VideoEZY OnDemand

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#1120424 2-Sep-2014 12:40

dclegg:
fahrenheit:
dclegg:
If that is true, then this review of EzyFlix may be of interest.

That explains the Chromecast then. Its aimed at the AU market.

Its sad that it appears to be yet another "All consumers are potential Pirates, so we must unnecessarily constrain the service to keep paranoid content rights holders happy".

Sad, but not commercially viable. Consumers would need rocks in their head to "purchase" content under all those restrictions.

jfanning

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#1120426 2-Sep-2014 12:43

reven:
but it wouldnt be too rare that the store would be out of stock for a particular movie. just saying different types of services, you can't expect a streaming service to do cheap tuesdays or 7 movies for $2 for a week etc like some video stores do. the cost of streaming would be per movie, the have to pay the bandwidth, cpu power etc to deliver the movie. a store doesnt have these types of cost, to them they may as well get the $2 instead of it gathering dust on the shelf.

Personally I would expect that, Video Stores have fixed overheads as well, staff costs, power, purchasing the movie upfront, insurance and they still manage to do discounts.

bcourtney

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#1120427 2-Sep-2014 12:44

I've got no issues with the pricing as such. Comparing with what I currently pay to rent a movie through iTunes on the odd occasion it appears to be an equal match.

However, given the existing reach of iTunes and the ease of renting a moving (particularly through the likes of Apple TV) I'd have thought that Video Ezy would have tried to counter this by coming in with slightly lower pricing. Even lowering by $1 per movie for the rental price would give someone like me more cause to consider using their service.

As it stands, the need to sign up for another service and install another app for an unproven product means it won't even get a look in from me unfortunately. I'd suggest I'm not the only one in my boat either...

jfanning

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#1120428 2-Sep-2014 12:46

networkn:
Can you play a BR movie from your tablet, phone etc etc ? The point is whilst it's rare, it is available to you should you wish to. Most video Places close at 10pm, I have often watched movies after this time.

Well not the original BR. But how many of these services support WP8? With my local video store I have the ability to rent a movie before 10, and then I can start watching it after 10. If I rent a movie from the store I will go it earlier in the day, that way I get to have my walk in the sun.

reven

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#1120432 2-Sep-2014 12:47

jfanning:
reven:
but it wouldnt be too rare that the store would be out of stock for a particular movie. just saying different types of services, you can't expect a streaming service to do cheap tuesdays or 7 movies for $2 for a week etc like some video stores do. the cost of streaming would be per movie, the have to pay the bandwidth, cpu power etc to deliver the movie. a store doesnt have these types of cost, to them they may as well get the $2 instead of it gathering dust on the shelf.

Personally I would expect that, Video Stores have fixed overheads as well, staff costs, power, purchasing the movie upfront, insurance and they still manage to do discounts.

yes but they dont have costs of the deliver of the movie. they have to pay power, staff, rent etc regardless if the movie is rented or on the shelf. so they may as well rent it out for whatever they can.

where as streaming services would pay for power, deliver, cpu etc when streaming the movie.

not sure if video stores license movies out and have to pay the studio each time its rented (i doubt it) but streaming service most likely do have to pay this.

mattwnz

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#1120448 2-Sep-2014 13:14

The other saving is no wear and tear and all the admin costs associated with having physical disks. No staff overheads, store overheads, ACC etc. The downloader also has to add on data transfer costs. But the pricing seems to be in line with others. The problem I have is there seems to be a lot of fragmentation in the market, and not particularly much competition when it comes to pricing. You would normally expect new entrants to have lower prices, so I wonder who is setting the pricing.

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davidcole

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#1120449 2-Sep-2014 13:17

reven:
davidcole: ezyflix used to do ultraviolet. Wonder if they've copied that part of the service across.

i know they let you redeem UV movies, and disney movies, but when you bought a movie from them, did they ever add that to your UV library?

No Idea. TBH I don't ever buy movies from a streaming service. Will buy a disk instead. I don't trust something where they can revoke the license for be to be able to watch something I "own". I have no problem renting.

I know i have a few movies in my ultraviolet as part of signing up to VUDU.

