[LINK] Freeview Launches In Australia

[Richard Chirgwin]

Michael Still wrote:
> Anthony Hornby wrote:
>   
>>> Netflix streaming video -- $99 for a hardware player, HD content like
>>> you'd find on a DVD (assuming you have enough bandwidth to stream at
>>> that quality). Subscription $9 a month, if you're not already a customer
>>> (which many people in the US are).
>>>       
>> Pity its a US only service :-(
>> "A Netflix ready device can only be used within the 50 US States and
>> the District of Columbia. Movies & TV episodes cannot be watched
>> instantly in any other location."
>>
>> Does anyone know of any similar services available for Australian
>> users that offer good content at a reasonable price?
>>     
>
> Yeah, then again I live in the US (where I am paying $0 a gig for 
> traffic). The service is quite new to Netflix as well. I imagine that 
> companies in Australia will start copying it like they did the original 
> DVD rental model Netflix offered.
>
> One of the good things here is that one company having contracts like 
> this and being successful will make it easier for the next guy. I'm 
> hoping that the studios will figure out that these sorts of services are 
> a good way to make money, and therefore encourage them rather than 
> killing them.
>   
I can't remember whether it's one or two online rental outfits that have
gone belly-up in Australia this year? That would hardly encourage the
studios to think "here's a good way to make money". Reel Time Media
tanked; can't remember the other.

The business case needs more than assertion and long-tail theory. It
needs to actually make money.

(don't get me wrong, but why would I want to buy yet another gadget to
help watch TV? It's not as if the programs suddenly get good just
because they came through a streaming box instead of free-to-air. "Until
I got HD I couldn't understand what people liked about South Park, but
now I have all those pixels that just go missing on free-to-air it's a
completely different experience!"

(If I sound sarcastic, fine by me. I had trouble giving a hoot about TV
ten years ago, still have the same trouble, and the Internet doesn't
make it exciting.)

RC
> Mikal
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