The ShowmeTV thread

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#992221 22-Feb-2014 10:31

If it was me I'd be doing whatever it took to get Netflix on board, it would instantly solve a large part of the content problem. It wouldn't solve it completely but it would save reinventing the wheel and be sufficient enough to attract a lot of customers.

Netflix has previously said they're disinterested in NZ due to data caps broadband infrastructure. However Telecom could unrate Netflix data and UFB/VDSL are more than enough for HD streaming.

Additionally Coloseum (who bought the premiere league rights) are interested in bidding on the rugby rights and Telecom already has a partnership with Colosseum which they could build on so maybe some potential there?

Whatever the result I just hope it's not a) not redistributed Sky channels or b) a half arsed solution like caspa or quikflix.

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#992227 22-Feb-2014 10:38

Behodar:
NonprayingMantis: (Also, I think it funny that a few weeks ago people were saying "if only a Netflix type service was available locally we would buy it", but now it looks like there might be one, so many have already decided its crap before knowing anything about it)

A Netflix/Hulu-type service would be fantastic, but unfortunately I don't have high hopes at launch.

ShowmeTV will have 5,000 hours of content across all genres when it launches, Telecom says. That compares to the 60,000 films, television programmes, documentaries and sporting titles held by ASX-listed Quickflix, and is dwarfed by the content on California-based Netflix.

However:

Mr Moutter used the phrase that Telecom wants to create "the Netflix of New Zealand", raising the prospect of all-you-can-eat viewing for a set low cost per month.

Yeah, Mr Keall did not do the research here.

The 60,000 titles on Quickflix OBVIOUSLY refers to the DVD rental library. Anybody who has looked at the Quickflix streamig service can see they have very little content. - about 700 movies and maybe 100 TV seasons. Even if you include the old HBO stuff from Australia, its still only a few hundred hours more. Nowhere near 60,000 hours and almost all of it old rubbish.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/18/netflix-u-k-has-far-more-tv-shows-series-than-lovefilm-instant-but-amazons-on-demand-service-has-twice-as-many-films/

The U.S. Netflix has close to six times more streamable titles than U.K. Netflix. U.S. Netflix has an API which Oric says is used by Instantwatcher.com to determine the number of titles on Netflix US (Instant). That figure is 14,142 streamable titles (9,153 films and 4,989 TV seasons) — which compares to a measly 2,593 titles in the UK (1,668 films and 925 TV seasons), according to Oric’s data. In truth, anyone who’s ever flicked idly through U.K. Netflix’s film collection to try to find something to watch can tell you it’s very thin pickings indeed on the service — especially if you’re not keen to eyeball a straight-to-DVD-style film. Comparing the U.K. LOVEFiLM Instant service to Amazon’s Prime Instant Video U.S. service shows another big content discrepancy. Oric calculates that Amazon.com has 13,185 movies in their Instant Video catalogue that are free to Amazon Prime Members, out of a total of 57,888 movies in their Instant Video catalogue (the rest of the titles are not free, even to Prime members). They also have 2,204 TV seasons in their Instant Video catalogue that are free to Amazon Prime Members, out of a total of 11,688 TV seasons (again, the rest are pay-to-watch). So that’s 13,185 free-to-members movies on Prime Instant Video and 2,204 free-to-members TV seasons — compared to 3,284 movies on LOVEFiLM Instant and 589 TV seasons. Sucks to be a Brit."

to me, that suggests that 5000 hours at launch will be pretty close to what UK Netflix had when it launched. Not the size of the US catalogue of course, but still heaps.

Furthermore, a lot will depend on the quality of the content too. Netflix US has lots of awesome stuff, but also thousands of hours of absolute crud. (for example, all the Asylum films like 2 headed shark attack, Megashark vs Giant Octopus, Transmorphers etc)

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#992228 22-Feb-2014 10:39

BigMal: If it was me I'd be doing whatever it took to get Netflix on board, it would instantly solve a large part of the content problem. It wouldn't solve it completely but it would save reinventing the wheel and be sufficient enough to attract a lot of customers.

Netflix has previously said they're disinterested in NZ due to data caps broadband infrastructure. However Telecom could unrate Netflix data and UFB/VDSL are more than enough for HD streaming.

Additionally Coloseum (who bought the premiere league rights) are interested in bidding on the rugby rights and Telecom already has a partnership with Colosseum which they could build on so maybe some potential there?

Whatever the result I just hope it's not a) not redistributed Sky channels or b) a half arsed solution like caspa or quikflix.

It wouldn't 'solve' anything. Netflix don't have content rights for anything in NZ.

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#992231 22-Feb-2014 10:50

NonprayingMantis:

It wouldn't 'solve' anything. Netflix don't have content rights for anything in NZ.

How do you know what Netflix has rights for? Netflix has stated for a long time that their goal has always been global distribution rights, for all we know they might have heaps of content they could show here.

