[opendtv] Re: Catch-up TV
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2015 21:22:03 -0500
On Nov 28, 2015, at 7:12 PM, Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Apple is always a bad example, Craig.
Why?
They were one of the first to offer an OTT service, albeit a paid download
service. It still did nicely in the early years, despite the fact you could
only watch on an iPod or a computer. By Q2 of 2007 they had downloaded 2
million movies; by Q3 2008 they had downloaded 200 million TV shows.
Today, although Apple TV has a smaller installed base than Roku and Chromecast,
Apple TV leads in total hours viewed.
Apple has a habit of not supporting the standards already in use, including
DRM, to bolster their own walled in ecosystem. Not at all surprising that
Apple made people pay for episodes that the TV networks were providing free.
Too band it seems impossible to get exact dates on this. Read again the
article about the BBC iPlayer.
Other than HDMI, what standards exist for DRM? I do not know of any industry
standards that existed in 2005. DRM is a very closed business. To their credit
Apple convinced the music industry to drop DRM in May of 2007.
You should have looked closer at the details in the World TV PC post. You
finally were able to prove a point. It tells us that ABC was the first network
to stream full episodes:
It is also the first network station to provide full episodes viewable from
their website in 2006. In 2007 they began presenting video in HD.
Congrats!
But it is not a reasonable comparison to say Apple makes people pay for what
the networks provide for free. The networks have always delivered their shows
for free (ad supported) via their broadcast affiliates; now they also stream
some shows with ads, but there is a delay of up to eight days depending on the
network. The networks also sell complete seasons of these shows on DVD and
through iTunes, Google and Amazon.
Apple was the first to offer movie and TV show downloads you can archive
instead of buying a DVD. They have offered high quality HD files without
commercials since 2005. Once you buy a show you can save it, or stream it at
any time. And most TV shows are available the day after they are broadcast.
You might say this is apples and oranges...
Don’t forget that when a conglom makes content available over their own web
sites, they ARE retaining control. So the comment about retaining control is
not the issue here.
Not in the context of the industry in 2007, when they were creating Hulu.
Remember this paragraph from the WSJ article?
Executives have long resisted efforts by cable operators to offer so-called
on-demand viewing of popular TV shows, worrying that it could cannibalize
their existing businesses by eroding their ability to sell advertising for
programs and reap lucrative profit by selling reruns.
Things have changed considerably since 2007/8. Network ratings have tanked. But
they are making a bunch of money selling their shows to the SVOD services.
In 2007/8 they were just moving past summer reruns. They started offering
catch-up TV to encourage viewers to look at shows after they air. Now they are
happy to get people to watch any way they can.
The first sentence I quoted above does not follow from the second sentence.
OBVIOUSLY, Craig, painfully obviously, Hulu was “officially launched” Q1
2008, so at the very latest, this content was available well BEFORE 2009. So
please don’t tell me when I began streaming full length episodes,
Well now we know that ABC started the ball rolling in 2006. This likely
provided the incentive to create Hulu. So yes, it is possible you started
streaming full episodes from ABC in 2006. You claimed you streamed full
episodes in 2005.
Now we know.
Regards
Craig
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