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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

#811

Post by InitialBP »

fny wrote: post #378

Some feedback: 1. What is your cost per episode? Can your subscription fee sustain realistically sustain that? 2. Your design needs improvement, at least on desktop. Haven't looked at the apps yet. If you expect "product" do be your differentiator, there's a LOT of work. Also, I'm not sure this is a sufficient competitive advantage. (a) its replicable (b) I've never seen this as a reason for people to pick one conten…

Just a thought on point number 2.

I fully agree with you that a good "product" and design is a reason for people to pick one content provider over another. It's almost exclusively about what content a provider has access to.

One particular example that I would call out is funimation. They offer a streaming service that has a very large library of english dubbed anime. Their platform sucks - missing features, constantly receive errors about needing a subscription (even when you're a pro member), sometimes specific episodes just won't player. Yet, they are still a huge player in the market because they offer content that people want.

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

#812

Post by eplanit »

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…

I'm not at all offended by BET or BlackOak.

But, be honest: would you be offended by a "The White Network - A Network for White People", with a mission/focus on white, traditional European culture? Would you similarly interpret this statement to "not mean 'Not for any other people'"?

For many, the divisiveness isn't from the existence of such channels and networks -- it's from the double standard.

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

#813

Post by kasey_junk »

tptacek wrote: post #794
whoaisme wrote: post #793

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL what a load of nonsense. Spanish and Polish are capped because Spain and Poland are capped. This woke garbage is so obsessed with remaking reality in the face of the self evident it's no wonder why no one takes it seriously.

Ah, yes, such bastions of wokeism as The Chicago Manual of Style.

And Jewish is capitalized because Judea is…

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

#814

Post by HWR_14 »

namdnay wrote: post #616
HWR_14 wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, the vast majority of black people have descended from the enslaved Americans who have been in the US for hundreds of years. When people say "black culture" that's what they are referring to. Not that recent immigrants from Jamaica and Nigeria are from the same culture. There's the further concept that due to systemic racism, Jamaican and Nigerian culture will blend into the larger black culture than the la…

Ok I think I get it. Maybe more “African American” than “Black”

When an American says "black", they often mean "African American". The reasons why one would use one word over the other is usually more about social conventions between synonyms and less about trying to describe different ideas.

It's really self-centered when we use "black" to mean "African American". It's strange when it goes the other way. You'll hear some Americans call Idris Elba an African-American.

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

#815

Post by z3ncyberpunk »

pierre wrote: post #427

Congrats on the launch, but you are attacking a difficult market, with a strong 'political' risk/factor as we can see in this thread. If I remember correctly there was a similar startup in YC S15 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903229 ) that shutdown 2 years after ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15292534 , https://techpoint.africa/2017/09/22/afrostream-shut-down/ ). In streaming content is king and ove…

Did you really just proposed to use deep fakes to do black face?! Wtf?!

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

#816

Post by hnick »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #798
Uzo0312 wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't think of anything that we're planning to do from an internationalization point as being any different from what Netflix has done spanning across the globe and cultures.

Netflix doesn't cater to a specific racial subset of America though. You could become a global player in the space somehow, but probably not while retaining this mission

A possibility would be catering to local minorities and their creators in various places around the world, but that sounds like a lot of work. And here in Australia for example you'd be situated against SBS/ABC which do a lot of ethnic and minority content.

I'd also be worried anything big with wide appeal would be snapped up by Netflix et al. Here in Australia Cosby, Family Matters, Fresh Prince etc were all very popular. But this was in a mainstream way, African-American issues and experiences were largely irrelevant to us as viewers.

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

#817

Post by prawn »

gunshai wrote: post #322
graderjs wrote: post #187

Great idea, man. This is awesome! This is exactly what people should be doing--using tech to make the world better. Hope you can look back 10 years from now and think so many interesting black stories might not have got told except for BlackOak! I definitely think segmenting away from the dominant studio model is the only way to break the crazily unrepresentative nature of most of the (still admittedly great) stories…

I am generally curious, when does under represented move to represented or appropriately represented?

Maybe when someone and their customers don't feel drawn to create and consume something like this?

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

#819

Post by prawn »

IanClarke wrote: post #773
zentiggr wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're opposed to the basic concept of marketing niches?

It seems to make no sense the way they do it and he is pointing that out. I am an Airbnb host and once rented to a black couple for a month. After that I had a lot of "black" content (people) suggested on my youtube. It's a difficult(AI), but especially solved problem that only big companies have and they are obviously doing (approaching - as a small startup) it wrong... ... which is kind of a surprise, because YC is…

"Looking at the other startups they support lately it is sad to see what they have become: Supporting minoritie's interests for the sake of it (statistics)."

They're investing for the most part in startups that have opportunities for significant growth, besides a small number of charitable ventures. Here, streaming is a big deal and starting in the US but pushing into Africa is a potential opportunity. Other recent startups have been financial plays in India or South America or similar - proven plans in new, broadly populated areas. Are they supposed to wait on PayPal or whoever to tailor their service to suit a particular country?

Do you personally read your local newspaper waiting for them to add tech commentary or do you visit and post on Hacker News?

If YC are wrong and there's little interest, they've thrown away a tiny amount of money. On the whole, they've been right, however. It doesn't cost you or I anything.

I'd rather see them try this than all of us support a streaming monoculture.

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

#820

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
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