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Take my money, HBO

takemymoneyhbo.com

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131–140 of 316 posts

Re: Take my money, HBO

#131

Post by scott_s »

burke wrote: post #118
trotsky wrote: post #107

I worked on several commercial digital music projects in the time span between early napster and entrenched itunes. One regularly repeated meme of the era was that people didn't want to pirate music, they just wanted it "as easy" or "no drm" or "ala carte" or "all you can eat". While statistically these were all guaranteed to be true for at least some users, in aggregate they were red herrings. The industry was in th…

I'm only one data point, but: I used to pirate (all of my) music. I have bought a grand total of one CD ever. Now I happily consume most of my music through a paid subscription to Rdio. Similarly, I pay for netflix. I (grudgingly) go to theatres occasionally. I don't own and have no desire to own a dvd player, and pirate movies occasionally when they're not conveniently available. Similarly, I pirate Game of Thrones,…

How about $3 an episode? http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Is-Coming/dp/B007HJ84ZK/

Re: Take my money, HBO

#133

Post by caf »

smackfu wrote: post #20

This was a good write-up of an interview with the HBO co-CEO: http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism Worth reading before spouting the typical "I don't understand why HBO doesn't want my $5 a month."

The interesting thing is that this seems to imply that HBO makes most of its revenue from people who don't use their product. This in turn implies some economic actors here are not acting rationally (for example, there are a significant number of subscribers who are willing to pay more for cable bundles containing HBO, but then don't actually watch HBO).

Re: Take my money, HBO

#134

Post by ivv »

akira2501 wrote: post #36
smackfu wrote: post #20

This was a good write-up of an interview with the HBO co-CEO: http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism Worth reading before spouting the typical "I don't understand why HBO doesn't want my $5 a month."

I see his argument.. but why not just partner with ISPs? If HBO doesn't want my $8 directly, then why not let AT&T (or whoever) charge me an extra $8/mo along with my DSL (or whatever) bill and get HBOGO? It would be nearly identical to their current model, but with different types of subscriber organizations distributing their content for them.

That's an interesting point. Maybe those ISPs who are also cable TV providers could bundle HBO with their high-tier Internet offerings instead of TV channel packages. In this case, one shouldn't petition HBO but the likes of Comcast, Time Warner (HBO's parent) and Verizon.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#135

Post by pretz »

scott_s wrote: post #131
burke wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm only one data point, but: I used to pirate (all of my) music. I have bought a grand total of one CD ever. Now I happily consume most of my music through a paid subscription to Rdio. Similarly, I pay for netflix. I (grudgingly) go to theatres occasionally. I don't own and have no desire to own a dvd player, and pirate movies occasionally when they're not conveniently available. Similarly, I pirate Game of Thrones,…

How about $3 an episode? http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Is-Coming/dp/B007HJ84ZK/

Key phrase in OP: "at the same time as the show airs"

Re: Take my money, HBO

#136

Post by zem »

masmullin wrote: post #89
zem wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

buy the dvd, leave it in its box, and pirate the show. everyone wins.

But why? Why couldn't they have just made a good Blu-Ray boxed set? Why does disc three have nothing but one episode on it (no extra features... everything I click while using disc3 says "please enter disc 5", while disc 4 has three episodes on it? Why do I have to sit through an FBI warning when I dont even live in the states? Why do I have to see ads for other HBO shows when I put in disc 1? I spent good money on t…

yeah, i fully agree with you, and i have for the most part opted out altogether - i don't pirate and i don't buy the dvds due to the fundamental brokenness of the model. however, if you do want to watch the show, and if you want to support the creators in some way (and, sadly, support their multifarious parasites as well), the only real way to do it is to buy the dvd (so you have paid your money to the smallest possible superset of people who deserve it) and then pirate the show (so you actually have something watchable).

Re: Take my money, HBO

#137

Post by iamgilesbowkett »

it's not going to happen for a while. this web site won't make it happen.

the detailed reasons start here: http://johnaugust.com/2012/why-you-cant-get-hbo-go-by-itself

the short version:

"to say Comcast buys HBO in bulk is an understatement. Other cable companies, too, (and satellite and AT&T/Verizon/other telecoms doing video) have profound purchasing power. They also heavily promote HBO to their hundreds of millions of customers. So HBO gets a lot more from Comcast for its $7.27 (or whatever it is Comcast might pay) than it would get from me or you for our $10.

HBO costs $10 per month because it’s bundled. It’s not the fair market price. Untie that knot, and you have to untie everything."

not going to happen, kids.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#138

Post by ROFISH »

tjmc wrote: post #64
hartror wrote: post #2

"We pirate Game of Thrones, we use our friend's HBOGO login to watch True Blood…" Yeah I am not associating myself with that. Perhaps something like "We don't currently pay to see your content". Honestly as an Australian I don't see this happening here, the cable here is an effective monopoly and unless they get a cut of the profits they're not going let HBO do this. It might be completely against their business mode…

Interestingly GoT seasons 1 and 2 are available on iTunes in Australia. The latest episodes only take an extra week to show up from when they're first screened in the US. Even so, Australians apparently pirate the show in greater numbers than elsewhere. Could be because it's $3/episode or it's only standard def or it's a week late. My guess is people find it just as easy to torrent it so don't even bother to look at…

Can somebody confirm if GoT Season 2 is available in Australia iTunes? US will not get Season 2 until the disc release next year.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#139

Post by mturmon »

atomi wrote: post #124
trotsky wrote: post #107

I worked on several commercial digital music projects in the time span between early napster and entrenched itunes. One regularly repeated meme of the era was that people didn't want to pirate music, they just wanted it "as easy" or "no drm" or "ala carte" or "all you can eat". While statistically these were all guaranteed to be true for at least some users, in aggregate they were red herrings. The industry was in th…

The progress of our species depends on the passing of knowledge to the next generation. So "sharing information" has become an evolutionary trait. We started with language then writing, then the printing press then telegraph radio, and phones and now digital information. We'll eventually get to the point where all of the worlds digital information will fit in devices the size of dice. And we're not far off either. I…

I did not downvote, but I don't think your idea about "all info will fit in a small space" holds up.

One problem is that sensor sizes are increasing at similar rates to storage sizes, for mostly the same reasons. Same goes for our ability to process data into novel forms, and in general to create new data.

Moore giveth, and Moore taketh away. Good for our line of work.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#140

Post by etherealHN »

burke wrote: post #118
trotsky wrote: post #107

I worked on several commercial digital music projects in the time span between early napster and entrenched itunes. One regularly repeated meme of the era was that people didn't want to pirate music, they just wanted it "as easy" or "no drm" or "ala carte" or "all you can eat". While statistically these were all guaranteed to be true for at least some users, in aggregate they were red herrings. The industry was in th…

I'm only one data point, but: I used to pirate (all of my) music. I have bought a grand total of one CD ever. Now I happily consume most of my music through a paid subscription to Rdio. Similarly, I pay for netflix. I (grudgingly) go to theatres occasionally. I don't own and have no desire to own a dvd player, and pirate movies occasionally when they're not conveniently available. Similarly, I pirate Game of Thrones,…

I still pirate all of my music, but I give money to and promote artists that I listen to.

Rdio, Spotify, and other 'legal' solutions give pathetic amounts of money to the artist. I'd rather have a copy of the music in whatever format I want, on whatever device I want, played with whatever software I want, and spend a little extra time figuring out how to compensate the artist fairly for their contribution to my human happiness.

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