Live data from Hacker News

Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

techcrunch.com

81–90 of 99 posts

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting sentiments, I don't know the IOC but neither of you are providing any reasoning behind your claims. Out of curiosity, why the hate?

For a quick insight see this enumeration: http://www.protestlondon2012.com/10reasons.html The IOC is deeply corrupt, and the olympics have long ceased to be about sports. They are about selling officially branded merchandise from official sponsors and simultaneously squashing local competition with ridiculous, speciallly drafted laws, which cricitically impacts the local economy even after the games are long over. It…

Those 10 reasons don't even hint at the IOC being corrupt or even the Olympics being bad (all 10 reasons are about how some supposed, ancillary benefits don't materialize, in someone's option).

Not about sports? That's beyond cynical.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#82
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order to sacrifice customer satisfaction, there is a requirement that the person be your customer. Not giving something to someone for free just because they demand that they should have it is not sacrificing customer satisfaction.

Yes but if your product is the viewer and your decisions cause the number of viewers to decrease over time, you're damaging your product, and that will reduce the value of that product to your customers.

Well, the opening ceremonies had the highest US viewership ever (including against US-based Olympics). Are you sure your contention is accurate?

In fact, broadcasting the Olympics is a massive _LONG_ term bet since NBC loses tons of money on the games themselves.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#83
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven't had TV for three years now, and don't miss it at all. Funnily enough we dumped it because at the time Desperate Housewives was a season behind the US, and by the time we'd get to see it the ending was already spoilt. We've only this year got Breaking Bad. Instead it's a subscription to an NNTP provider. High quality, we can choose where and when we watch, and we don't have to wait for some high authority t…

NNTP? for TV? Is this legal?

Of course not. But if You were running a company selling a product, and there were large groups of people that wanted to pay you for this product, but you refused to offer them a manner to do so, would you be surprised that they go and "steal" it from somewhere easily accessible? I don't claim piracy is "right", but it certainly isn't unreasonable.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#84
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could that ever be true? As an example: most people would prefer everything to be free, and a company would like to have a monopoly on a necessity and thus the ability to charge arbitrary prices. Or even shorter, everyone wants to get stuff, lots of stuff without having to lift a finger. Out of this, every company-customer relationship has to be dysfunctional. The idea that the economy is a perfectly fair system…

I was thinking about a service like Uber, which people love , even though it's more expensive. When I take an Uber I don't complain about how I should be getting cab rides for free (although that would be nice) - I revel in how much better the experience is than waiting around for a regular cab.

Über appeals to maybe 10% of the population.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#86

Despite how many people on this site and sites like it don't have some kind of cable or satellite service... we're a pretty small minority. Especially when it comes to the group of people interested in watching sports, where live is king, and the online options suck unless you live out of your teams' TV markets. I'm not surprised they're not going out of their way to cater to us. For all the "the model no longer work…

Just an FYI, I pay for nhl.com, nfl.com and nba.com live video feeds for the seasons. It is TOTALLY worth it, cheaper and easier than DirecTV or cable. My total bill for the year is about $250 for all three sports. Sports was the only reason I still had cable/satellite a while back. No need anymore, and a better product. Just as a comparison, NFL Sunday Ticket Max on DirecTV is $299 for the season. Standard Sunday Ti…

What is the direct link to subscribe to NFL live video feeds?

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#87
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NNTP? for TV? Is this legal?

Of course not. But if You were running a company selling a product, and there were large groups of people that wanted to pay you for this product, but you refused to offer them a manner to do so, would you be surprised that they go and "steal" it from somewhere easily accessible? I don't claim piracy is "right", but it certainly isn't unreasonable.

It's brought about through market failure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_failure

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a quick insight see this enumeration: http://www.protestlondon2012.com/10reasons.html The IOC is deeply corrupt, and the olympics have long ceased to be about sports. They are about selling officially branded merchandise from official sponsors and simultaneously squashing local competition with ridiculous, speciallly drafted laws, which cricitically impacts the local economy even after the games are long over. It…

> The IOC is deeply corrupt, and the olympics have long ceased to be about sports. They are about selling officially branded merchandise from official sponsors and simultaneously squashing local competition with ridiculous, speciallly drafted laws, which cricitically impacts the local economy even after the games are long over. It's akin to a swarm of locusts, really. Perhaps on the local level this is all true. But…

>for every viewer I know, it's about national competition between incredible athletes

That's like asking people in China about how the government treats dissidents, because hey, they watch TV. Surely that will be on TV, yes?

And yes, the comparison with China is apt. The IOC is a bunch of corrupt, corporate prostitutes who will do anything for their corporate overlords. London is in a state of military lockdown for the duration of the games - heard about the missile pods on civilian houses, for example?

Besides, about those "incredible athletes" - the olympic games were never about that, either. It's supposed to be a friendly competition between amateurs. Professional atheletes have their world championships/cups/leagues/whatever, and should have never been admitted to the games. They have absolutely no business being there.

My point still stands: the very absolutely and definitely last thing the olympic games are about is sports. It's about mind-numbing commercialisation, corporate greed and senseless destruction of local economies, all neatly hidden behind entertainment for the masses - panem et circenses!

>All of your reasons are why it sucks for the host city.

Yes, and that's more than enough reason to boycott the games, and loudly demand their abolition, instead of hiding behind "it doesn't concern me" and mindless patriotism. It concerns millions of people. Show some compassion. We'll lose nothing by abolishing the games that hasn't already disappeared long ago.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a small minority, but it's growing: http://www.businessinsider.com/uh-oh-new-nielsen-data-says-p... More and more people no longer channel surf, and more and more people no longer watch tv (even if they have it) even at a rate of once per month. Increasingly people are watching other content or consuming tv content differently (through netflix, for example). And just as the trend of going without a landline tele…

Things are in transition, and it is going to be a slow grind. Why would you expect cable companies to start acting before they have to? They're still making plenty o' money on the 'old' model. They won't change until the absolute last second, if even then.

That's the problem, the last second is too late. The time to change is before the competition has built up momentum. If you wait until big shifts in marketshare are taking place then you will not have enough time to respond. It's a matter of acceleration and momentum, if you wait until the brick wall is right in front of you it won't be possible to generate enough acceleration to change momentum fast enough to avoid hitting it.

This is especially true in the case of big companies that are much less agile than their competition. The traditional tv companies are facing a very similar fate as the newspapers, they just don't know it yet.

Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night

#90
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things are in transition, and it is going to be a slow grind. Why would you expect cable companies to start acting before they have to? They're still making plenty o' money on the 'old' model. They won't change until the absolute last second, if even then.

I'm hoping Google Fiber will force their hand, or put them out of business entirely.

Apparently someone disagrees with me enough to downvote, but is too stupid to actually explain why.
Post reply on HN