Access: Geoblocking, global mode and NZ as a disgraceful accessibility backwater
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Paul, it's still definitely a content owners/sellers market. There are now lots of SVOD services competing/bidding for the rights which is driving up price. Have seen this first hand. The really savvy content creators/ owners, with sufficient scale, like HBO or the big US sports like NBA are choosing to go directly to consumers with online sales platforms of their own. This fragments the choice for consumers, so I think there will always be the space for aggregators, particularly at a regional level.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
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Paul Campbell, in reply to
Paul, it’s still definitely a content owners/sellers market. There are now lots of SVOD services competing/bidding for the rights which is driving up price.
Yes but I think that's going to change - I remember when I was a kid - we have a very controlled economy in NZ - when someone was imported into NZ Customs took a cut, then the importer did, then the wholesaler, and finally the retailer - stuff was really expensive - now days chances are the retailer is importing directly, or maybe I am - one of the reasons things are still expensive here is that some of that system lingers on (try and get a high value item through customs without paying a customs agent - who, as far as I can tell exists to pass my money on to Customs and take a cut, why don't Customs have a website and an online payment system?)
I bthink that the content creators will realise that they can make more money if they sell stuff themselves, directly to the end user - yes they'll probably pay a SVOD platform (like NetFlix or LightBox) to host it for them - but the world has changed - the very interconnectedness that the internet creates allows them to interact directly with their customers, we'll pay less, they'll earn more and the middle-people will be squeezed out
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andin, in reply to
we’ll pay less
uh huh! ..... crickets......
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I bthink that the content creators will realise that they can make more money if they sell stuff themselves, directly to the end user - yes they'll probably pay a SVOD platform (like NetFlix or LightBox) to host it for them - but the world has changed - the very interconnectedness that the internet creates allows them to interact directly with their customers, we'll pay less, they'll earn more and the middle-people will be squeezed out
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Yamis, in reply to
Professional sporting bodies are already doing it. NBA league pass $210 a year for thousands of games, NRL $90 a year, NFL league pass etc all through their websites... rugby will go the same way (what would you pay to watch a Blues game on your laptop live through the Blues website? 1 cent, 2 cents ;).
So when Sky negotiated exclusive live rights to broadcast NRL games on TV in NZ this year, they aren't really getting exclusive rights if hardcore league fans can just subscribe to the NRL website game pass and skip SKY. Not sure they (Sky) want to pay as much now. I know that it was a last minute deal this year. I guess the next few deals will be revealing.
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A few thoughts
CallPlus may be facilitating this, but there's nothing to stop anyone from signing up for a VPN. This provides the same outcome : You can configure your internet access so it appears that you're from the US (or the UK for iPlayer)
Sky in particular must be terrified about the threat to their business model. Netflix is (I think) US$10/month for a huge amount of content on demand with no adds. Sky is $100 a month for a smaller selection of older content, by appointment, with intrusive ads.
It's a classic case of internet disintermediation. Sky has a local monopoly, but has got fat and complacent. This prices have crept up and their quality has crept down (witness the loss of some sports and programmes, and the increasing lag between movies being released and appearing on the movie channels.).But in an increasingly connected world, they are buggy whip manufacturers.
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Sacha, in reply to
they are buggy whip manufacturers
yep. giddy up
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Asinius, in reply to
why don't Customs have a website and an online payment system?
They have. I think you'll need to register as an importer with Customs first.
http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/charges/feepayment/Pages/chargesforunaccompaniedgoods.aspx
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
CallPlus may be facilitating this, but there's nothing to stop anyone from signing up for a VPN.
Or use an extension or add on for your browser, like Hola
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JR,
Looks like Netflix may be about to start to do their dirty work for them: Netflix's new terms allows the termination of accounts using a VPN
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I agree with all of this post about the inevitability and importance of the borderlessness Internet, and I’m frequently cursing myself when something is ‘not available in your country’; Also the shutting out of legitimate use by special needs users is disgraceful.
I would just throw in to the mix, however, that the idea of –
being able to maximise revenue by selling country-specific rights
– isn’t just rich multinationals squeezing every penny out of their assets by doing shabby deals: for New Zealand producers of things like films, TV and books selling country-specific rights isn’t just revenue maximising but absolutely necessary to raise enough money to make the thing at all.
“Why not just do a world-wide deal?” would seem to be an answer to that problem – but what happens when those world-wide vendors don’t want something from piddly little New Zealand – they can’t see its appeal as being wide enough to bother – but individual smaller markets do? Often it’s our cultural cousins – like the UK and Australia – or it’s unexpected places – the Polish publisher that loves your work – that can be the difference between your project getting off the ground or not. It was a pre-sale to one company for NZ/Aus/UK rights that allowed me to make my first film, Black Sheep.
