I am a torrenter and want to stop

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freitasm

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#957695 26-Dec-2013 21:07

AnfieldBoy: Thank you for some intelligent replys.

To my understanding there are two main barriers to entry for a NZ netflix. The first is the cost to serve, moving data on the sxn is prohibitively high for netflix, also prising the content away from the sky monopoly will be challenging. Only the other week netflix announced that they will not be opening in Aus due to the lockdown on content at foxtel.

Moving large amounts of data on the sxn is achingly expensive, I know I have tried. That is why I made the third world statement.

Very much like Google YouTube (which has local caches inside some NZ ISPs), Netflix also offer a similar service, called Netflix Open Content Delivery Network. It's either a peering service (in the USA/Canada) or, exactly like Google YouTube, an on-premises cache. This automatically negates your theory that international traffic is a problem because movies are moved into the cache once only and served from there. And like Google YouTube the ISPs are the ones footing the bill.

Second, if Netflix were to start a NZ service they would have only to use Akamai to have a level of service similar to Apple iTunes, Microsoft and many other providers. Again this would negate the whole "international traffic thing" because once cached, it's national only.

sbiddle

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#957701 26-Dec-2013 21:22

AnfieldBoy:

Moving large amounts of data on the sxn is achingly expensive, I know I have tried. That is why I made the third world statement.

Define "expensive"? If you're comparing is to buying transit across North America, yes it is. Australia has numerous pipes running into it with a lot of capacity to the US and Asia, of which SXC is only 1 player. They need to stay competitive with those other offerings, and it's no secret that costs for NZ are the same as AU.

The price of capacity across SXC has crashed, and you'd probably be surprised how much 1Gbps on that costs per month vs getting 1Gbps between Auckland and Wellington (hint - it's not really that different)

Netflix is roughly 30% of US internet traffic. YouTube is 20%

Google's model is to drive CDN's closer to users by selling ISPs equipment and getting the ISP to pay for the transit. Without the Google CDN the ISP users suffer poor performance because YouTube rate shape their own servers to limit their own costs. With the cache the ISP reduces it's upstream transit requirements so it's a win-win for both players.

Netflix operate their CDN in exactly the same way. Like Google they're very smart. They know providing their own infrastructure would cost big $$ so effectively shift that cost away from themselves.

As we move into a high bandwidth world CDNs become an essential part of that, and transit becomes less of an issue. I don't think it'll be long before well over 50% of international traffic from NZ is actually going to AU, and with talk of several more CDN players looking to setup shop in NZ we'll see far more traffic stay local, which is going to deliver an even better end result for users wanting high bandwidth content.

21brandon21

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#957759 27-Dec-2013 00:15

People who say NZ has Third World Internet clearly haven't been out of the country. Once you leave NZ you'll realize how good NZ Internet is. Other countries are complete rubbish.

crackrdbycracku

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#957808 27-Dec-2013 08:47

freitasm:

Netflix also offer a similar service, called Netflix Open Content Delivery Network.

Second, if Netflix were to start a NZ service they would have only to use Akamai to have a level of service similar to Apple iTunes, Microsoft and many other providers.

So the reason that New Zealand has no legal streaming service which could actually make a dent in content piracy is ... the Sky monopoly alone?

Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

freitasm

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#957811 27-Dec-2013 08:53

If you ask Sky they will say it's not their fault. But then that's what you would expect as an answer...

There are a few legal video download and stream services in New Zealand. Some might even put a dent in piracy in my opinion, because of the volume of clients out there already: Google Play Movies, Xbox Movies and Apple iTunes. They would need to add TV series to these services though to appeal to an even larger audience.

sbiddle

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#957813 27-Dec-2013 09:03

crackrdbycracku:
freitasm:

Netflix also offer a similar service, called Netflix Open Content Delivery Network.

Second, if Netflix were to start a NZ service they would have only to use Akamai to have a level of service similar to Apple iTunes, Microsoft and many other providers.

So the reason that New Zealand has no legal streaming service which could actually make a dent in content piracy is ... the Sky monopoly alone?

