Once Again, Convenience Trumps Free, As Few People Pirate Arrested Development
from the over-and-over-and-over-again dept
We've pointed out over and over and over again for years that for many people (certainly not all, but enough to make a huge difference) convenience trumps free when it comes to getting content. The latest example of this in action is the fact that way fewer people downloaded the new Arrested Development from unauthorized sources than other similarly hyped TV shows. As you probably know, the new Arrested Development was released via Netflix, rather than TV, and all episodes were immediately available. Unlike other TV shows that are tied to cable and hardly available online at all, Arrested Development was easy to watch online for those who had a Netflix account (which also doesn't require additional fees to watch the show if you already have a subscription).So: it was available online, easy to watch, no marginal cost (if you had the subscription) and available on multiple platforms without limitation (i.e. no "you must watch within 24 hours").
The bizarre thing is that so many of the efforts by the entertainment industry seem to be designed to make things less convenient. They don't make it available online. They require you to have a cable account. They have added costs per episode or show. There are requirements about how long you have to watch it. And then they wonder why there's so much infringement?
If you offer a good product, that focuses on access and convenience, people are clearly willing to pay. This has been the lesson for well over a decade. It's amazing that it still needs to be repeated.
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Filed Under: access, arrested development, convenience, copyright, infringement
Companies: netflix
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And also Firefly because some people seem to like that.
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Netflix, please give me more original like House of Cards. Don't go overboard on canceled series.
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Fixed that for you.
When was the last time you saw and original show storyline?
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So massive fail!
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It would be good that, after a few months when they're reasonably sure they're not getting picked up someone else, they can explain everything.
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I just looked it up on my Android phone . . . oh my . . .
Serenity, 1h 58min, is available for streaming to my phone right now, and by now I mean right now this instant.
Next, I looked up Firefly, and I see 14 episodes.
1. Serenity 86m
2. The Train job 43m
. . .
14. Objects in Space 44m
All instantly streamable to my phone, my tablet, my Google TV (at home), my TiVo (at home) and my work computer which runs a non-free and non-Free operating system (windows).
Is that rescued enough for you?
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I think he means finance new episodes of the shows :-)
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I think more interesting would be for Netflix, Amazon, etc to start producing their own new original, and good, shows without copyright strings tied to the dinosaur gatekeepers.
Make a nice clean break. In ten years look where we'll be.
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the big difference between mike and you is this very fact above. Mike doesn't wait for stuff to happen, like you do, every damn day, to comment on it. Mike doesn't need to because this stuff generally (Righthaven, Prenda) writes itself. And people keep learning about the Streisand Effect. So he always has material.
so, my takeaway is you are a parasitic leech. Without mike, you'd having nothing to wait for/write about and your existance would be meaningless. Without you though.. well, Mike doesnt need you. Without you, Mike will still be covering copyright, patents and other things that interest him. No need for you at all.
so, keep on leeching, freetard.
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No, he's not. Unless you're holding him responsible for words stated in the linked article, but not repeated here in any way. Which would make this comment even stupider than your usual rubbish.
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There was an awesome callback to this at the end of the Maeby episode ("Senoritis").
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Nor is it limited only to the five latest episodes.
NBC screwed the pooch with Revolution series for me. I was following it online because the wife wasn't interested in the show. I got six episodes behind, and when I went to catch up on the series, the episode I was on was no longer available.
So now they no longer have my eyeballs on their advertisements anymore. This senseless artificial restriction has actually cost them revenue. If I ever do decide to revisit the series again, I am forced to turn to the torrents where they get no ad revenue. Makes no sense to me.
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That is because you have a modicum of common sense.
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No fair
As long as they can say:
* when you'll watch it
* where you'll watch it
* on what type of device you'll watch it
* that you have to pay a significant amount for the privilege -- each time
* and no watching it on a free and Free operating system
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You forgot one
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Re: You forgot one
"* where you'll watch it"
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STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
You also say paywalls don't work, but here it is! Sure, it's incremental on Netflix and so low, but it's a paywall.
