Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren and today we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about streaming video services, and really we're going
Speaker 1: to focus on three big names in streaming video, knowing
Speaker 1: that there are lots of other names out there, but
Speaker 1: the three were specifically looking at. The three biggest as
Speaker 1: of right now are really kind of sort of maybe
Speaker 1: ish are Hulu plus Amazon Instant and Netflix, And keeping
Speaker 1: in mind, will also talk a little bit about Hulu,
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit about probably mentioned some of
Speaker 1: the other services like iTunes obviously also has streaming and
Speaker 1: Apple TV right, and there's so many different choices out there,
Speaker 1: these were the big three. I mean, obviously if you
Speaker 1: own something like um an Xbox three sixty, then you
Speaker 1: also have stuff the Microsoft Video that you can buy
Speaker 1: stuff or rent stuff on. Then there's also PlayStation and
Speaker 1: Sony have a deal. So the Google TV is another example.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of different technologies out there that
Speaker 1: are all about streaming content over the Internet in your
Speaker 1: television or computer. Even YouTube. You could argue, is is
Speaker 1: that content provider? Oh sure, sure, I can. I view
Speaker 1: YouTube all the time when I'm at home. There's this
Speaker 1: great series I love to watch at home on my
Speaker 1: big television. It's called Forward Thinking. It is amazing. The
Speaker 1: host is uber uber Hut and so I watched that
Speaker 1: all the time at home on my big television and
Speaker 1: it's great. I mean, you know, it is filmed with
Speaker 1: the red one, So so the I mean, yeah, actually
Speaker 1: we upgraded to a four kN K to four K.
Speaker 1: I mean they went from two K to four K.
Speaker 1: So they're like, we said, a lot of different choices
Speaker 1: out there, but let's focus on probably the I would
Speaker 1: argue this is probably the most well known name. And
Speaker 1: in the interest of full Disco, sure, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about Netflix. And Netflix has been one of our
Speaker 1: sponsors in the past. They are one of our sponsors
Speaker 1: for tech stuff. But we're just going to talk about
Speaker 1: the way that it works and how it kind of started.
Speaker 1: So if you look all the way back to nineteen seven,
Speaker 1: that's when the company Netflix formed, and at that time
Speaker 1: it was just kind of an idea. It hadn't even
Speaker 1: there wasn't a business there yet. That was really kind
Speaker 1: of the paperwork. So it was on paper. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be until nine that they actually launched a subscription DVD
Speaker 1: mail to home plan plan. Yeah, they were offering up
Speaker 1: rentals and sales, and but it was when the famous
Speaker 1: subscription service came in, that idea where you would make
Speaker 1: up a list of DVDs that you were really excited
Speaker 1: about seeing, and then they would send you one and
Speaker 1: it would sell on your coffee table for four months,
Speaker 1: and then you'd think, I never really got around to
Speaker 1: watching that, but I want to see the next thing
Speaker 1: on my list, and you send it back without ever watching.
