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Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

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Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#301

Post by disneygibson »

raclage wrote: post #266
disneygibson wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America does have a relatively monolithic culture and this translates into its businesses, government, and everything else. This is easy to observe if you live outside of America.

Are you being serious when you say America has a relatively monolithic culture? Relative to whom?

Yes, by and large Americans have the same basic values and interests. The most popular entertainment figures, sports, musicians, and other cultural elements come from a very wide range of backgrounds. Values like individual freedom or the importance of voting are fairly universal among Americans.

As I said, this is easy to observe from abroad, where there is no space to differentiate between black Americans and white Americans. They’re all just Americans and they mostly act the same way.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#302

Post by allendoerfer »

mattlondon wrote: post #228
f6v wrote: post #2

“X for black people” sounds so bizarre to me(non-American). The cultural divide between the people must be insane.

Agreed. Where I work (US-company, but I work outside of US) it is similarly weird to me. We appear to have gone backwards in the past 5-10 years in my view - no longer can you just be "you", but now it feels like we have to be labelled, categorised, and segregated into different groups. We now have to make a big deal and a big song-and-dance to highlight our differences and define what our ethnic backgrounds are (app…

[flagged]

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#303

Post by zentiggr »

kadabra9 wrote: post #30

Just from an addressable market standpoint, it seems like you have work cut out for you given that you’ve essentially isolated your product to 13-14% or so of the US population. Not to mention those in that segment that already sub to Netflix , other streaming services etc.

I can't understand why so many commenters here consider this launch to be divisive, or as you say "isolated"...

They're focusing on a particular cultural group to aggregate content and sponsor more... none of which excludes anyone else. Marketing niches are a core concept across the entire business world.

What makes this one niche less effective?

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#304

Post by gunshai »

gdulli wrote: post #78
afavour wrote: post #17

I can't help but feel like everyone commenting here read the headline, brushed straight past the lengthy explanation and went directly to outrage in the comment box. This is a streaming service set up to elevate content by black creators, to make up for the fact that the mainstream media under-represents those people. I'm struggling to see the outrage on a cultural level and on a startup level I can absolutely imagin…

Some people look for any excuse to be outraged. But I think people are more curious than outraged. I don't have any opinion about the existence this company but it did make me think. For example: > When I grew up in the 90s, it seemed like black people had a relatively high number of TV shows to choose from like "Martin", "Living Single," and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". It felt good. I felt represented. Unfortunat…

>I also grew up watching shows like these, and being a white person watching a black family didn't feel strange or incongruous at all.

What was weird for me was as I got older, all of these shows became just samey Horsein Around type crap on top of that I do remember at a certain point noticing a stark difference between shows that were on UPN, WB, BET ect and ones that were on say like FX, Fox, ABC NBC I'd say starting around the early 00s.

This difference became so stark, but when I was younger there seemed to be far less of a difference. Almost like we started off with the here are ethnic families, they are similar to you but slightly different. Then ended up with, here is this completely different culture that you don't understand so it no longer is going to appeal to you. You being me and me being clearly at the end not the target demographic.

In retrospect maybe the beginning was a fantasy that was never really true. My point is overall, I think I'm pretty burnt out on content that is meant to be hyper focused on identity. I hope more people get burnt out on it and realize that centering your life around aspects that you have no agency over is a waste of time.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#305

Post by bluedino »

nablaone wrote: post #86

"And black creators often did not get the same chance at success that their mainstream counterparts did, leading to some black creators filing lawsuits against YouTube. Despite YouTube's good intentions, systemic biases in how non-black users treated black creators, as well as the economic realities of Black people only representing 10% of the U.S. audience, have led to YouTube never doing quite enough to address thi…

Non-black viewers are less likely to watch videos with black people in them.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#307

Post by raclage »

lettergram wrote: post #48
f6v wrote: post #2

“X for black people” sounds so bizarre to me(non-American). The cultural divide between the people must be insane.

Yes the country has lost its mind. They’re reconstituting segregation in the U.S. at the moment

Can you give an example? I’m assuming you’re not referring to this Netflix competitor as an example of something equivalent to making it illegal for non-whites to eat at certain restaurants.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#308

Post by kadabra9 »

Uzo0312 wrote: post #269
kadabra9 wrote: post #30

Just from an addressable market standpoint, it seems like you have work cut out for you given that you’ve essentially isolated your product to 13-14% or so of the US population. Not to mention those in that segment that already sub to Netflix , other streaming services etc.

We certainly don't think this will be easy. That said, as you can probably imagine yourself, 13.5% of the U.S. population is a really big TAM on its own. That percentage of Netflix U.S. revenues would make us a very big company. That said, there is competition, and Netflix has black content too. So we will have to differentiate ourselves. As I mentioned in the post, product is one way to do that, and "super-serving"…

I don't disagree. Can certainly build a great business capturing part of that 13.5% with great, focused content. The challenge, similar to Netflix's big challenge is discovering and securing the right content. Good Luck.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#309

Post by disneygibson »

KittenInABox wrote: post #297
disneygibson wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most “white” people in America today were not considered so 100-150 years ago. Irish, Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Italians, Jews, Levantine Arabs, and pretty much everyone other than English, Germans and French. My point is that this identity was expanded to be inclusive in order to build social cohesion. That was a good thing, but now let’s rename it to just “American” and include all ethnic groups, instead of going b…

Most "white" people in America today were never treated like property the way black people have been in america for generations. Most "white" people in America have never dealt with the degree of dehumanization that occurred to black people in America. The degree of what has happened to black people in America is overwhelmingly moreso than any other race save for Native Americans. It's extremely important to acknowle…

I didn’t say it would be as easy for everyone. Just that this is a better route (melting pot) than a return to separatism.

I’m struggling to see how your comment relates to what I’m saying.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#310

Post by jonhohle »

mc32 wrote: post #195
bgroat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to believe that media representation didn't matter. After all, fictional characters are fiction, why should I expect them to look like me? Then someone pointed out to me that my favourite super-hero was Spider-Man because Peter Parker is a 20-something loser, just like me.

Yeah people used to say video games and violence on TV had no effect on people -that is was just made up worlds and allowed people to role play, etc… now they are admitting there is influence and it does affect people…

As a teen in the early 90s, I distinctly remember significant campaigns against violence represented in TV, movies, video games, and music. There were several congressional hearings demonizing Mortal Kombat, rap music, Doom, etc.

Now as a parent with a tween and younger kids, my understanding of the current state of the science is that there still is no overwhelming consensus on increased violence related to media, however it seems to be agreed that aggression is linked. 30 years later Mortal Kombat is the number one fighting game franchise of all time, and murder rates are lower and violent crime are relatively unchanged.

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