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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

#541

Post by jedberg »

Everyone else has given you some good advice on your messaging, so I'll give you some business/technical advice as a former Netflix employee:

Try to negotiate your contracts with global streaming rights. It shouldn't cost too much more but will make your life a lot easier as you try to expand globally. That was one thing that slowed Netflix's global expansion -- a lot of the content was not globally licensed.

You will have to develop a very robust system for identifying a user's location based on IP address as well as advanced proxy detection. Maybe not at first, but as you move up into more "Hollywood" productions they will require you to show that you are protecting their content from theft. You will also have to show that you are encrypting everything with DRM, or they won't license content to you.

Don't try to stream your video from AWS. Netflix uses AWS as the control plane but built their own CDN, and some of how they build it is publicly available: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/appliances/. Before they built their own CDN, they used Akamai and Level 3.

Try to build your system for future white label resale. If you're successful, maybe some Asian or Hispanic filmmakers will be interested in a platform focused on their needs. If you build it for white labeling you could potentially resell it for them (this is how HBO started streaming, by buying what MLB had built).

Here are the Netflix black content categories that I know about, but there could be more:

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/81299227

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/81305957

Good luck! It's a hard space to compete in, and if Netflix starts to notice you I can see them trying to copy you, but hopefully you'll be big enough by then to fend them off!

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

#542

Post by asmos7 »

unmole wrote: post #205

I am not American but the overwhelming majority of the media I consume is American. Given the near hegemony of American popular culture, that is likely true for millions of non-Americans. All these people consume American content because they find it enjoyable and at some level relatable despite living in very different countries and not speaking English as their first language. At the end of the day, the human condi…

General Motors got strong armed by a black media group made up of billionaire media owners for not spending enough advertising dollars on TV companies owned by blacks. Make no mistake this kind of stuff is usually about the dollar bill more so than "representation".

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

#543

Post by imbnwa »

Uzo0312 wrote: post #494
ggggtez wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go to an Italian restaurant where the waiter tells you about the fine wine of his home country for five minutes, and then offers you a free sample and you find out it's a grape juice box... Then you would rightly feel outraged. The problem isn't the idea, is being sold and marketed as something it's not. This isn't like BET. This is... I don't know what it is. But it's not a Netflix competitor with classic bla…

How are we selling and marketing ourselves as something we're not? No, we're not Netflix today--I think that's somewhat inherent in the fact that we're a startup here on HN. But we say that we're working with indie filmmakers and content, not high-budget Hollywood productions, so I think we admit where we're at.

Hi, Black SWE here. Grandparent isn't making a sensible argument by any means and is largely grasping for straws to code their outrage ("fine wine... but grape juice box" is particularly telling). Wish you all the best.

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

#545

Post by lotsofpulp »

swman wrote: post #278
Uzo0312 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the Netflix squashing us is certainly something we've thought through. We think there are 2 reasons we've got a good chance here though. One, Netflix has to worry about competing with a lot of other major players, while also being profitable going forward, so they really can't over-spend on an audience that is likely underrepresented among their customer base relative to the global population. And two, we think…

I’m a brown guy and I have fond memories of watching the Cosby show with my parents as a kid. I was saddened and disappointed to learn of Cosby’s horrific behavior later on, and it sucks that the show is now going to be lost because of the main characters real life persona. Really would love a modern day family show that is relatable and shows a successful family. Not too far fetched, but real like the set of Cosby s…

A lawyer and doctor having time to raise 5 kids spanning 20 years in age in a house in NYC seems ridiculous to me too.

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

#546

Post by neartheplain »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #72

Can any French, Belgians, or Dutchies with significant Black African sub-culture comment? I am curious: If there was a French-language or Flemish-/Dutch-language "Netflix for black people" in your country, what would be the reaction?

In America, I'd expect "Black African sub-culture" to mean the culture of recently-arrived immigrants from Africa. That's a very different thing from black American culture, which evolved under an entirely different set of conditions over the last few centuries. Significant differences exist between native-born black Americans and recent African immigrants in terms of median income, educational attainment, family structure, and mainstream cultural assimilation. CNN wrote an account of these differences in 2009 which I couldn't imagine them publishing today:

https://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/14/africans.in.america/index....

>Ezeamuzie recalled finding himself more confused by his experience with some African-Americans: Why were they so cliquish? Why did they mock students for being intelligent? Why were they homophobic and bent on using the n-word? Why did every conversation seem to involve drugs, girls or materialism?

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

#547

Post by anthk »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #178
alasano wrote: post #54

It feels like people (early on in this thread) are more offended because of the chosen phrasing in the title? Are those same people offended by BET? With the accompanying explanation by Uzo0312, how is this racist? "For black people" does not mean "Not for any other people". I want to watch great content and if Blackoak produces it, I'll watch it like I would with any other provider. The fact that they'll encourage a…

Right or Latin Americana television stations? Or St. Paddys day? Celebrating a culture is not racist.

Not even Spain is homogeneous (each Iberian region is highly prominent), just imagine all the Hispanic subcultures all over the Atlantic.

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

#548

Post by Uzo0312 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #458
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…

The headline does not say "black creators", though. Which is regrettable in a way; it's throwing away the biggest and most interesting differentiator about what they're actually trying to do, and replacing it with a source of gratuitous controversy. "Black creators don't get a fair chance for success in media and entertainment, and we can help address this" is a great insight, the stuff a YC launch can be made of; "B…

I get your point. We're here for black creators too, but our customers are black viewers, so we'll always put them first. But of course, there is no demand without supply, and black creators are at the heart of what we do, too. Fortunately, we can serve both entities!

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

#549

Post by rchaud »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #227
rchaud wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a definition for the 'melting pot' idea that you were raised with?

The first paragraph defines it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot

Thanks for the link. It seems like the melting pot idea is old enough that it's defined in the same narrow way that "all men are created equal" was in the Constitution.

American multiculturalism up until WW2 was English, Scottish, Irish, French, Italian, Jewish and Greek. Strictly European, yet still featured plenty of discrimination within those tiers. The discrimination didn't end because people magically became more enlightened, it ended (or at least was greatly reduced) when the marginalized groups assimilated into a more homogenous "American" identity, which defaults to 'white'.

It's not clear where non-Europeans fall into this melting pot concept, because most are not racially ambiguous and cannot claim to be white. Most scripts will not have a protagonist of a specific race. But in casting, it will simply be assumed that the character in question is white. Because melting pot or not, that's what everybody's default is.

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

#550

Post by disneygibson »

imbnwa wrote: post #459
disneygibson wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your "melting pot" interpretation concretely just means "they should not be different or receive different things than me" No, it doesn’t, and that makes no sense. The melting pot idea means that everyone works toward a cohesive national identity and recognizes contributions from everyone. It doesn’t mean that every group should be separate and excluded from each other.

Separate and excluded? Bruh, they're not requiring photo identification on sign-up as proof of Blackness, LMAO, lotta people in this thread are reaching for them grapes. I hope you sign-up, maybe you'll like some of the content. Lemme ask you another question since we're asking silly questions: should Telemundo and Univision be illegal to broadcast in the US because its not in English (cohesive national identity, rig…

Who said anything about it being illegal?

You are being sarcastic and not engaging in good faith.

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