Speaker 1: It was that just me, okay, good, I'm glad it
Speaker 1: wasn't as me, um, I swear I'm going to see
Speaker 1: the Prestige one day. Oh you should. I know, it's
Speaker 1: a terrific film. It sat on my coffee table for
Speaker 1: four months and that's it. That's it. That's a shame,
Speaker 1: I know, I know. But anyway, they were strictly physical
Speaker 1: media at first. In fact, for most of their their
Speaker 1: existence if you look at the full timeline. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: didn't even debut their watch instantly feature until two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: and they did not provide unlimited streaming content until early
Speaker 1: two tho Yeah, and two thousand seven, it was incredibly
Speaker 1: limited and even two thousand eight when you look at
Speaker 1: h This is one of those criticisms that are that
Speaker 1: is often leveled by by people at Netflix, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, I look at what you have available on
Speaker 1: your DVD list, and then I look at what you
Speaker 1: have available on your instant library list, and y'all, there's
Speaker 1: stuff I want to watch that just like I can't
Speaker 1: see on that instant side. And this is because there
Speaker 1: are some really complex deals going on in the back
Speaker 1: end between Netflix, which as a service provider, and the
Speaker 1: content creators that make the content to Netflix. So Netflix
Speaker 1: has to create and this is the same with other
Speaker 1: services as well. They have to enter into these agreements
Speaker 1: with various content creators to be able to broadcast stuff
Speaker 1: over streaming, the same way that a cable channel would
Speaker 1: license to content. Right now, in the case with the
Speaker 1: cable company, a very similar anyway, very similar in the
Speaker 1: case with the cable companies, they're looking at channels or
Speaker 1: bundles of channels. So but with you know, with Netflix,
Speaker 1: it might be it might be a little more pick
Speaker 1: and choose. So instead of saying I want everything that
Speaker 1: MTV produces when it comes to their original content. I
Speaker 1: want every single show. It may be that I want
Speaker 1: these five shows that MTV produces, but that's the only
Speaker 1: five and the and in this case, those agreements can
Speaker 1: go through the instead of a cable company, where it's
Speaker 1: kind of an all or nothing proposition. UM services like
Speaker 1: Netflix can enter into these agreements where they get certain
Speaker 1: things but not other things. And in some cases it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily uh to the benefit of Netflix. It might
Speaker 1: be the key that the content creator says, you know,
Speaker 1: this is my best stuff, and I want to make
Speaker 1: uh my money going through the traditional broadcast or cable
Speaker 1: route and then make more money through DVD sales whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't want to provide this to your subscribers. So
Speaker 1: it's a very complicated dance that Netflix has to do
Speaker 1: every time it's trying to get more content, and obviously,
Speaker 1: from a consumer standpoint, you want there to be as
Speaker 1: much content in whichever service you are subscribing to. Also,
Speaker 1: to make matters even more complicated, there are issues about
Speaker 1: what kind of content can be shown where So in
Speaker 1: other words, if I'm a Netflix customer in Canada, the
Speaker 1: options I have are different than the ones I would
Speaker 1: have in the United states. If I were a customer
Speaker 1: somewhere else in the world, and I would have that
Speaker 1: same sort of issue, right. And that's again because all
Speaker 1: of these licensing agreements are are very conditional. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of them are conditionally regionally. Some of them are conditional
Speaker 1: based upon the type of equipment you're using to watch
Speaker 1: something on. Right. I don't think Netflix has that issue
Speaker 1: as much, but we will, but we will get into
Speaker 1: that with some of our other discussions. Um. As often,
Speaker 1: there are about twenty nine point eight million Netflix subscribers
Speaker 1: in the US and another seven point six million worldwide, um,
Speaker 1: which is which is up from twenty million at the
Speaker 1: start of so and so. And you know, to another
Speaker 1: judge of another way to judge how popular they are
Speaker 1: based upon not just from a subscriber account, is how
Speaker 1: much traffic Netflix generates on the interwebs, right, Um, supposedly
Speaker 1: Netflix accounts for one third of streaming video on any
Speaker 1: given day. Um. That's that's twice what YouTube does. Yah.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind YouTube, Now, YouTube is generating content
Speaker 1: at a crazy pace. We've talked about this. It's like
Speaker 1: a hundred hours of content every minute. So every minute
Speaker 1: that goes by another hundred hours worth of content gets
Speaker 1: added to YouTube, but if you're looking at actual traffic
Speaker 1: of people watching stuff, Netflix outstrips at three to one.
Speaker 1: Now that might also be because a lot of the
Speaker 1: content on Netflix is long form and a lot of
Speaker 1: the content on YouTube is very short form, and Netflix
Speaker 1: provides a lot more in HD. Yes, that's also true.
