thatâs ok, weâve already seen all the episodes.
Again this could be an easy way for HBO to fight piracy, change a public viewing fee to the bar and give anyone who would have gone to the bar a reason to not torrenting it
As long as the bar isnât charging anyone for the viewing, they should be let alone. The bar paid for HBO, they can watch it with as many of their friends as they like. HBO is stupid.
Really? Youâd rather have them torrenting at home than taking pride in the showâs popularity?
Same deal as this, no?
http://www.lbc.co.uk/why-do-pub-tvs-have-a-pint-glass-in-the-corner-7155
Perhaps HBO should offer public performance subscriptions for bars like sports channels do?
WellâŚthe 1st 4 at least.
IANAL, but itâs clearly addressed in the HBO terms of service:
http://www.hbo.com/html/terms-of-use/index.html
Whether that is enforceable is another matter.
That seems to be the idea behind ânon theatrical useâ licenses for the showing of movies. I guess itâs at HBOâs discretion, though. I would wager that the bar would happily pay the fee, as long as it was reasonable.
The HBO version sucks. Read the books, they are way better.
Fellow KC resident, first thing I thought of when reading this article was Screenland.
HBO, like the rest of the cable television industry, is holding on to an outdated business model which does not effectively capture revenue from its viewers. Many viewers of HBO download their content from torrent sites and pay no subscription fees. Though they are not counted as viewers by the providers, they view the content just the same. HBO and their ilk could greatly increase their profits by providing an inexpensive and easy alternative to torrenting.
Really any stats to back that up. Iâm pretty sure HBO is racking in the cash.
Yep looked it up HBO has more money then they know what to do with.
I understand that as a corp. they have to manically pursue the upkeep of their rights or potentially have their âlazinessâ used against them in legal arguments but seeing as the entire issue is being created by their totally unfathomable heel dragging when it comes to offering legitimate and legal methods for their customers to consume their products, I have no sympathy for them.
It doesnât matter how good your product is, if youâre a total shit-heel, no one will want to give you money. Creating an atmosphere where your customers last inclination is to treat you with any kind of respect is not a good market position.
I can just imagine the board meetings:
Competent VP âWell, it looks like weâre losing huge revenue streams from public viewing markets, how do we fix this?â
CEO (In most abrasive baby-voice) "But itâs just too-hoo-hoo difficult. *crying into hanky, waves arms, blubbers spit onto face âWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!â
VP âThatâs what you said about digital viewing last year, and we must have pushed nearly 30% of our potential market share onto pirate sites as a result.â
CEO âNot like bars! Not like bars!â
This isnât about viewers who want to watch the show at home and end up torrenting it instead of paying for a subscription. This is about people who want to get together and watch the show in a public, social setting. Itâs a lot fun to watch these shows in a bar. I watched the last few episodes of Breaking Bad in a bar that was screening them, also probably against AMCâs rules, or those of the cable provider. Itâs not like they were charging admission. Itâs really unfortunate that companies like HBO feel the need to crack down on this sort of thing. In my opinion, it makes them look like penny pinching party poopers, and might even incline a certain and not insignificant percentage of current or potential customers to intentionally cancel service and/or seek out pirated content out of spite.
HBO is planning on rolling out a standalone streaming service. Wouldnât it make more sense to encourage more people to taste their content, people who would then be excited and prone to go and subscribe for it, than to piss them off and tarnish the brand? Seems like pennywise, pound foolish, bad business to me. But, what do I know?
[quote=âdacree, post:11, topic:55904â]
HBO and their ilk could greatly increase their profits by providing an inexpensive and easy alternative to torrenting.
[/quote]You mean something like HBO Now, HBOâs new standalone subscription streaming service?
âHBO Now users outside US to be âcut offââ
If the recent Microsoft patent is any indication of things to come, then the âas many of their friendsâ approach to watching TV wonât even work in your living room.
Iâm not saying that they arenât making money but that they are not exploiting an easy revenue stream. In other words, they arenât maximizing profits because they are sticking to the old model.
Almost. $15/mo for a streaming service with very few titles is not inexpensive. Getting the price and model correct are critical to mass acceptance. If you only are interested in GoT then paying for the entire channel seems too much. $1 per episode sounds about right. Or, supplement your service with pre-show advertising. My point is that there is an untapped market and HBO Go and HBO Now does a poor job of servicing much of that market.
They must have pissed someone off to get ratted on.
They probably thought it was included in their commercial package. Bars pay a premium for cable to allow public viewing of things like CNN and ESPN.
