re: Why piracy is common

I don't get it either. Baseball/NBA were having real problems with people not wanting to sign up for a billion extra channels through their providers, so they just created an online site where you could watch the games. Why the hell can't HBO do sorta the same thing, sell season passes to shows people want to see.

If I am not mistaken, the first season was not released until after the second season had begun - two weeks ago. I am guessing the graphic is from before that.

After a skimming a couple of pages a lot of this can be summarized as:

"I have ethics until it is inconvenient."

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They need to change their business model.

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And they will, but it will take time like it did with the music industry. Right now HBO sells through wholesalers (the cable companies) that give them a lot of up front money. Their handful of established customers would not be happy if they switched to a direct to consumer model. I'm just making these numbers up, but would you swap up $200 million guaranteed for $0 - $300 million unguaranteed? Yes there's potentially more upside but there is also more risk so they will have to be pushed.

What will push them is what pushed the music industry to go to iTunes. A lot of people dumping cable and pirating HBO. I actually think Apple is in a good position to do for TV/Movies what it did for music. We all want a $30 per month service to replace the $150 per month service we use now, but what if Apple were able to do it for $80? That's still a pretty significant savings and should be enough money to keep the "premium" cable studios happy. And once Apple has made a successful run of it NetFlix/Amazon/Google should be able to get content licenses as well, and maybe $30 a month is still a dream but we hopefully will be able to get all the TV/Movies we want for $60 a month.

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What inherent value does a $40 blu ray provide over a $6 one, provided they have the same viewing options and special features? It's got nothing to do with supply and demand

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seriously clark?

what do you think will happen to the price if nobody buys those blu rays?

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1) The entertainment industry promoted the pirating software, and taught us how to use it,

2) The entertainment industry made their product unnecessarily difficult to obtain.

When you make it unreasonably difficult to obtain, the most basic principle of physics kicks in, objects follow the path of least resistance.

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So, that explains why only shows and songs that are not readily available are pirated. I thought people just wanted shite without paying for it, but I didn't realize it was only shows that are tough to get through amazon, itunes, netflix/ hulu, etc.

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I'm not cable subscriber, and I would love to have HBO, but why do I have to have cable first. Then pay extra for HBO? Why? Why make it so difficult?

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don't the "extra" channels subsidize the rest of the cable channels that we all actually want to watch?

i thought that was the cable model and why "a la carte" can't work (at least for any significant price reduction)

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How many times do they ask us to change HOW WE CONSUME? VCR's? DVD's? Tapes? Capes? LCD's? HD televisions? Radios? 8-tracks? Of course it's all a choice at some point, but sometimes it becomes a requirement.

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that argument is somewhat off, as this thread is more based around tv shows without availability

once you get into the secondary media (VHS/DVD/Blu Ray) it IS available

and we always pay for upgrading infrastructure. we buy new cars. we re-do our kitchens. we buy new computers, etc etc etc

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Why can't WE ask the same thing of them? Why can't they be flexible? Why can't they change and give us content the best, most efficient and cost effective way?

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you can, but you have to have enough people in your corner to make them want to change. y'all are a niche

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Because they don't want to. Because it would "undermine their current business models." Because it would allow the consumers more choice, therefore cutting down on the crap that they produce.

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they're not as evil as you're making them out to be

they do it because there are plenty of people without any issue of the current model, and they outnumber your niche very badly. they also consume a lot of the crap you dislike and make THAT profitable

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What about all new products that failed miserably because the market rejected them? Like for examples Laser discs? Smokeless cigarettes. Apple's Newton. Betamax. New Coke?

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Fair enough, but has anything beeen as much as a homerun as widely available, streamed content? Maybe DVD's, but that's about it.

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Its difficult to comment on this because we don't know the financial particulars. But shows like BSG (and Games of Thrones) no doubt cost a lot of money to produce. I don't know how much networks like SyFY makes from subscriber fees (HBO I'm guessing makes more since it cost extra on top of basic) but they also make money off advertising. You guys want to pay less for the shows you want to watch and skip the commercials and expect someone to still put out shows like that.

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Not me. I've actually questioned, multiple occasions, why netflix doesn't have some commercials. I'm ALL for advertising, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I am partially in advertising. Advertising pays for everything, the sooner we realize that (and Netflix) the sooner these kinds of models can work better. I am 100% for advertising if we had On-Demand Streamed Content widely-available.

And those companies probably make more off of advertising than they do off of subscriber-based income (except for your premium content providers).

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One think you guys are forgetting is that while you are paying for channels you don't, so is everybody else. There are a lot more people that just want ESPN than some of the other channels. Let those guys pay for just that and maybe things like SyFY die out. You are more likely to get safe stuff that appeals to the medium if you go exclusively ala carte. If you like Jersey Shore and Storage Wars, well you'll get that, stuff like BSG and GOT? I don't know.

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Fair point. But the idea would be not to stick to the CURRENT idea of "Channels." The whole model needs to change. You're still sticking to the old paradigm and sticking in the new system, which yeah, would be tough to work.

Honestly, the system should look more like the movie industry, which does produce enough diverse content to work. Universal doesn't only make Sci-Fi films. They make kid's movies, comedies, sci-fi, drama, etc.

Most of those channels (SyFy included, NBC owned) generally belong to someone else, you don't need the "SyFy" channels, just a tag or genre grouping.

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surely there is a median in there that allows for people to pay for more in demand, but strictly ala carte on demand is not necessarily what the public wants.

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I'd agree with this too. But there must be a middle ground, or they have to find one, if they want to stop pirating.

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that's a limited commodity, so it's not a good comparison

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He could play more shows then.

What you are saying is you want to see this show now, but you don't want to pay what they are asking now, to see it first.

What you think of HBO's business model is irrelevant. They are subscrition based service. They paid to produce and create the show Game of Thrones in order to get people to buy their service. They will offer the show, cheaper, through the other mediums DVD, streaming perhaps, later, after the season is over. Demanding it now for less is just being a spoiled brat.

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After a skimming a couple of pages a lot of this can be summarized as:

"I have ethics until it is inconvenient."

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The problem, as the music industry always espoused, is that people group pirates as "Every pirate who downloads would actually pay for my product," and that's just not right.

The problem with entertainment, and the wide availability and easy distribution of it, is that people are also ascribing value to something that isn't necessary in any sense, and has little in the way of consistency and takes no commitment to use or get a return value out of.