Speaker 1: So uh. In other words, those file sizes are are
Speaker 1: bigger for multiple reasons, not only because they are longer,
Speaker 1: as in they last longer, like it's a thirty minute
Speaker 1: show or twenty minute, but it's a larger file to
Speaker 1: begin like exactly. Um as of November twelve, this accounted
Speaker 1: for about a third of all US downstream traffic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is uh. It's also why a lot of Internet
Speaker 1: provider companies i sp s are staying to talk about caps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where they were, like especially initially when Netflix Instant was
Speaker 1: starting off. Now, back then, there weren't as many customers
Speaker 1: who were taking advantage of it. I would say that
Speaker 1: this is something that's really starting to explode. Over the
Speaker 1: last like maybe a year or two, we've really seen
Speaker 1: it like take off. Before that, there were early adopters
Speaker 1: who were very enthusiastic about it, and then there were
Speaker 1: a few other people who were curious about it, and
Speaker 1: some people had it, you know, added on as part
Speaker 1: of their DVD service, and so they played with it
Speaker 1: once or twice. Um now that one. I think. One
Speaker 1: of the things Netflix did that they did really well
Speaker 1: was they got their app on as many different platforms
Speaker 1: as possible. It's one of the things I thought, this company,
Speaker 1: they know what they're doing. They're on Xbox there on,
Speaker 1: you know, PlayStation there on, we they're on you know, computers,
Speaker 1: stay out, telephone and tablet use yeah, so smartphone anyway, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they like to call up and listen to my
Speaker 1: favorite movies. Um No, they really were very savvy. They
Speaker 1: got in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and
Speaker 1: that definitely helped a lot. Now, I haven't always been
Speaker 1: incredibly savvy. Back in back, you guys might remember, there
Speaker 1: was the entire Quickster debacle and Netflix was just going
Speaker 1: to become streaming only in a new company called Quickster
Speaker 1: would be all the DVDs, and and that was after
Speaker 1: another controversial thing where where they were um planning on
Speaker 1: on splitting the DVD and streaming plans with like a
Speaker 1: fifty over price Hike to to get both of them, um,
Speaker 1: which was still I mean, because it had originally been
Speaker 1: like ten bucks a month and it was going up
Speaker 1: to like sixteen month bucks a month if you were
Speaker 1: going to have both DVDs and streaming, and that one
Speaker 1: they did push through. It almost makes me think that
Speaker 1: they were joking about Quickster in order to make the
Speaker 1: other things sound. I remember seeing Facebook explode when this happened,
Speaker 1: and Twitch exploded to I had friends who were immediately
Speaker 1: and vociferously proclaiming that they would leave Netflix, never to
Speaker 1: return wherever, and burn the villages behind them, and so
Speaker 1: the ground was salt, whereas I was the like, guys,
Speaker 1: I think you might be overreacting like that sounds like
Speaker 1: six dollars, but I mean, but stock fell from over
Speaker 1: three hundred bucks to share to two under a hundred
Speaker 1: and Read Hastings, the CEO, the founder of Netflix, apologized
Speaker 1: publicly for it. He you know, this is not something
Speaker 1: that happens very frequently where you have a CEO offer
Speaker 1: up an apology. I mean Tim Cook did for Apple.
Speaker 1: That's like the only other one I can think of
Speaker 1: off the top of my head. So, um, you've had
Speaker 1: you know, we've of course seen stories about CEO is
Speaker 1: admitting that certain products in the company's past was were
Speaker 1: possibly a mistake or badly handled. But this was an
Speaker 1: outright apology to the public saying, you know, guys, um
Speaker 1: I was thinking it was a great idea. I clearly
Speaker 1: you guys feel differently. We are not going to do it,
Speaker 1: so don't worry. Yeah, but that was that was a
Speaker 1: big strike against Netflix at that point when they tried
Speaker 1: to do the whole Netflix Quickster thing. Now, Netflix has
Speaker 1: made some pretty big deals. Not all of them are
Speaker 1: ex usive deals. I should say, we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about some of the deals that they've made with various
Speaker 1: content creators so that they can be allowed to show
Speaker 1: certain types of content on their channels or on their service.
