Are we falling or flying … and will we ever know?

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Posts Tagged ‘hulu’

Roku + Hulu = The Killer App?

November 23rd, 2009

The Roku Channel Store will roll out 10 new (and free, at least for now) channels to users within the next two weeks: Pandora, MotionBox, MediaFly, blip.tv, TWiT.tv, Facebook Photos, Revision3, framechannel, flickr & MobileTribe.

More channels are promised “as they become available.”

Tip for Roku: adding Hulu would be a lot more compelling. How about a January 2010 release for that one? :)

Roku_Netflixplayer

A Netflix Stream in Hand…

… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people’s iPhone minutes package on AT&T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …

Hello, Roku HD…!

When I still had cable tv, I love my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not? Pricing. I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …

Netflix, its Algorithm, My Neighbors, and Me.

I still haven’t quite figured out how Netflix’s business model keeps it profitable - even with a paid subscriber base of 10,000,000, there are a lot of operational costs behind Netflix.com, from software engineering to shipping costs to and from that paid subscriber base; each queued title shipped as a DVD …

Hulu-baloo.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …

Hulu-baloo, Part 2.

I seem to be thinking mostly in images these days, when not thinking in terms of databases… Related content: Help Wanted: Zookeeper with a Good Attitude. Most job postings are dry. Really dry. And – they usually include “must haves” which require skills and/or experience with everything but being able to both plumb AND …

It’s Official: “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos” Team Wins Netflix Prize

Today Netflix Corp. awarded its long-awaited $1M Grand Prize to team “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos,” which consisted of Bob Bell, Martin Chabbert, Michael Jahrer, Yehuda Koren, Martin Piotte, Andreas Töscher and Chris Volinsky. The 3-year crowdsourcing contest motivated self-forming, unpaid volunteer teams to compete for one $1 million dollar prize by creating an …

Tags: flickr, iphone, viewership, customer experience, subscriber base

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Posted in Every Day Life, Fun, Innovation, Leadership, Pop Culture, Technology, Think Green, free

Tags: algorithm blip tv comcast customer experience flickr hulu instant watch iphone killer app million viewers motionbox netflix netflix prize pragmatic chaos siegler silicon alley subscriber base techcrunch time warner cable tivo 2 viewership

Some Broadcasters Doth Protest Too Much.

September 25th, 2009

Change is certain, progress isn’t as internet media business models morph by the second in the never ending search for profitability.

Yesterday Erick Schonfeld posted an interesting article on TechCrunch, Leaked Email: Quincy Smith Of CBS Wants To Counter “Reckless Hulu Streams,” which included a Contentinople piece quoting members of a recent Advertising Week discussion panel, who disparaged Hulu.com for giving away premium content.

Smith, CEO of CBS Interactive, confirmed the leaked email is real. What remains to be seen is which entities’ business model succeeds, and which is based on product envy…

Read the full post here.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.“ - William Shakespeare (1564 –1616), Hamlet Act 3, scene 2, 222–230

So Many DVDs, So Little Time.

September 23rd, 2009

A former postal service employee recently pleaded guilty to stealing during a one year time frame more than 30,000 DVDs shipped through a western Massachusetts post office.

Federal prosecutors say Netflix alerted local postal officials up to 100 movies routed through that post office mysteriously disappeared each week. Investigators then filmed the mail handler taking DVDs from packages and slipping them into his backpack.

That’s a lot of entertainment.

netflix-1

Netflix only ships dvds in a Netflix-created dvd jacket inside their ubiquitous red envelopes, it would be very difficult to sell stolen dvds in that packaging.

Conservatively assuming each dvd contained 1.5 hours of viewing content, 30,000 * 1.5 = 45,000 hours; while there are only 8, 760 hours in a year (365 days * 24 hours=8,760 hours). Minus the approximately 2,000 hours the mail handler would have been at work, sans dvd player, and deducting another 9 hours a day for sleeping, commuting to work, etc., at best he would have had 3,475 hours to view dvds.

The former mail handler will be sentenced Dec. 23, 2009, and faces 10 months to 16 months in prison and restitution costs of about $38,000. After factoring in former employee’s “lost wages,” of approximately $52,000 (determined using Glass Door’s estimated annual salary for mail handlers), those 30,000 dvds were valued at under $5 each.

I hope that individual has access to a dvd player while serving his sentence; using the figures above, viewing all 30,000 stolen dvds will take approximately 12 years.

On the other hand – $100,000 in fines and lost wages/$27 per month for Netflix‘ 4 dvds at a time and unlimited instant watch membership = 3703 months, or 308 YEARS of dvd/blu-ray access.

I’m just saying…

“If my film makes one more person miserable, I’ve done my job.”

- Woody Allen (American Actor, Author, Screenwriter and Film Director, b.1935)

Hulu-baloo.

September 7th, 2009

According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million.