I don't think it's fair to just blame Sky.

Look at the TV market for example - there is nothing stopping another competitor taking on Sky and offering 80% of the same content (with the exception of Sport which is heavily funded by Sky and channels produced by Sky such as Jones). All the big channels such as Discovery, Nat Geo etc can be purchased by anybody who wants to front with the money. The main issue preventing this is that NZ is a small country - nobody else could replicate Sky via satellite for a start because there isn't transponder capacity, and the cost of building a business would be so high you'd properly be smarter trying to start another auction site.

In terms of online content population becomes an issue as well. The rights to many TV shows are sold either for a fixed price or to the highest bidder. A small startup isn't going to be able to afford these costs. The whole TV business is still very much stuck in a 1970's business model.

I guess the big question is whether the NZ market is big enough for Netflix.

crackrdbycracku

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#957820 27-Dec-2013 09:24

In fairness, to me, I don't actually 'blame' Sky any more than blame any other company trying to maximise revenue. I did say 'Sky monopoly' not 'the evil nature of Sky'.

Sky sunk a huge amount of capital into the infrastructure that creates their network so trying to gain a return on that investment is fair. From one point of view that infrastructure was built in the 1990's so protecting that investment means restricting/stopping uptake of current technology which would make it obsolete, UFB for example, which might make a competitive streaming service more likely.

Yes, I know we have QuickFlix but take a look at QuickFlix Australia and compare the TV content.

I've looked into US based streaming services such as the OP asked about and for me it's just too much hassle. I have Sky over the Wellington Vodafone cable network and that works well and simply, I might torrent a little but bandwidth cost makes converting completely to online services too expensive at this point.

Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

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NonprayingMantis

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#957822 27-Dec-2013 09:28

crackrdbycracku: In fairness, to me, I don't actually 'blame' Sky any more than blame any other company trying to maximise revenue. I did say 'Sky monopoly' not 'the evil nature of Sky'.

Sky sunk a huge amount of capital into the infrastructure that creates their network so trying to gain a return on that investment is fair. From one point of view that infrastructure was built in the 1990's so protecting that investment means restricting/stopping uptake of current technology which would make it obsolete, UFB for example, which might make a competitive streaming service more likely.

Yes, I know we have QuickFlix but take a look at QuickFlix Australia and compare the TV content.

I've looked into US based streaming services such as the OP asked about and for me it's just too much hassle. I have Sky over the Wellington Vodafone cable network and that works well and simply, I might torrent a little but bandwidth cost makes converting completely to online services too expensive at this point.

Not if you switch to an ISP that offers larger data caps, or even unlimited.
Vf seems to have the smallest caps in the market right now.

Ufb will help, but many people are streaming netflix etc quite happily on adsl. Even the highest def stream only needs about 7Mbps, and the quality at 3Mbs is pretty good IMO.

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#957832 27-Dec-2013 09:54

To me, the two biggest issues are

1) The lack of comprehensive coverage of all the mainstream stuff shown at the moment, or the popular stuff from the past decade or so. Netflix, Hulu etc are pretty good, but stuff like HBO missing is a MASSIVE hole. If I could get everything I wanted to watch from 1 (or even 2 or 3) providers, it would slash the amount of piracy I commit.

2) Format. The media companies STILL don't understand that DRM just does not work. I don't want to have to watch Netflix in their player, especially if there are other services I use to pick up other content. I don't watch TV/Movies on a PC or laptop, but I have one plugged into my TV and use Plex. If these services could integrate properly into Plex or another interface that would be awesome - but at the moment they don't really.

I pay a bunch of money at the moment for content. I pay 2 Usenet providers and I give donations and buy subscriptions to a bunch of cool apps like Plex, SickBeard and CouchPotato. I have no issue paying for content - and I'd rather give that money to those making the content, but the reality is I can't.

Aside: I used to pirate music, but haven't for several years now because digital music is actually really well setup. I can buy what I want (everything) from a single provider, or stream everything from a single provider - and can play it however I want.

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