Speaker 1: I should say, Uh. One of them, which was announced
Speaker 1: the day that we are or I think two days
Speaker 1: before we actually record this podcast, is an exclusive deal,
Speaker 1: and that is that Netflix and the Weinstein Company or
Speaker 1: Weinstein Company, depending on how you want to pronounce it,
Speaker 1: announced that they are going to enter a multi year
Speaker 1: premium pay TV window agreement in the United States starting
Speaker 1: in TWI and that Netflix will become the quote exclusive
Speaker 1: US subscription television service for first run films from the
Speaker 1: Weinstein Company end quote. So this would include movies made
Speaker 1: under TWC, the Weinstein Company and also Dimension Films, and
Speaker 1: that would become available to Netflix members who are subscribed
Speaker 1: to Netflix. So the interesting thing here to me is that, uh,
Speaker 1: it is exclusive. That means you're not going to find
Speaker 1: these same titles on the other services. Will be talking
Speaker 1: about a little bit later. Uh. Now that's not the
Speaker 1: only deal they've made recently. They made a big deal
Speaker 1: with Disney. Yeah, so that agreement starts in seventeen. We're
Speaker 1: talking long term goals here, folks. Now you might notice
Speaker 1: that there are some Disney titles right, which was part
Speaker 1: of this deal as well, but the larger percentage of
Speaker 1: Disney films will be available beginning in twenty seventeen. Again
Speaker 1: not necessarily exclusive, but they will be available on Netflix
Speaker 1: and again depending upon where you are because these the
Speaker 1: regional rules still are in effect here. Then you also
Speaker 1: have the deal Netflix made with DreamWorks. Now, that agreement
Speaker 1: begins inteen, so that's a little earlier, and we I
Speaker 1: have already seen some Dreamwork stuff available there too, but
Speaker 1: it's all kind of like they're second or third tier titles,
Speaker 1: I would say, or sequel stiff movies that I like.
Speaker 1: I would touch this, but I haven't seen the first
Speaker 1: one and it's not available. Um, I'll have to wait
Speaker 1: till I suppose or get a DVD subscription. Now you're
Speaker 1: just talking crazy talk, all right. So Netflix, of course
Speaker 1: is not the only one to make these deals, whether
Speaker 1: they're exclusive or not, in order to get content. That's
Speaker 1: kind of how the game is played, right sure. Sure,
Speaker 1: And and and a lot of it is is kind of
Speaker 1: being continually mixed up between these top three companies. There's
Speaker 1: there's like, for example, I think Amazon just stole Downton
Speaker 1: Abbey out from under Netflix. Um yeah, but like and
Speaker 1: I think, for example, a Netflix had a deal with
Speaker 1: Viacom for a while and then they're letting the deal
Speaker 1: expire and they're not planning on renewing it. But other
Speaker 1: services are going to definitely work with Viacom, so it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna change over time. But there's something else that
Speaker 1: all these companies are doing too, right, Yeah, And and
Speaker 1: this is something that no one else certainly will have,
Speaker 1: and that is Netflix's original content. Yeah, um, this is
Speaker 1: and this is kind of a big deal because you know,
Speaker 1: up until up until um none of these streaming service
Speaker 1: on demand companies were creating their own new stuff. Right.
Speaker 1: They were, they were a pipe, but they weren't creating
Speaker 1: any of the stuff that was in the pipe. They
Speaker 1: were just giving access to it. Um But but as
Speaker 1: of February twelve, they they offered a show called Lily Hammer,
Speaker 1: which was a co production with a Norwegian producer and
Speaker 1: not that many people in the United States have probably
Speaker 1: even heard of it, and it was pretty big in Norway.