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Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
Where does he say that all content should be free? Mis-representing what the blog is about...AGAIN!!!
Also, go away and learn what a paywall is. Netflix is NOT a paywall.
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Netflix as Paywall
In this case, it's a service that offers video material, in an all-you-can-watch fashion, and for a reasonable price. They're funding new/original content, and unlike Hulu and Hulu Prime isn't littered with increasing ads.
I was actually a big fan of Hulu early on, when there were maybe 1-2 ads per show... now it's almost as bad as watching on broadcast tv... I cut the cord a few years ago, and prefer to watch tv without the ads. The experience is much better.
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Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
You have a point there. What you gotta do is sell hats.
Hey, stop snickering. I'm serious here.
I just recently started playing Team Fortress 2 (peer pressure made me do it). The game was originally paid for but it became Free To Play recently (more like friggin years ago). The F2P version retains the same functionality of the paid version, except that you have to work harder to unlock stuff (as far as I know).
As far as I can tell, the business model for that game is selling hats for your in-game avatar. And judging by the fact that there are a ton of people with hats out there, I'd say that Valve isn't exactly becoming poor thanks to the game. In fact, I seem to remember that they are making insane amounts of cash from a free game...by essentially selling hats.
I know this doesn't sit well with you, but yes, you can make money by giving stuff away. You can make very stupidly large amounts of money.
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Re: Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
And where do you get the keys? Why, in the game's client, of course!
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Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
Why not just put everything up on Megavideo then, and get revenue that way? Oh wait, the feds shut that down.
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Re: Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
Somebody actually said this? This is a lie about pro-copyright spin.
What the lobby says producers ask for is 'enough," not some."
Remember David Lowery's letter to Emily the NPR intern about her using Spotify and ripping already-sold CDs? Those options net "some" revenue, but obviously not "enough" to avoid his wrath.
Why would someone claim to be pro-copyright on TD and not understand or care about the pro-copyright argument?
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Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
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Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
Shut the fuck up you LYING SHILL SACK OF SHIT. Sick of your trotting out lie after baldfaced lie on EVERY fucking article. You just cant wait to jump right in with your LieList to try to derail yet another relevant conversation.
It has been pointed out to you SEVERAL times that all of the above bullshit you just spewed is not true, has never been true, and is not what this site is saying or supporting. Go make your own fucking shill website if you want to spread lies.
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Re: Re: STOP the world! Mike sez: "convenience trumps free"!
He wins that way. Its best to laugh and point at the village idiot.
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Imagine that. There is a market for an innovation:
* a solid state device
* immune to shock
* won't skip on playback if you take it jogging
* long battery life
* store lots of content on a very tiny device, with preprogrammed "wear out" of 1000 plays.
But Noooooo. The RIAA can't have a company making a useful device for people to legally load their legally purchased CD's onto. No way. If you want innovation, you've got to pay the RIAA for the privilege of using another format.
So you don't forget, order before midnight tomorrow.
$8.99 for vinyl disk
$16.99 for cassette
$19.99 for CD
$99.99 for DRMed digital file limited to one device
And who says the dinosaur copyright maximallists are trying to stop innovation? Oh yeah, anyone who can see, that's who.
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And I thought the UK was a rip off.
$19.99 is around 13 quid at current exchange rates. A CD in the UK is usually around 9.99
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What pisses me off is that on amazon the CD is usually the same price as the digital download that is of poorer quality, costs less to produce, and doesn't require postage.
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For the love of God, won't someone please think of the lawyers.
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Michael Crichton does all my thinking about lawyers for me, ever since Jurassic Park.
Just wish we could send some of the Prenda lawyers for an all expenses paid vacation at a little island off the coast of Costa Rica, but we'd have to pay some unfortunate folks to set up cameras on the island first so that we can get access to the video via NetFlix. But then again, seeing John Steele go head-to-head with a Velociraptor may increase their subscriptions so they could make more shows.
