YouTube To Sell TV Episodes

[Baelorn]

Google is trying to get YouTube to start selling episodes of TV shows. I know for most of us that notion doesn’t come as a surprise, as most digital video services – iTunes, Amazon – already have episodes of TV that you can download for a price. Even Hulu is considering offering priced content; it just seems to be way the TV industry is adapting to the Digital Age.

However, what is surprising about the Google/YouTube venture is the approach the are reportedly taking: charging users to stream episodes of their favorite TV shows.

Read that again: charging users to STREAM episodes of their favorite TV shows.

STREAM, not DOWNLOAD. Insanity.


And the price they’re allegedly thinking about setting sounds equally ridiculous: $1.99 per episode.

$1.99. A Whopper Jr. and some ‘nuggets at Burger King. To stream last night’s episode of House. Madness.

I’ve always thought that Google was a really smart company – what they’ve done cleaning up and organizing YouTube since taking over the site has been nothing short of amazing (I love YouTube these days.) At the risk of offending my own massive ego, I’m going to refuse to believe Google would make such a misstep and assume that they’ve done some kind of market research, lab test, or insane experimentation to discern that something like this could actually work.

According to Media Memo (which is breaking this rumor), both TV and YouTube execs HAVE done the research and what they’ve BOTH found is that people already pay $1.99 to download a TV episode and watch it once – so they’ll probably pay the same just to stream an episode once.

Makes a certain bit of sense, I’ll admit, but to somebody like me, I pay $1.99 and I want to be able to do whatever the hell I want with my episode! I purchased a copy of it of that episode – not the right to see it. My episode of Lost is not some cheap peep show!

Anyway, negotiations between GooTube and the TV execs is ongoing. I’m sure we’ll hear something develop soon. In the meantime, enjoy free (legal) internet TV while you can, because it will soon be a thing of the past…

Not that most people here use legal options for watching TV online but for those that do this is not good news. If this works for YouTube other sites are going to adopt it.

[Chicomagiko]

Seems like we're going to have to pay for content anyways. So much for net neutrality. Only a matter of time before we have to pay to access BG Premium Content :T

[Kaisha]

Seems like we're going to have to pay for content anyways. So much for net neutrality.

Right, because network television is free of licensing fees.

[EDIT] Fuck, what a waste of a 2,000th post.

[Zhais]

This has nothing to do with net neutrality....

[Shiznicle]

I can't really imagine anyone paying $1.99 just to stream an episode. A subscription based service with unlimited streaming would make more sense imo, but still, paying to stream ftl. Especially when they'd probably offer it in some shitty resolution.

[arus2001]

To be honest, I'm kind of waiting for the absolution of the TV network model as we know it and programming instead get completely replaced by a sort of On Demand system. One plus side is it'd eliminate the whole stupid time slot shit and poor ratings because of it that kills good shows early while also weeding out all the excess channels we never watch with our cable subscriptions they tier and overcharge us on. Execs could instead determine viewers based on downloads across the various distributors.

So, like, instead of Heroes airing like every Monday at 9pm, where you can watch it then or record for later, just every Monday the show could become available to download and watch at your leisure. Hell, this kind of indirectly exists with things like TiVo or watching things later on Hulu, but it's far from what I'd call standard because people either lack the equipment or good internet at reasonable prices.

Of course, there's no way in hell I'd pay $1.99 for a 23 minute episode with ads crammed in between, let alone the same episode multiple times. I also don't exactly watch enough TV to warrant an individual cable/satellite subscription if I was out on my own. Comcast recently screwed with our cable tiers and I lost one of the channels I actually did watch, so them scarfing up NBC doesn't exactly have me excited, either. Not that I watch them for much else other than Leno, news, and Conan.

[The Blackrose]

This has nothing to do with net neutrality....

Indeed.

This has more to do with issues involving licensing/copywrite infringement, while also attempting to cover operations costs. The ability to host a service does not exist on fairy dust and unicorn farts, and ad revenue can only work so far.

However, I agree with Shiz when I say that pay per stream is retarded. Especially when some networks already have a subscription based model in operation.

[Baelorn]

It's not so much that YouTube is going to have people paying to watch TV episodes. I just think it is insane to charge $1.99 per stream. The reasoning behind it baffles me too. It's like Blockbuster realizing that people only watch most movies they buy once and raising the price of rentals to $19.99 each. Madness.

[Nitrous24]

DVD of tv series. 20$
# of average episodes 15-20
soo...1-1.5$/episode.. on something you can watch as many times as you want.. wtf are they thinkin.

[Ensam]

DVD of tv series. 20$
# of average episodes 15-20
soo...1-1.5$/episode.. on something you can watch as many times as you want.. wtf are they thinkin.

buy in bulk = save money

[Not Kuno]

The best part about dvds and downloading (illegal or not) is being able to pause and rewind etc whenever you want. If you only get one stream then how does that work? Either way sounds completely retarded.

[Kaslo]

1.99 is the cost of a non-HD TV episode on iTunes

[Moochi]

The best part about dvds and downloading (illegal or not) is being able to pause and rewind etc whenever you want. If you only get one stream then how does that work? Either way sounds completely retarded.

It will most likely be available for 24 hours if you pay for the steam. Or something similar.



And as it has been pointed out...2 dollars for an episode is idiotic. I'd pay .5-1 dollar tops if it offered HD and surround. Maybe more if you could watch it before the air-date.

Btw, who think youtube has gotten better the last few years? Every time I search youtube most of the videos I get as results is just shitty videoblogs or fake videos. Really starting to dislike youtube...

[Plow]

This wouldn't even work with porn, and they think it's going to work with tv shows?

lol right

[Heavencloud]

This will just increase the rate of pirating torrenting illegally. Seriously, I'm not made of money, and those fuckers have enough money already. Youtube makes nearly $1,000,000 a day just in ads, and google makes over 3.3 million a day in ads...

[Kaisha]

Got a source to go with the money claims there Heaven? Just curious mostly. YouTube has to be one of the most expensive sites on the internet to run.

[Heavencloud]

Btw, who think youtube has gotten better the last few years? Every time I search youtube most of the videos I get as results is just shitty videoblogs or fake videos. Really starting to dislike youtube...

Really all it's good for is music honestly, and they've taken away tons of that too. Can't wait for piratebay's video website to open... If it ever does.

[Heavencloud]

Got a source to go with the money claims there Heaven? Just curious mostly. YouTube has to be one of the most expensive sites on the internet to run.

http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.youtube.com

http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.google.com

[Moochi]

Really all it's good for is music honestly, and they've taken away tons of that too. Can't wait for piratebay's video website to open... If it ever does.

Agreed. Listening to music is pretty much the only thing it's good for (and the only thing I use it for). Remember when you used to find every tv show possible on there?

[Correction]

Netflix queues for tv shows are about to get nice and long.