Speaker 1: But House of Cards came out. I don't have a
Speaker 1: date on that, no, but well, House of Cards came
Speaker 1: out I think either. I think House of Cards came
Speaker 1: out late. And that was the first um us kind
Speaker 1: of I'm not gonna say blockbuster, but um but but
Speaker 1: the first popular original show. Right. And keep in mind
Speaker 1: this was a remake of a show that was made
Speaker 1: in the UK, but the US version had Kevin Spacey
Speaker 1: in the lead role and that was a big which
Speaker 1: is a big ya You're talking about an award winning
Speaker 1: film actor playing a part in a series that was
Speaker 1: doing something really friend. Now, what Netflix was doing was
Speaker 1: not just producing this series, which would have been remarkable
Speaker 1: all on its own, and then giving the exclusive look
Speaker 1: at the series to its members. You could not watch
Speaker 1: it anywhere else other than if you were to maybe
Speaker 1: buy the DVD set, which you can do. But they
Speaker 1: also offered up the entire series at one time, so
Speaker 1: instead of telling you do you can just you know,
Speaker 1: crunch through the entire series a day or two if
Speaker 1: you want to just marathon it, you totally could because
Speaker 1: the first season of it anyway, Yeah, first season of it.
Speaker 1: So this was a big difference from the way we
Speaker 1: usually because normally it's talking about something that's on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, it might be serialized. Yeah. So Kevin Spacey
Speaker 1: actually had something to say about this. I've got a
Speaker 1: quote from him. He says, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Kevin Spacey, uh so much. Yeah, by the way, fantastic
Speaker 1: impressionist Kevin Spacey. Anyway, So here's what he had to say. Clearly,
Speaker 1: the success of the Netflix model releasing the entire season
Speaker 1: of House of Cards it once proved one thing. The
Speaker 1: audience wants the control, they want the freedom. If they
Speaker 1: want to binge, as they've been doing on House of
Speaker 1: Cards and lots of other shows, then we should let
Speaker 1: them binge. I can't tell you how many people have
Speaker 1: stopped me on the street and said thanks, you suck
Speaker 1: three days out of my life. So but I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's an example of how this model worked. And
Speaker 1: they followed that up with other examples like Arrested Development
Speaker 1: season four YEP, which, by the way, I'm marathon when
Speaker 1: it came out, Hemlock Groves, which I did not watch.
Speaker 1: I have not watched any of that either, or in
Speaker 1: Just The New Black, which I am currently I am
Speaker 1: only not watching it right now because I don't even
Speaker 1: know why. I'm surprised that I don't have it on
Speaker 1: in the background. I just started watching it last night.
Speaker 1: It's so good, guys. I've heard so many people tell
Speaker 1: me that's really really good. I have not. I have
Speaker 1: not started to watch it, but I've heard enough good
Speaker 1: things about it that I'm I'm willing to give it
Speaker 1: a shot. It is it is for mature audiences, or
Speaker 1: for immature mature audiences, her, however you want to state
Speaker 1: that not for kids, right? Not for kids. Let's let's
Speaker 1: put it that way, because I am not mature, and
Speaker 1: I thought you were just telling me that I couldn't
Speaker 1: watch the show. Um uh, They've got upcoming shows from
Speaker 1: from mickeyger Vas, Derek Um and since h from no
Speaker 1: Wachowski siblings the Wakakis. Yeah, excellent. So you know that's
Speaker 1: that's a big deal that this idea not only getting
Speaker 1: these exclusive deals from other content creators, but to create
Speaker 1: your own content. They're getting into this game. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: interesting also because the way Netflix generates revenue is through subscriptions, right,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't have ads in their shows and uh,
Speaker 1: and we'll contrast that with some of the other stuff
Speaker 1: that we'll talk about in a little bit. So there
Speaker 1: are no ads and they're getting it mainly through subscriptions.
