky) that allowed you to watch all back episodes of your favourite TV shows (unlimited per month), would you?

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#680309 2-Sep-2012 10:31

GeoffisPure: I assume you're aware of Quickflix? How would you differentiate, aside from being NZ owned?

Yes, well aware of Quickflix :)
The way I am planning on differing from them is to start out by offering only TV shows. Not movies. There are many reasons for this, but Quickflix lacks massively in the TV show area, apart from kids shows. They are starting to get more, but not from the distributors I am in talks with :)

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

paulspain

417 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#680364 2-Sep-2012 13:22

In terms of getting more content than Quickflix I'm sure that's possible if you have sufficient money. From what I can tell they've invested many millions securing TV/movie deals and getting that content online. I imagine their content catalogue will continue grow as quickly as they can sign deals and get content feed to them by partners.

My thought is that if you've got investment backing in the tens of millions of dollars and can market well and launch fairly quickly (including signing app distribution deals for TV platforms and consoles) you might get market share but have a battle to be profitable. I think even Quickflix and Netflix are still figuring out how to make streaming profitable and their total markets are much bigger than NZ.

It's worth noting that Netflix may also choose to enter the NZ market at any time. And Sky/Fatso may do something one day.

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast

Waterfront

46 posts

Geek

#680898 3-Sep-2012 15:23

paulspain: In terms of getting more content than Quickflix I'm sure that's possible if you have sufficient money. From what I can tell they've invested many millions securing TV/movie deals and getting that content online. I imagine their content catalogue will continue grow as quickly as they can sign deals and get content feed to them by partners.

My thought is that if you've got investment backing in the tens of millions of dollars and can market well and launch fairly quickly (including signing app distribution deals for TV platforms and consoles) you might get market share but have a battle to be profitable. I think even Quickflix and Netflix are still figuring out how to make streaming profitable and their total markets are much bigger than NZ.

It's worth noting that Netflix may also choose to enter the NZ market at any time. And Sky/Fatso may do something one day.

In terms of Sky/Fatso entering, already spoken to them, and they indicated it was not a path they were interested in heading down. And with regards to Netflix, yeah they could be here any day, but so could any business venture. Have to at least give it a decent shot :)

And yes Quickflix has invested a lot in movies, that's why I was looking at the TV show route, as it hasn't really been done here, where as movies have been.

Thank you very much for the input and feedback!

Waterfront NZ - New Zealand's brand new waterfront property listing site.
www.waterfront-nz.com

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1528

#680904 3-Sep-2012 15:28

I don't want to poo-poo you too much, but I presume you have got some area of expertise in the content industry, and/or 10s of millions of dollars to front up for the venture? Ideally both?

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#681266 4-Sep-2012 12:05

Waterfront:

If you could go to a NZ owned and operated site, pay a small monthly subscription fee (far less than Sky) that allowed you to watch all back episodes of your favourite TV shows (unlimited per month), would you?

Assuming:
1: The quality was good (not badly compressed SD)
2: The price was fair for the content available
3: My ISP of choice had un-metered traffic to your server/service.

Yes

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

reven

3748 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 874

Trusted

#681297 4-Sep-2012 13:03

personally i use netflix a lot. and i use it mostly for tv shows. i just finished supernatural season 1 to 6, i watched dollhouse season 1+2, it crowd season 1-4, watching enterprise now.

what would make me switch to a nz based one
- app on consoles ps3 + xbox which can easily find things
- hd quality
- lots and lots of tv shows, must be able to compete with netflix, otherwise i wouldnt jump ship until it could
- reasonable priced, no more than $15 NZD a month, i pay about NZD$11 a month now for netflix

bonuses
- not using silverlight for the player, so could be made to work with linux distributions like xbmc
- popular TVs supporting the service

so mostly
- content
- price
- accessibility

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 138

#681327 4-Sep-2012 14:08

Waterfront: In terms of Sky/Fatso entering, already spoken to them, and they indicated it was not a path they were interested in heading down.

Some years ago a small group invested a lot of time, effort and money with a view towards establishing a digital broadcast service that would compete with the then analogue Sky offerings. They had content signed and had done a lot of work on getting the necessary satellite bandwidth sorted.

But it never happened, and most folk weren't even aware it was close to happening. Someone from one of the analogue competitors of the day found out about the plans and managed to effectively kill it, despite the originators being well aware of this eventuality and taking suitable security precautions.

You don't need to trust me on this, but I wouldn't be trusting any existing players in this space with the knowledge that you're going there. Unless you plan to throw the switch tomorrow.