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It could, and I'm happy to see people supporting this through licit channels, but it would be helpful to know if eliminating piracy like this, vs taking some piracy because you have asshole policies, is cost effective for the corps. That's all that matters to them at the end of the day, sadly.
Basically, can they make more with high margins on a few customers vs low on more.
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They see their customers as other companies who do the distribution through exclusive deals. Thus: They do not see the end-users as their customer and since they are responsible for honouring their exclusivity deals, they have to hire lawyers and companies to send DMCAs. The customers they achieve have to be good enough to shell out good sums of money so we are talking a relatively small base.
As for profitability of lone company measures, it is pretty clear that we are not gonna get any useful numbers. Since most of the content providers rely on lobbying to a high degree, the rules of lobbying applies:
Internal documents showing indications not in the interest of your strategy are trade secrets, while documents showing indications in your interest gets bassuned out to everybody. Since we haven't seen many such internal numbers on the different effects, the assumptions must be: They are too stupid to measure the effects, they are not interested enough in knowing them or the numbers they have indicate that the effects are against their interests. Either way, the result is a lack of deeper arguments from the lobbyists and therefore noisy drivel to be shot down if you look just a little under the surface...
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http://torrentfreak.com/arrested-development-pirates-skip-netflix-out-of-habit-130529/
Ha s quotes from the comment sections of torrent sites, where the downloaders say things like
"“I have a Swedish Netflix account, but for some stupid reason the PS3 app won’t let me turn the subtitles off. I can choose between Swedish, Finnish etc subtitles but there’s no option to turn them off completely. So here I am downloading the episodes, even though I have Netflix, just to watch without subtitles.”
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Please explain, Mike.
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More likely, Arrested Development was made available to anyone with a Netflix subscription (which covers many more countries than HBO), all at the same time, and has legal ways to see it for free (Netflix offer free trial subs). So, most people could watch the show more quickly than it would take to download (even those of us not strictly allowed to watch but who can use VPNs to stream).
Compare that to HBO's model, which includes overcharging existing cable customers (you have to have a pricey cable sub before they'll even let you subscribe), heavy region windowing (some territories have to wait months for a legal release) and no legal free option in many places.
You have to be deliberately obtuse to ignore these factors.
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I can't find a way to view how many people completed (snatched) the file on the major public bt sites. The private trackers, where I can sort by "snatched" value, show that its matching numbers with shows like South Park, American Dad, Family Guy, Big Bang Theory, and The Office. Comparing view counts on a couple of popular streaming sites corroborates this. This makes sense, given that the fanbase is very likely to overlap for a lot for these shows.
I feel that comparing the numbers from Arrested Development to shows that very obviously appeal to a much larger audience is bordering on deceitful. After doing a little digging myself, its obvious to me that Arrested Development ranked right around average for TV show piracy, and I was shocked to see Techdirt report otherwise.
I was really disappointed to see such high piracy numbers for a show I consider to be "doing things right" in terms of delivery of content. I was disappointed a second time to see it marginalized on a site I look to for reliable information.
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While the numbers can be seen as disappointing, any conclusion you draw from them is necessarily incomplete. The question is going to be whether Netflix are happy with the actual viewing figures, and that's the key. Obsessing over pirated downloads makes no sense, especially when some of those downloads are going to be in the groups above, some of whom are already paying customers.
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Also, the TF article does touch on one of your points.
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Seems like a winning plan for Netflix.
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But....the numbers
I find it surprising that no numbers were provided. Giving Mike the benefit of the doubt, maybe he didn't check the popular torrent sites until just recently. The numbers are certainly low now, but the first two days that the show was out, they were definitely showing better than average numbers for a tv show when sorting by seeds/leechers, at peak closing in on 200k.
The article on torrent freak was more accurate, I feel.
I think TF was on target with their opinion that if the show had been released on cable, without the widespread availability netflix gives, the download count would have been much higher, but to say "few people download arrested development" seems intentionally misleading given the facts.