Speaker 1: And from what I can tell, Netflix does not really
Speaker 1: let anyone know how many people are watching any given
Speaker 1: title necessarily unless it's say a huge deal and they'll say,
Speaker 1: like over x million people watch this one thing right
Speaker 1: there there, They're being pretty pretty under wraps about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that leads you to wonder is the content creation
Speaker 1: business working for Netflix? Is that is that adding to
Speaker 1: their bottom line? Are they getting more subscribers because of it?
Speaker 1: I think that's what they're trying to figure out right now. Um,
Speaker 1: you know they I I read something that said that
Speaker 1: they could they can see themselves um doubling their current
Speaker 1: content output UM in in the next couple of years
Speaker 1: and even going up to twenty pretty soon. And they're
Speaker 1: looking to get into a documentary production and stand up specials,
Speaker 1: even even which are Spanish soaps. Hodgeman's ragnar Rock was
Speaker 1: a Netflix exclusive, right, yeah, yeah, it was creative for them.
Speaker 1: They're they're being compared to to HBO, Showtime, AMC, these
Speaker 1: big cable heavy hitters um and uh. Ted Serrandos, the
Speaker 1: chief content officer, told g Q in February, the goal
Speaker 1: is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. That's a really good point because of course
Speaker 1: HBO does have its own Hbo Go service, but you
Speaker 1: have to be a subscriber through cable package in order
Speaker 1: to access it. Yeah, you have to be a double subscriber, right,
Speaker 1: you have to subscribe to cable and you have to
Speaker 1: have a cable subscription that includes HBO in the first
Speaker 1: place before you can have excess HBO Go. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's really interesting. I mean, you know, the production process.
Speaker 1: These shows are going from pitch to series with no
Speaker 1: pilots in advance, UM, which is allowing Netflix to put
Speaker 1: money into projects that they really believe in, rather than
Speaker 1: playing the odds game of throwing up a single expensive
Speaker 1: episode to see whether or not people like it. They
Speaker 1: can they can really curate what they're putting out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. And also because they don't have to sell
Speaker 1: it against ads, they don't have to worry about not
Speaker 1: getting support from from ad from different other companies, for example,
Speaker 1: for a show about women in prison that has a
Speaker 1: largely female cast and deals with a lot of gender
Speaker 1: issues as something that you probably wouldn't see on a
Speaker 1: lot of traditional cable companies. So um and and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's paying off in terms of critical acclaim. They
Speaker 1: just got fourteen Emmy nominations for Original con tent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's, by the way, we should point out that
Speaker 1: the this year, this is the first time we're starting
Speaker 1: to see Emmy nominations for the series for for streaming
Speaker 1: video for something that was not created by cable or broadcast.
Speaker 1: So that's also very interesting. But but so we've got
Speaker 1: two other companies to talk about. But before we do so,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright,
Speaker 1: so we've covered Netflix from beginning to end thoroughly. I
Speaker 1: think let's, uh, let's move on to a different one.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Hulu and Hulu Plus. All right, So,
Speaker 1: um so, Hulu period and not. Hulu Plus launched in
Speaker 1: two thousand eight. It was it was a joint effort
Speaker 1: from NBC Universal and at that point News Corporation, you know,
Speaker 1: Murdox Fox, Fox Corporation, UM, which which was interesting in
Speaker 1: and of itself that these two major cable cable providers
Speaker 1: were playing nice, We're joining forces to create something interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't know you watched those Alec ball win spots
Speaker 1: where he would he was convincing everyone that who was
Speaker 1: really just a front for aliens to take over, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, how is this supposed to sell me on watching?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm going to because now I got to
Speaker 1: find out what happens in these commercials. But right right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know the commercials with him and Eliza Dick Shoo
Speaker 1: did those are great. Hulu Plus launched in and that
Speaker 1: was the subscription based end. Now, what's one thing that
Speaker 1: says the Hulu and Hulu Plus apart from Netflix is
Speaker 1: unlike Netflix, Hulu content is ad supported right right, UM.