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BlueShift

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#1120451 2-Sep-2014 13:18

NonprayingMantis: Seems that as with virtually every other 'purchase/rental' similar service in NZ - (iTunes, Quickflix premium, Ezyflix,) the pricing for the very recent releases (i.e. just released on DVD) are 'ok', but the prices for everything that isn't brand brand new is absolutely terrible value.

Why buy a single measly season of Breaking Bad for ~$32, when you can subscribe to Lightbox and watch all seasons as well as loads of other shows for $15/month.

If you want to watch all 5 seasons of Breaking Bad (and why would you only buy one season?), that is going to cost you around $160 with these services, which is basically the same price as an entire year's Lightbox subscription.
The value comparison is just so massively skewed in favour of subscription service it's laughable that they would even bother selling the likes of breaking bad this way.

Especially when you can buy the DVD's of Breaking Bad for $15 a season at the Warehouse.

NonprayingMantis

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#1120455 2-Sep-2014 13:21

mattwnz: The other saving is no wear and tear and all the admin costs associated with having physical disks. No staff overheads, store overheads, ACC etc. The downloader also has to add on data transfer costs. But the pricing seems to be in line with others. The problem I have is there seems to be a lot of fragmentation in the market, and not particularly much competition when it comes to pricing. You would normally expect new entrants to have lower prices, so I wonder who is setting the pricing.

It's a totally different business model.

With DVD rental, the retailer pays a one off licence fee (a lot more than just buying one DVD obviously) and then you can rent it out as often as you like.

With streaming rental they pay a share of every single transaction to the studio - maybe around 30-40%, and the price for streaming is set by the studios (that's why it's always the same price across all the retailers)

networkn

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#1120481 2-Sep-2014 13:50

bcourtney: I've got no issues with the pricing as such. Comparing with what I currently pay to rent a movie through iTunes on the odd occasion it appears to be an equal match.

However, given the existing reach of iTunes and the ease of renting a moving (particularly through the likes of Apple TV) I'd have thought that Video Ezy would have tried to counter this by coming in with slightly lower pricing. Even lowering by $1 per movie for the rental price would give someone like me more cause to consider using their service.

As it stands, the need to sign up for another service and install another app for an unproven product means it won't even get a look in from me unfortunately. I'd suggest I'm not the only one in my boat either...

Honestly as someone who owns a business, I can only recommend you put your well worded feedback at them via Facebook or the feedback form. Companies need constructive critism to help them develop, it's a new area in NZ really, and if they get enough feedback, perhaps there will be a business case for rental prices to drop.

mattwnz

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#1120484 2-Sep-2014 13:53

NonprayingMantis:
mattwnz: The other saving is no wear and tear and all the admin costs associated with having physical disks. No staff overheads, store overheads, ACC etc. The downloader also has to add on data transfer costs. But the pricing seems to be in line with others. The problem I have is there seems to be a lot of fragmentation in the market, and not particularly much competition when it comes to pricing. You would normally expect new entrants to have lower prices, so I wonder who is setting the pricing.

It's a totally different business model.

With DVD rental, the retailer pays a one off licence fee (a lot more than just buying one DVD obviously) and then you can rent it out as often as you like.

With streaming rental they pay a share of every single transaction to the studio - maybe around 30-40%, and the price for streaming is set by the studios (that's why it's always the same price across all the retailers)

You would still expect more of a variance in pricing I would have thought. It is similar to retail goods, some retailers will undercut others for the sale, and I would have thought new entrants would almost sell at break even or even a loss, just to get their name established, and that cost would be considered 'marketing'.

I think unless pricing is going to improve, that video stores will have a life for some time yet. I would prefer to go to my local video store to hire a bluray, which is better quality anyway. Although I live very close to a video store. Although I haven't rented a video for ages, as have heaps of movies saved up on tivo I haven't seen yet.

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networkn

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#1120513 2-Sep-2014 14:30

mattwnz:
NonprayingMantis:
mattwnz: The other saving is no wear and tear and all the admin costs associated with having physical disks. No staff overheads, store overheads, ACC etc. The downloader also has to add on data transfer costs. But the pricing seems to be in line with others. The problem I have is there seems to be a lot of fragmentation in the market, and not particularly much competition when it comes to pricing. You would normally expect new entrants to have lower prices, so I wonder who is setting the pricing.

