Netflix Says Piracy Helped It Succeed In The Netherlands, And Will Help When It Launches In Spain
from the gain-in-spain dept
Back in 2013, Techdirt wrote a story about how Netflix was using piracy as market research -- an approach that is as obvious as it is rare. The copyright maximalists doubtless hoped that would fail dismally, and that Netflix would see the error of its ways and join the industry chorus condemning piracy as a terrible scourge that impoverishes artists and causes society to collapse. Neither has happened, as an interview with Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, in El Mundo makes clear (original in Spanish, via TorrentFreak). Hastings confirms that looking at pirate sites to find out what people were interested in did indeed work out well in the Netherlands, and that this gives him confidence Netflix will thrive when it launches later this year in Spain -- a country that has traditionally had a high level of piracy:
I think that Spain is going to be one of our most successful countries. It has a population with a high level of [Internet] connectivity, which is accustomed to e-commerce and has given indications of being interested in our product. We are very optimistic.
He expands on why piracy is a help, not a hindrance, and how Netflix will manage to sell its services in the face of these free alternatives:
What's certain is that [piracy] has created a public that is accustomed to viewing content online. We will offer an alternative that is much simpler and immediate than looking for a torrent.
That's also what Hastings said in 2013, so clearly he has not found any reason to change his mind since then. These are exactly the kind of ideas that Techdirt has been promoting for years, but it's hugely refreshing to find a successful media CEO willing to say them on the record not once, but twice. It's a pity that so many other copyright companies still insist on fighting piracy, rather than learning how to turn it to their advantage.
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Filed Under: innovation, marketing, netherlands, piracy, spain, streaming video
Companies: netflix
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I'll leave an open offer to the MAFIAA (because Netflix probably already suggested it): do away with your geo restrictions and stupid release windows (my huge TV is better than a stupid cinema) and I'll completely stop downloading any movies and I will offer you extra money. I'm willing to throw up to 6 (SIX) times the money I pay for my flix today if this happens. (Any bets I will be saving that extra money for years?)
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Neither do I, but I'd pay that for a service that actually allowed access to a full catalogue including current cinematic releases. If you compare that to a weekly theatrical outing, especially for multiple people int he household, it's actually quite a bargain. As long as they kept other tiers for people who can't afford that kind of premium and just want the current kind of lineup, there'd be no problem on the consumer end.
Of course, that would never happen, but we can dream.
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Actually enabling a legal service that's easy to use for locals and foreigners alike is what's needed, and I'm glad that Netflix are finally able to service this market. I hope they realise they already have a large subscriber base here (accessing via VPN, of course, since that was the only legal option) and that selection and playback options are of vital importance, but hopefully they've learned from their other launches what's needed.
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Correlation IS Causation
When Ice Cream sales are highest, the temperature goes up as a result.
Any idiot can plainly see that the tides obviously cause the moon.
And this...
It would be just silly to think that:
* People buy ice cream because it is hot outside
* The moon causes the tides due to an unseen, odorless, colorless magical force called gravity
* The public WANTED online viewing. The lack of anyone providing it led to piracy. So blame Hollywood. (Just like the rise of open source was ultimately caused by Microsoft's crushing monopoly.) They did it to themselves.
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All those refrigeration units running is probably contributing to global warming.
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Re: Correlation IS Causation
I know the owners of two ice cream shops, and they both told me a similar story: that ice cream sales go down when the temperature exceed a certain point (around 90F).
Whatever the causal relationship between ice cream consumption and temperature, it's much more complicated than a straight linear one!
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Re: Re: Correlation IS Causation
Have your friends offer ice cream home delivery when the heat reaches 88 degrees and watch those numbers reverse themselves.
Once the temp reaches the "too hot to leave the air-conditioned living room" level, ice cream shops need to bring the ice cream to the customer. :)
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(BTW, the reason ice cream sale start to fall off when the temperatures get too high is because ice cream makes you thirsty and when you're hot, you want the opposite of that.)
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Tldr: subscriber pays $5 a month. If the subscriber only watches one show that month the show creator gets the entire licensing cut of that $5. If they watch two shows the two shows split the cut based on percentages (watch ten of each and they split 50/50).
If Netflix/Hulu adopted this method there would be zero reason for studios NOT to license their content for streaming. Techdirt should contact crunchyroll and write an article.
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Why? There's a piracy problem, so the answer is to offer them an inferior product that's not as valuable and not as compelling to pay for? How does that make sense?
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http://torrentfreak.com/criminals-when-you-pirate-criminals-when-you-pay-150407/
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You'll be labelled this and worse by idiots who don't understand the situation. Hey, at least Canadians have long had a local version to choose if their VPN stopped working, unlike the Australians, Dutch, Spanish and many other countries who had no legal option until recently.
I do, however, love that the meaning of "pirate" has now expanded to include not only paying customers, but customers who pay an additional premium on top of their regular subscription to allow more access. If that's not an indication of how broken the windowed business model has become, I don't know what is.
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Too flowery for me
It's like you just took some kind of creative writing class?
Whoever taught it is terrible. Real waste of my time.
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When the Merchant is King
I think in the end, we will learn that these companies that demonize peer to peer file sharing, are doing so not because they think "piracy" is a terrible scourge that impoverishes artists and causes society to collapse, but because they want to place legal restraints on the internet that will prevent the free flow of information between citizens globally, especially information pertaining to their various products and services.
Television is their goal - all commercials on TV are lies to some extent and telling lies on TV is 100% legal and without any sort of consequence in a totally controlled environment. This is what they want for the Internet, and the copyright laws are the means they have chosen to use to produce the legislation necessary to end the fledgling public hive mind.
By associating file-sharing with "piracy" and making it illegal, they have given themselves a fresh slate upon which to draw laws that will - with a few deft re-interpretations - allow them to control the internet content and usage in the same fashion they control the television content and usage.
The so-called "free trade negotiations" are the vehicle they are using to install these new laws, which is why they must remain secret.
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Who's Fail?
It seems pretty likely from the user end, that the studios hate the idea of services like Netflix and are trying to kill them, whether they find piracy useful or not. Of course, the old saying might apply; "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity"
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