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#992232 22-Feb-2014 10:52

BigMal:
NonprayingMantis:

It wouldn't 'solve' anything. Netflix don't have content rights for anything in NZ.

How do you know what Netflix has rights for? Netflix has stated for a long time that their goal has always been global distribution rights, for all we know they might have heaps of content they could show here.

Why would they spend money buying rights for NZ without having a service here?

it would be a total waste of money. If and when they decide to launch here, they will look to buy rights. The same rights will be available to them as are available to everyone else.

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#992238 22-Feb-2014 11:15

geekiegeek: unless they plan to rebroadcast Sky they will not get the content required to have any real success IMO. Its just Quickflix by Telecom

Not quite true. There is nothing stopping anybody from purchasing probably 50% of Sky's content (ie all the main channels such as news, Discovery, Nat Geo etc). All you need to do is pay for it.

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#992240 22-Feb-2014 11:16

JimmyH: They need a delivery platform and some content.

You're clearly unaware of the massive Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch CDN that Telecom have already built.

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#992250 22-Feb-2014 11:37

ShowMe / Spark are going to need significantly deeper pockets than 15 million for content. That will buy them sweet stuff all compared to US netflix.

TV is incredibly hot at the moment and the price of the premium brands will suck that 15million very quickly.

Netflix looked at Australia & NZ last year, they surmised that the internet was too patchy and the cable networks (foxtel $ sky) where too dominant. We won't see netflix here any time soon.

However having a service such as this start up and probably offer a mediocre service initially is good news. Getting people onto UFB or VDSL and having services which utilise those pipes is a good thing for our content availability and our internet economy.

More power to Telecom say I, however I can't imagine dropping Netflix anytime soon.

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#992251 22-Feb-2014 11:37

sbiddle:
JimmyH: They need a delivery platform and some content.

You're clearly unaware of the massive Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch CDN that Telecom have already built.

Tell me more?

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#992271 22-Feb-2014 12:16

It's truly fascinating to me how many experts on content rights and programming NZ seems to suddenly have, judging by this forum, twitter, and the comments on NBR etc

So many people seem to inside knowledge of the most intimate details of Sky's content rights holdings, Netflix's content strategy, what is, or is not, available and at what price. Amazing.

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#992275 22-Feb-2014 12:21

^^^^

This.

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#992286 22-Feb-2014 12:34

it will all come down to live sport.If they can get 1-2 of the big sports, then they have a chance.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

JimmyH

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#992306 22-Feb-2014 13:21

sbiddle:
JimmyH: They need a delivery platform and some content.

You're clearly unaware of the massive Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch CDN that Telecom have already built.

Yes I was unaware of it, but it wasn't actually what I was referring to.

I meant a platform in subscribers homes which makes it feasible for them to watch the content. Bearing in mind that a lot of people (me included) prefer to watch films on their TV rather than their computer, they need a way of connecting their platform to TVs. Networked mart-TV penetration is fairly low and fragmented (each manufacturer needs to push out an app), and not that many people have networked media players etc.

Some form of attractive set-top box is probably required. Hence my comment that they could do worse than to resurrect TiVo. As a capable networkable twin-tuner Freeview PVR, it would likely have wider selling appeal than a box which was just a SparkTV STB.

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#992308 22-Feb-2014 13:26

BigPipeNZ: It's truly fascinating to me how many experts on content rights and programming NZ seems to suddenly have, judging by this forum, twitter, and the comments on NBR etc

So many people seem to inside knowledge of the most intimate details of Sky's content rights holdings, Netflix's content strategy, what is, or is not, available and at what price. Amazing.

Yes, but much of the discussion can be summarised as:

"To stand a chance of competing with Sky and other options such as Netflix, they need to have a good content range, and have to find a a way to launch with enough content to entice subscribers/viewers"

Which is a fairly rational starting point.

Most of the rest is speculation about possible ways they could try and achieve this. In come cases very speculative. But interesting none the less.

BigPipeNZ

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#992343 22-Feb-2014 14:48

JimmyH:
BigPipeNZ: It's truly fascinating to me how many experts on content rights and programming NZ seems to suddenly have, judging by this forum, twitter, and the comments on NBR etc

So many people seem to inside knowledge of the most intimate details of Sky's content rights holdings, Netflix's content strategy, what is, or is not, available and at what price. Amazing.

Yes, but much of the discussion can be summarised as:

"To stand a chance of competing with Sky and other options such as Netflix, they need to have a good content range, and have to find a a way to launch with enough content to entice subscribers/viewers"

Which is a fairly rational starting point.

Most of the rest is speculation about possible ways they could try and achieve this. In come cases very speculative. But interesting none the less.

that much, at least, is trivially obvious to anybody, and I'm pretty sure my buddies at TDV working on at are sensible enough to know this.

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