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If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

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Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#101

Post by bane »

dgallagher wrote: post #53

The giant elephant in the room is being overlooked: Advertisements have a lifespan measured in months, weeks, or days. Television content can stay relevant for decades. Imagine it's the year 1997. Aliens from the planet GNU have gone back in time and provided us with bittorrent, and technology making dial-up modems a million times faster (but they still drop their connection if your mom picks up the phone). You just…

Reminds me of listening to old radio dramas, the actors or announcer often do the adverts themselves during the breaks. Nothing like wanting to go out and buy some Palmolive or make sure I'm honoring my sugar rations.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#102

Post by mantalk »

Content thinks about this a little bit differently.

Here are a few factors that may make the proposed offering less favorable than the status quo, even if you factor in piracy:

(1) Windowing. First-run content is way more valuable than longer tail content. So sure, Simpsons episodes can go for $2 on Amazon and eventually come bundled on Netflix, but only after a wait. This is a more favorable situation for content. Different media and different windows command different fees, and this allows content producers to sell to different people at different times. In the case of Scrubs, for instance, Buena Vista/ABC produced the content, sold the first run rights to NBC (who paid ~20% of cost for first-run rights) and then later syndicates it to Comedy Central and others. They ultimately become available on DVD, iTunes, etc.

(2) Advertising revenue isn't enough. That's right, in many cases, only around half of value comes from advertisers. "But TV is free on my bunny-ears!" Sure...but not if you pay for cable. If you do, the cable guys have to pay retransmission consent to content guys, and those costs can be considerable. On cable, most if not all of the content revenues are from subscription fees.

(3) Bundling. Taking in subscription revenue allows content to take bigger risks on (potentially) great content, and to invest more in it upfront. Think about HBO. They cost a fortune, but I think that many would argue that they are worth it.

On a related note... I part of a new TV startup that addresses many of these issues. We're serious, we're venture-backed and we're disruptive. PM me if you're interested.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#103

Post by cookiecaper »

davedx wrote: post #94
cookiecaper wrote: post #36

I would definitely do that. I'd be highly attracted and would use it instead of pirate trackers because there wouldn't be any potential negative legal ramifications. I can't stand the streaming experience provided by most vendors; I find Flash the most detestable component thereof, but I also strongly dislike being forced to redownload data if I want to watch again or even make significant seeks. I don't necessarily…

This is what I don't understand about cable TV (as I've used it in the UK, Australia and the Netherlands anyway; not sure about the US model). It's rammed full of adverts, yet we're already paying a subscription for the service. I'm sure there is a simple explanation for this, but what gives?

Essentially, they do it because they can. People expect advertisements on TV so they accept it even with a subscription to cable; cable offers value that otherwise wouldn't be available by offering a lot of channels that are not accessible over-the-air in any market. It's not like a website with a premium ad-free subscription where the content is the same, only without advertisements. Cable also prevents fiddling with antennae/reception, etc.

The cable company I'm sure would argue that your subscription fees pay only broadcast and signal transport costs and that the individual channels run advertisements to pay for their operation and production.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#104

Post by wslh »

mbreese wrote: post #73
wslh wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the best idea will be to insert those ads dynamically when you download the torrent.

How would that work? They dynamically make a new version each time someone wants to download it from the "official source"? Would this be the same version over the entire day? The entire week? What if I wanted to download an old episode of Seinfeld, would I get current ads, or ads from 1996? Would the "official source" still have to be able to upload each episode? If not, you run the risk of having multiple versions…

Yes, the idea is to insert ads dynamically when you download them. The issue is that the specific ads parts must be not distributed on third party places, they are only in servers related to the ad system.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#106

Post by zokier »

mbreese wrote: post #73
wslh wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the best idea will be to insert those ads dynamically when you download the torrent.

How would that work? They dynamically make a new version each time someone wants to download it from the "official source"? Would this be the same version over the entire day? The entire week? What if I wanted to download an old episode of Seinfeld, would I get current ads, or ads from 1996? Would the "official source" still have to be able to upload each episode? If not, you run the risk of having multiple versions…

With Bittorrent some parts of the file can change and still people can seed the unchanged parts. So having multiple versions in the wild is less of a problem.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#107

Post by zokier »

jeffool wrote: post #22
pan69 wrote: post #13

I guess one of the issues here is localisation. If you insert a commercial in a video then everyone, everywhere needs to watch that same commercial. Also, commercials tend to go stale. You want to switch commercials based on season or even current affairs. This doesn't allow you to do that, T.V. and streaming video does. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it but I think these are two major issues potential advertisers w…

I can easily see them using a custom client so that they can segment the shows and add localized/fresh ads even as you go back and watch reruns.

You don't even need a custom client. Bittorrent is based on pieces (or was it parts?), which are relatively small blocks of data. As long as your ads do not affect the file otherwise (and they shouldn't) people can seed the common parts (= the actual content), and the incorrect ad pieces would be ignored.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#108

Post by zokier »

teamonkey wrote: post #52
jrockway wrote: post #26

No. Why would I watch content with ads when I can already watch the same content without ads? Content middlemen: you've lost. The 21st century has no place for you. Distribution is now dirt cheap and dirt simple. You can't add any value because you don't solve any hard problems. All you've done for the last 10 years is make content harder to pay for. Content creators: make content, add it to your website, charge $2 (…

Why would I pay $2 to watch content without ads when I can just download the same content from a torrent site for free?

Convenience. At least that's the reason why I used Spotify for a while.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#109

Post by cpeterso »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #98
pessimizer wrote: post #45

I'm pretty sure that there's no way to do this without effectively just releasing pristine copies that somebody will cut the ads out of within 5 minutes of them being posted. They could use their own DRM'd file format and media player, but that would be broken in a week and have the effect of just releasing copies that somebody would cut the ads out of within 5 minutes of them beng posted. I can't think of any scheme…

"I'm pretty sure that there's no way to do this without effectively just releasing pristine copies that somebody will cut the ads out of within 5 minutes of them being posted." The scene will probably just ignore the bittorrent copies. Over-the-air digital is already a pristine copy at a much higher bitrate so would be the preferred source.

If I ran a media company, I would seed slow, low-quality (but not fake) torrents. That would boost the benefit of paying for fast, direct downloads of high-quality legit content.

Re: If TV Companies Released Authorized Torrents With Ads, Would You Download Them?

#110

Post by scrame »

wisty wrote: post #99
dgallagher wrote: post #53

The giant elephant in the room is being overlooked: Advertisements have a lifespan measured in months, weeks, or days. Television content can stay relevant for decades. Imagine it's the year 1997. Aliens from the planet GNU have gone back in time and provided us with bittorrent, and technology making dial-up modems a million times faster (but they still drop their connection if your mom picks up the phone). You just…

Solution - create new cuts of the torrents with updated ads every month. Provide fast(ish) servers, so the new torrents will download faster. Remove all links to the old torrents.

Torrents don't work like that. Once someone has downloaded the old version and leave it to seed, it is accessible and can still be downloaded with the right link.
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