hoc opus

Today, MediaPost provided news from E-Poll, an online market research/polling company focused on entertainment, that

"when asked which pricing model they would prefer for an ideal VOD service, more than 75 percent of respondents opted for "free"--meaning no monthly subscription fee and no per-show fee."

Brilliant, and clearly timely, E-Poll went on to highlight the good news that "the same proportion of respondents said they would accept a 60-second pre-roll commercial if it meant VOD were free."

Taken in tandem with statistics from Leichtman Research - providing actionable research on broadband, media and entertainment - on MultiChannelNews that less than 20% of those surveyed would utilize only VOD or DVRs, that 65% of digital-cable customers have used VOD., and backing up today's research, that only 16% of current VOD users would be very likely to pay $0.99 to watch a program on demand.

Add in Comcast's announcement that it is implementing technology to insert "fresh" ads into VOD streams and it becomes clear that DVD dollar levels for VOD programming are a bit off, excepting cash picked up from iTunes videocasts. So, take that revenue out of your business plan for Revenge of the Scary Thing IV.

Posted by Marc at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Former Disney unit MovieBeam, with a service that allows customers to rent movies from a library of 100 titles stored in a set-top box, has been restarted with $48.5 million in fresh cash from Disney, Intel, Cisco and Mayfield Fund and Norwest Venture Partners, two venture capital funds. The newly independent company carries with it the distribution agreements that it has with all major studios excepting Sony -- which, while in discussions with MovieBeam, according to Variety, "is likely holding back content for its own video-on-demand service Connect, set to add movies in March." One should note, though, the recent reorganization of the currently-music-download-only-service and its uphill fight against Apple's iPod and iTunes Music Store combo, as reported on ZDNet News

Details about the service from Variety highlight Disney's demonstrated commitment to collapsing the distribution windows to a what-you-want-when-you-want-it-where-you-want-it model:

Most films will be available in the video-on-demand window, which typically comes 30 days after homevideo. But in a deal that's the first of its kind, MovieBeam will have films from Disney the same day they hit homevideo, with an option to watch in high-definition.

While there will no doubt be atremendous amount of press devoted to whether there is a demand for another box on the TV with limited content (access is only to movies that have been downloaded), the kicker is how the films are delivered in the initial twenty-seven (27) markets: piggybacked on PBS airwaves.

The LA Times also notes that "other experiments with video on demand, such as MovieLink and CinemaNow, have failed to catch on with customers. Adams Media Research estimates that Internet movie rental services reaped only $17 million in revenue last year."

This is another setback for NetFlix, which announced a delay in launching its own VOD service back in October, when "Reed Hastings, the company's chief executive, told analysts on a conference call that the costs of licensing content for a download service would be prohibitive in the current climate." (see MarketWatch)

Posted by Marc at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)