I hope I don't get downvoted into oblivion because I really do respect and agree with 99% of what is posted here at techdirt, but I can't let this go by without comment.
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Re: But....the numbers
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In this sense, even comparing the download figures is misleading if trying to work out any negative effect. Someone downloading this show isn't really taking any more money from Netflix than if they signed up for a free trial (and in fact are taking less, since they don't cost them anything in bandwidth).
I understand where you're coming from, but at best all these figures do is prove that some people will download regardless - and thus should not be considered lost revenue. The real question is how many subscribers Netflix have gained or retained as a result of this - and the outlook so far looks very good:
"It's not an apples-to-apples comparison with Netflix's "House of Cards," but Cullen said that "from our perspective, 'Arrested Development' had about three times the subscriber viewing that we saw from 'House of Cards.' ""(from http://www.cnbc.com/id/100770605)
"A few days ago, Netflix announced that, in large measure a result of House of Cards, they brought in two million more subscribers." (from http://collider.com/house-of-cards-kevin-spacey-beau-willimon-interview/)
We'll see, but if Netflix can get millions of subscribers while accepting a thousands of downloads will happen, I don't see the problem.
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My point was really more that I'm disappointed in the angle Mike approached this story from. None of the data I can find points to a conclusion that "few people pirate Arrested Development" and Mike doesn't provide any data himself. One of the reasons I like the articles here is that they are almost always backed up with verifiable facts. Again, I totally agree with almost everything I read here, but I don't blindly accept it.
It seems that both sides of the copyright agenda can sometimes willfully ignore data in order to make their own point. I assumed the usual suspects (AC, OOTB) would make the usual remarks, and I wanted to point out that in this case I also take exception to what is being reported - and I'm not a troll/shill.
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I do agree to some extent with what you're saying, I just happen to think it's not one of the important issues to consider here. But, your opinion is equally valid, and thanks for stating it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: But....the numbers
- Arrested Development ratings on fox: 6.2-million average in first season, lower by the end with 3.43-million watching the finale -- source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrested_Development_(TV_series)#Television_ratings
- Some selections from the top pirated shows of 2012 (when GoT was #1), with both piracy & tv numbers (all based on a single popular episode):
Hit shows on broadcast networks:
Big Bang Theory - 3.2-mil DL, 15.8-mil TV
How I Met Your Mother - 2.9-mil DL, 10.1-mil TV
House - 2.3-mil DL, 9.7-mil TV
Hit shows on specialty cable networks:
Game of Thrones - 4.2-mil downloaders, 4.2-mil TV viewers
Breaking Bad - 2.5-mil DL, 2.9-mil TV
Homeland - 2.4-mil DL, 2.3-mil TV
Dexter - 3.8-mil DL, 2.7-mil TV
So the pattern is fairly clear: broadcast networks still have far more TV viewers than downloaders, whereas cable networks have number that are close, or sometimes even fewer viewers than downloaders.
Now, we don't know how many people watched AD on Netflix... but we do know that Netflix has almost 30-million subscribers, which is about the same as HBO's audience in the U.S. -- HBO's global audience is about 115-million.
Obviously, we are lacking some of the key data points that would let us draw a *solid* conclusion about piracy rates -- but when you look at the audience size numbers and compare it to some other shows, it still seems highly likely that
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...highly likely that [ less than 200,000 downloaders is a very low number ]
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The MPAA doesn't care about the numbers. Facts are optional for Copyright Cartels.
Ah, that's what you really meant to say.
Totally agree.
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Streaming still has limitations
Ultimately, this tends to cause problems with streaming media - so I've gotten in the habit of just downloading entire season torrents, dumping them on my NAS, and watching them whenever I have some downtime. Bonus points that I can load them on my tablet and watch them on the plane when I travel several times a month.
Streaming will never be 100% convenient.
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Here's the big question
Arrested Development?
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Re: Here's the big question
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