[LINK] open source Boxee

George Bray georgebray at gmail.com
Tue Jan 20 09:53:12 AEDT 2009


Disintermediation:  the elimination of an intermediary in a transaction
between two parties

Only the other day I was talking with friends and family about the value of
subscription TV services, and all of them identified the providers' tricks
of allowing subscriptions only to bundles of mostly unwanted channels.

"Why can't I pick just the channels I want?"

Suffice to say, none of them will be customers anytime soon.

Boxee is a great example of cutting out these middlemen and their super
expensive, customer unfriendly services.  With the evolution of "HD" YouTube
and more capable retail broadband connections I think the writing is on the
wall for usurious subscription models.

George

PS  - ha, looks like the inventor of the word "usurious" saw them coming.

Adj.  usurious - greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation;
"exorbitant rent"; "extortionate prices"; "spends an outrageous amount on
entertainment"; "usurious interest rate"; "unconscionable spending"




On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 8:00 PM, <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

>
> "Boxee has allowed me to replace cable with no remorse," said Jef
> Holbrook, a 27-year-old actor in Columbus, Ga., who recently downloaded
> the Boxee software to the $600 Mac Mini he has connected to his
> television. "Most people my age would like to just pay for the channels
> they want, but cable refuses to give us that option. Services like Boxee,
> that allow users choice, are the future of television."




-- 
George Bray, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.



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