MovieBeam Finally Dead For Real
from the how-much-money-was-wasted-on-that? dept
Back in 2003, Disney's brilliant idea to "compete" with TiVo and Netflix was to start MovieBeam. Just the fact that Disney felt it needed to compete with TiVo and Netflix shows you how backwards the thinking was at the point. Moviebeam was a terrible idea from the start. People were expected to buy (yet another) expensive set top box from Disney, which would basically be a very limited DVR. The hard drive would come packed with about 100 movies, and each week some would disappear and others would magically "beam" into the box. Despite the fact that you already had to pay for the box, you still had to pay each time you wanted to watch a movie -- and, you were only given a 24-hour time period in which to watch that movie. Two years into the program (with only a few small test markets) Disney shut down the program. At the time, we figured it was gone for good, but somehow, some VCs and Cisco were convinced to pony up $50 million to bring this idea back to life as a spinoff from Disney. Yet, when the offering was relaunched (with a few small improvements) people still didn't care. Earlier this year, the company was basically sold off for next to nothing, and now the company has announced that it's shutting down operations next week. Who knows, though, maybe it'll rise from the dead again, so that it can fail a few more times.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: downloads, movies, settop box
Companies: disney, moviebeam
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Doesn't smell right.
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Doesn't smell right.
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Purchase could be for the patents...
Cisco wants to move into streaming video over the internet and this is one way. This technology falls right in line with the purchase by Cisco of Scientific-Atlanta.
This also sounds like the Apple iTV box released earlier this year. Also like Microsoft MediaCenter.
The Cable operators have learned how to make money providing streaming content (translates to "TV"). As content moves to the digital domain, the TV broadcast will die and distribution of content will become physical layer agnostic.
That is, the actual delivery method: Cable, DSL, IP, WiMAX, 3G/4G is not important to the masses. They want their MTV and they will get their TV.
Whoever learns to make money delivering MTV to the masses will be the next Standard Oil/GM/MicroSoft.
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Amazing
The disconnect between the way normal people think and the way these entertainment executives think is stunning.
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Re: Amazing
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MovieBeam
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Re: MovieBeam
Both your comment and the one by KevinL above are saying "Nah, it's not so bad. I got a box for free (or $50 for him), and after that, it's a good deal."
Sure, but what does that say about their business, if they have to give away the hardware to get anyone to adopt their service? At the time, those were high-end HD boxes. They had to give them away at a loss to win customers. So, for a number of months, until they buy enough movies that the margin wins back the cost of the equipment, every customer represents a loss.
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MovieBeam
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MOVIE BEAM
Just another failure in money mad american corporate mentality.
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The Beam!!
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