That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences:

SilliconAlleyInsiderHuluComp

While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ levels of profitability; the average Hulu viewer spent approximately 1.25 hours a month on the site, while a typical viewer of cable tv was tuned in for significantly more frequent, and also longer periods of time; and ad revenue is based on both frequency and reach.

Having canceled my cable tv subscription, I now rely on Hulu to keep up with those tv shows (plus some movies) I used to watch via cable.

Besides being able to view those programs on demand, I also appreciate each program I watch via Hulu airs with maybe 4 15-second ads, and not 16 ad filled minutes per program when broadcast over the air, or via cable.

Hopefully HBO will soon include “True Blood,” “Big Love,” and the “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” in Hulu’s offerings, or offer consumers a direct subscription to watch those shows on HBO.com.

If/when that happens, I won’t miss cable tv at all.

Dead Like Me.

September 2nd, 2009

I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….).

Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is really nice – and so far has resulted in a new mini-addiction for me – Dead Like Me – which originally ran on Showtime during 2003/2004.

Besides being mostly available via Netflix’s instant watch offering, all episodes are available here via Hulu, for free.

dead-like-me

Watch it – or rewatch it. It takes a slightly twisted often funny, and frequently bitingly accurate look at life and at one possible version of life in the after life.

Intriguing thoughts and quotes from the series:

George: We lead our lives, and when they end, sometimes we leave a little of ourselves behind. Sometimes we leave money, a painting, sometimes we leave a kind word. And sometimes, we leave an empty space.

George: I don’t want to fit in, I just don’t want to stand out.

George: So… my whole life, everything… All I get to keep are thoughts and memories?

Rube: That’s all we ever have, Peanut.

George: [voiceover] Maybe death was the temp job, and life was the vacation. A vacation you were supposed to spend with the people that you loved… with the people who loved you, and if life was that kind of vacation, what then? What would your last thoughts be then?

George: [voiceover] There are things inside you that no one wants to face. Things that you keep secret, even from yourself. But secrets are funny. The things you try to hide always turn out to be the things you can’t forget.

Daisy Adair: I gave up on forever, doesn’t last.

Even better:

What if death is not the end?

What if it is not even an escape from the issues that plagued us?

Tags: kind word, intriguing thoughts, free, hulu, voiceover

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Posted in Every Day Life, Fun, Pop Culture, Technology, Words to Live By, free

Tags: adair dead like me empty space free george i hulu intriguing thoughts kind word last thoughts life look at life ncis netflix quotes rube temp job voiceover white noise withdrawal symptoms

Rescue Me

July 27th, 2009

Each economic downturn brings some cultural shift or change; during this one I realized I’d pretty much given up on network TV.

I’ve never watched even one “Survivor,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “American Idol” or “The Apprentice.” I’m going to keep it that way.

Other than some of the original series on cable networks FX, TNT, USA, and HBO, I really don’t miss regular – or the extended digital cable package -Tv. Chris Anderson is right – $0.00 really is the future of business.

After all – the FX, TNT and USA series I like – The Closer, Burn Notice, Monk, Pysch, and Rescue Me are available on Hulu and/or Boxee -and both are $0.00. I’m also a big fan of several of HBO’s original programming – Big Love, True Blood, and No. 1 Ladie’s Detective Agency (which is actually the BBC’s original content); but I can rent those from Netflix under my existing eco-friendly monthly online and mailed dvd subscription.

At least the cable networks have realized it’s better for their original series to have short seasons with new episodes, then slot them so at least one series starts its season as soon as another of the network’s series airs its season fnale. Besides adding some interest for the viewer, it no doubt keeps the paid subscriber base fairly stable. I deliberately waited until after No.1 Ladies Detective Agency completed its six episode first season run before canceling my digital cable subscriber package.

Similar to the auto manufacturers, broadcast networks loudly struggle to identify new business models which both draw viewers and are profitable, too.

In fact, Hulu is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners, although operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Beijing; its full disclosure about its corporate culture is both noteworthy and commendable – although I’m relieved they don’t currently have an office in Seattle; we have plenty of existing corporate culture challenges to work | life balance.

Note to Hulu (and with special thanks to Gerry Mooney):

Diminishing returns. It’s not just a good theory. It’s a LAW.

I’ve given up TV before and spent more time with friends, family, and pets; working out; reading; and quilting. And yet – once in a while a new TV series turns up which draws me back in…

“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” - John W. Gardner

Related Content:

Free is Not Always Free.

So – the featured speaker at the July 2009 Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s speaker at this month’s “Author Speaker Breakfast” is Chris Anderson, author of FREE: The Future of a Radical Price: FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson the bestselling author of the The Long Tail In his revolutionary …

Free is Sometimes Free: The Future of a Radical Price

For those not able to make the Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast tomorrow, featuring Chris Anderson talking about his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, his presentation at Wired’s “Disruptive Business Conference” is available online, for free: Related content: Free is Not Always Free. So – the featured speaker at …