It's a totally different business model.

With DVD rental, the retailer pays a one off licence fee (a lot more than just buying one DVD obviously) and then you can rent it out as often as you like.

With streaming rental they pay a share of every single transaction to the studio - maybe around 30-40%, and the price for streaming is set by the studios (that's why it's always the same price across all the retailers)

You would still expect more of a variance in pricing I would have thought. It is similar to retail goods, some retailers will undercut others for the sale, and I would have thought new entrants would almost sell at break even or even a loss, just to get their name established, and that cost would be considered 'marketing'.

I am actually thinking that over the moderate term they aren't likely to get pricing breaks from content holders and if it's already too expensive for some people then the chances of success are relatively low.

JimmyH

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#1120736 2-Sep-2014 18:54

freitasm:
networkn: Wow what a lot of hate. Spiderman is $8 to rent, in HD. Would cost me 6-7 to rent on BR and then I'd have to drive, which would certainly cost another $2-3 and then I'd have to go out into the wet and cold, and afterwards return it another $2-3, possibly pay a late fee etc..

We Kiwi's really need to get a new more positive approach. I have really noticed how negative GZ is too recently. Shame really.

It's not that "Geekzone is negative". The site is not negative. The site doesn't think. You folks have to remember to distance the site from the users. It's just that there's a good representation of the the people in this country - when you think of 400,000 - 500,000 unique visitors a month with a good chunk (more than half) being from NZ...

Some people want "unlimited" broadband for $19.95 and when it comes full of problems, they complain. And when presented with the fact that "unlimited" is actually going to cost $89.95... They complain.

Everything has a cost but NZers seem to really complain about prices, without considering this is a brand new market model, which means new infrastructure, human resources (content management, support, technical, etc) and other things such as networks (peering, CDNs where used, etc).

I bet many think that if Netflix came to New Zealand it would be priced the same as in the USA... Which I doubt would happen (the pricing).

While you have a point, I don't think you are being entirely fair.

What many people are saying (myself included) is that they can't see themselves paying unless the value proposition is sufficiently attractive relative to the other (legitimate) alternatives they have. In this case it isn't compared to many other options - such as Netflix (which is the same as parallel importing a book instead of paying Whitcoulls inflated prices), The Warehouse (which sells box sets such as Breaking Bad significantly cheaper than the digital downloads they are offering), and renting disks in true 1080p HD from a bricks and mortar video shop.

Given the ease of accessing Netflix etc it's not really a case of whether they can/want to pitch a product that's in line with other offerings - if they want customers they simply have to. Like any business, if they want to sell they need to offer acceptable quality at an acceptable price point. In this instance, they don't appear to be doing so. In which case, I doubt they have a viable business model.

charsleysa

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#1120743 2-Sep-2014 19:09

I find the problem isn't the cost, its the not getting it how I want and when I want.

Going to see a movie at the cinema when it releases costs roughly $15 per person.

I would have no problem paying $40 to be able to stream a 1080p 5.1 surround version at home a couple of days after it's released in the cinema.

Until I can get it when I want and how I want, I'd rather stick with netflix and IP masking provider ($20/month) and just illegally download movies instead of waiting 4 months for it to come out on bluray.

Regards
Stefan Andres Charsley

davidcole

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#1120765 2-Sep-2014 19:20

charsleysa: I find the problem isn't the cost, its the not getting it how I want and when I want.
Going to see a movie at the cinema when it releases costs roughly $15 per person.
I would have no problem paying $40 to be able to stream a 1080p 5.1 surround version at home a couple of days after it's released in the cinema.

Until I can get it when I want and how I want, I'd rather stick with netflix and IP masking provider ($20/month) and just illegally download movies instead of waiting 4 months for it to come out on bluray.

Try $500 USD for the movies and requiring a $200,000USD home theatre, and you too can watch 0 day release at home. Normally it's houses in Hollywood that have this kind of set up.

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