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Video-on-Demand Success in France Deters Piracy

Posted by Zonk on from the just-give-humanity-options-we're-really-not-that-bad dept.

njondet writes "The Hollywood Reporter reports that TF1, the French broadcaster of the hit TV show 'Heroes' has welcomed the success of its video-on-demand (VOD) offering. The service allows French internet users to watch episodes of the second season of Heroes just 24 hours after their original US broadcast. With more than 50,000 paid viewings of the first episode in three days, it is by far the most successful VOD product in France. And although these figures still pale in comparison with the estimated 1.5 million illegal downloads per episode for the first season in France, TF1 is confident that it is building a viable alternative to piracy."

9 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. When can I get this? by gbutler69 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is something I would pay for.

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  2. hm by Zironic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With 24 hours after the US episodes they're probably 23 hours behind the pirates.

    1. Re:hm by heinousjay · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The biggest reason for pirating movies is the inconvenience of the legal alternatives.

      Bullshit. If it was about convenience, people wouldn't be downloading video recorded copies of in-theater movies with an "audience-enhanced" soundtrack. They'd just go to the theater. People don't want to pay.

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  3. It's simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cheap/easy beats free/hard (for most people).

  4. Finally, somebody's using their head about this by Whuffo · · Score: 4, Insightful
    In spite of what many say, searching out and downloading videos is not exactly easy or convenient. And the quality of the downloaded video may be anything from great to awful; you won't know until after you've spent hours / days downloading that huge file.

    But people do this - and often it's not because they're cheap, it's because it's the only way they can watch a TV show or movie. When there's no "legal" option for seeing a highly rated show that's not available in your country then the only way that people can see it is to do the pirate thing.

    If the media companies would make these products easy to download at a reasonable price they'd tap into a profitable new market. This French "experiment" shows how well; the number of paying users may be dwarfed by the number of pirated copies - but that many paying users signing up this quickly is impressive.

  5. The success will not last... by neonux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not at the current price of 3 euros (4.2 US$) by episode !!
    Let's say the whole season has 24 episodes, it costs 72 euros (101 US$) for viewing the whole season through this system! More or less twice the price than a DVD boxset, but here you download only DRM-emcumbered files that you are allowed to play FOR JUST 48 HOURS [then you have to repay].

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    @neonux
  6. Have a "per season" price with free DVD by davidwr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For a good show, I'd pay a few bucks an episode or $SEASON_DVD_PRICE per season, whichever is less. I'd want it within a few days of the original airing.

    If I paid for the season, I'd expect a coupon that would let me buy the DVD for the cost of manufacturing and shipping.

    I know of people who pirate British and Japanese stuff because they can't get it in America. If they could get it, they wouldn't pirate.

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    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  7. Where's my honorary MBA? by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I actually figured this out a while ago.

    1.5 million people jump through hoops to get unauthorized copies of something they can't get any other way. What do you do?

    You start selling it to them legitimately. It's genius. It's so brilliant it's diabolical. The people will never see it coming.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  8. Greed by Bo'Bob'O · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have said it before, and will say it again. If companies had got on the ball from the beginning, taken care of licensing concerns and charged REASONABLE rates for VOD ( nothing I have seen so far has led me to believe that every pair of eyeballs is really pulling in $2-4 in advertising revenue) they wouldn't be looking at a fraction of the piracy they see right now.

    Maybe instead of those trailers that talk about how the men and women working on films are getting put out of work by pirates, they should start talking about how many are put out of work by GREED. They have really messed things up by only looking at technological progress as a way to extract even more money from consumers, rather then the boon for both it should have been.