Like Russell says, we’re in the middle of a painful period of transition. Now NZ creators are caught between ‘why would I buy my territory when you’ve already sold Xxx and it will just end up everywhere anyway’ and the few big buyers saying ‘no thanks’ to our limited interest content. What territorial sales we might still be able to make are for much smaller sums than they ever used to be, that aren't adding up to totals to make the thing viable.
Sure, it’s a fact of life – but the territory-by-territory approach was a lifeline in the past to our local creators getting stuff out in the world that our home markets could never pay for, not just a relic of greedy conglomerates wringing extra money out of the outlying areas.
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Sacha, in reply to
That's really interesting. Does the same dynamic apply to other smaller countries who are part of a larger grouping like the EU?
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Jonathan King, in reply to
I’m sure it does apply to ‘indie’ producers in lots of places: if you’re not selling to a multi-national you’re selling to individual territories. Aggregators that can get you onto iTunes or Amazon are emerging – but these are often support for self-publishing – they aren’t picking up your thing and giving it promotional support in these other places it’s available. And it comes back to the only promo self-publishers can do being social media (and Kickstarter etc).
Some European countries are at an advantage having strong local markets – and unique languages. As an English language producer with a tiny domestic market, we have the worst of both worlds in some cases: if you’re buying English-language product, the choice is usually for the dominant voices (US, UK) over ours …
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Thanks Jonathan have been very interested in hearing the perspective of local content creators and the potential impact on them of a global rights model.
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Paul Campbell, in reply to
why don’t Customs have a website and an online payment system?
They have. I think you’ll need to register as an importer with Customs first.
http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/charges/feepayment/Pages/chargesforunaccompaniedgoods.aspx
yeah but you have to be able to get the invoice (normally it's someone at Fedex et al who call you, and wants their $40 for the privilege, if it's NZPOST you end up having to call some 09 number and wait on hold for an hour). You can't become a general agent for yourself,it seems you have to become a particular type of agent (be qualified in 'cars' or 'dishes' or some such)
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Interesting news overnight: HBO Now is now available on Apple devices, effectively presenting as a $US14.99/month on-demand “channel”, no cable account required.
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The legal action taken by these companies has created the perfect flash point.
In return to the deadline given by 5pm Wednesday 15th April, I emailed their legal representation with the request that these companies provide captioning access by that deadline as well.
Once that deadline has passed, I'll be filing a Human Rights Commission complaint as it's a direct threat to the current 100% captioning access that Netflix is offering since none of those companies that's taking legal action against global mode access offer any captioning access at all.
Jonathan, you may want to join in, this is the perfect flash point we need to make changes that will give us all 100% accessibility.
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My take on this.
https://messagesent.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/the-perfect-flashpoint/
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Sacha, in reply to
Thank you, Kim. Has anyone used a human rights angle in NZ courts over access to information before?
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Sacha,
I have previously used that with Victoria in our Human Rights case against the Telecommunications sector to get the provision of a Relay Service established in NZ.
This access needs to be defended at all costs as the threats by these major NZ companies is a serious attack on our basic human rights.
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The threats has caused one ISP to disable their GM service.
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balrob, in reply to
hmmm not really Steve, since this topic isn't about piracy. It's about people who have paid to, for example, watch the US version of Netflix, yet find that technological measures have been deployed to prevent the importation of the video stream. The copyrights owners want the right to divide the global market according to ability to pay and to sell rights accordingly, and have blocked our legal attempt to import the video stream. Who granted them this right? Well, you could say they have the right to sell to whomever they want and similarly I have the right to buy from whomever I want. I made a purchase from Netflix US and paid my money. If I visited the US and bought a DVD would I be prevented from returning to NZ with the DVD because Hollywood thinks I haven't paid enough? The internet has created a single global market for content but the media owners are stuck in the past and are making it hard for people to access content legally ... which I guess brings us to technological circumvention and/a piracy as an inevitability. Nobody will willingly pay more for something than the guy standing next to them based on nothing but where you are standing, or how wealthy you look? I remember having this argument in Egypt when the vendor learned I could read Arabic numbers and I found that the price in English was considerably more than the price in Arabic - why should I pay more? He laughed, and we haggled ... anyway, I don't think I am "entitled" to any product in particular, except those I have paid for, and as an NZer I am very sensitive to attempts to force me to pay more based on the vendor's ability to control the market through technology - since when have we ever had a fair deal? In a manner similar to parallel importing, all NZers should be given the legal right, in NZ, to circumvent any attempt to control the market. Note that I did not say we should be given the right to steal - just to pay no more than anyone else.
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