On this week’s Medialoper Bebop, Jim, Tim & Kirk discuss the following:
Whether or not the huge popularity of Netflix Instant is making a dent in video piracy, and why Hollywood continues to drive people to, er, other methods of getting content, despite evidence that people want to pay for stuff.
Why fewer and fewer people are using browsers to access the internet, as Kirk & Tim have seen their digital lives reconfigure with the advent of the iPad.
And finally, we induct our very first album into the Medialoper Great Albums Hall of Fame — R.E.M. – Murmur. Of course. What else could it be?
All of this, and Coco Crisp! On an all-new Medialoper Bebop.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:44 — 33.7MB)
Medialoper Bebop Episode 3: Conversation Fear was recorded by Call Graph via Skype at 7:30pm PDT on May 9, 2011.
It was edited in Audacity.
All opinions expressed on Medialoper Bebop fully represent the opinions of Medialoper, except for the ones that don’t.
It’s funny that you mention Batman being missing from online video because I “know” someone who actually went to bittorrent just to download it, so your point seemed on target. You comments about the media being piracy’s best chance also has a ring of truth to it, but I’d submit the following antidote as an example. Recently, I was getting my hair cut at one of the budget salons. When I mentioned Netflix to the hairdresser, she said she loved it, but that they’re family canceled it, so that they can stream shows online instead. Five years ago, early adopters were downloading shows, but as Netflix introduced the mainstream customer to online video, it’s causing them to seek out other alternatives. Whether it’s to save the $9 a month or just trying to find something that isn’t on Netflix, the success that they’ve had streaming could potentially be sucking in new pirate customers even as it convinces many pirates to go legit instead.
Did she mention how they were streaming video?
For most consumer it’ll definitely be easier to pay the $9/mo., but during a recession like this one I’m sure there are still plenty of users who would rather spend the time looking for torrents.
She was mostly using Megavideo. What really stood out in my mind though was that she didn’t have any problem paying $45 – $60 to Comcast for internet, but $9 to Netflix was considered too much. I think that if the studios did a better job of including current TV online, they’d have less to fear from piracy, but their stupid windows and restrictions ultimately are what’s converting normal mainstream consumers to the dark side. It was one thing to ignore digital video when it was just geeks clogging up their connection with bittorrent, but now that you can click and stream “just like Netflix”, I just don’t see how it benefits a content provider to try and artificially withhold something from the market.