Speaker 1: And the deals that they make with the content providers UM.
Speaker 1: Some of them are for for a straight licensing fee,
Speaker 1: some of them are strictly ad revenue based, and some
Speaker 1: of them are kind of a sticky gray area. Yes,
Speaker 1: this gets super complicated just in one example here. So
Speaker 1: you've got you've got shows that are to have ad
Speaker 1: breaks in them, whether it's in the subscription one or
Speaker 1: just the free version of the Hulu one. I believe
Speaker 1: that all content has ads in it. Whether or not
Speaker 1: the content creator gets a share of the ads is
Speaker 1: the question. Got So that's that's very That's that's very
Speaker 1: interesting all on its own. And then uh, on top
Speaker 1: of that, you know, you have deals with content creators
Speaker 1: that are different than the ones from the other two.
Speaker 1: Like there there they have access to some content that
Speaker 1: the other companies do not have access to. Sure and
Speaker 1: and Hulu is UM if you're unfamiliar with the service,
Speaker 1: is UM as opposed to Netflix, which has prior seasons
Speaker 1: that have perhaps gone to DVD as an analog or
Speaker 1: UM or films. Hulu does have a category of films,
Speaker 1: but is I think most of its traffic is from
Speaker 1: currently airing seasons of television either either the entire current
Speaker 1: season to date or maybe the past five episodes, depending
Speaker 1: on what again, what the licensing con So. So, for example,
Speaker 1: a typical television show in the United States that also
Speaker 1: is carried on Hulu, the a couple of days after
Speaker 1: it airs on television, that episode could become available on
Speaker 1: Hulu and you might be able to watch as many
Speaker 1: as the last five for a lot of them. Right,
Speaker 1: So let's say that I'm following, you know, ex television
Speaker 1: show and I missed the last two episodes because I
Speaker 1: was out of town. I could go on Hulu and
Speaker 1: catch up and and what and you know, be back
Speaker 1: up to speak. Or if you don't have a catal
Speaker 1: subscription at all, and you could just watch it that
Speaker 1: way and just tell all your friends to not talk
Speaker 1: about the show for a couple of days so that
Speaker 1: it gives you a chance to catch up. Um, and
Speaker 1: if your friends are like mine, they will be happy
Speaker 1: to post lots of fake spoilers on your Facebook, the
Speaker 1: stuff that never happens, but that's okay. So but also
Speaker 1: like Netflix, and besides that these deals that are being
Speaker 1: made for content, Hulu is also in the content creation
Speaker 1: business as well as uh, you know, we can talk
Speaker 1: about some of the exclusives and some of the originals
Speaker 1: as well. I guess some of the exclusives they have
Speaker 1: all other exclusives are from other countries. Right, Almost five,
Speaker 1: five or six percent of It's content are these exclusive
Speaker 1: international television shows UM for example, Misfits or prem Face.
Speaker 1: There's a Canadian drama called The Booth at the end.
Speaker 1: It helped fund production for BBCs. The thick of it.
Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of Korean language dramas up there.
Speaker 1: And and this is all because sometimes those international license
Speaker 1: fees can be cheaper depending on what they are UM.
Speaker 1: And and it's also you know, it's it's really smart
Speaker 1: for on the content provider. And because I subscribed to
Speaker 1: Hulu Plus because I could get Misfits. I wanted that show.
Speaker 1: That was the only place I could get that show
Speaker 1: other than ordering the DVDs, And so I did it.
Speaker 1: See I the only two titles I even recognized all
Speaker 1: of their exclusive list that I was just kind of
Speaker 1: I was glancing at like a layout of a bunch
Speaker 1: of their exclusives. The only two titles I recognized were Misfits.
Speaker 1: Because you've talked about it before and moon Boy and
Speaker 1: moon Boy because it has Christodaled in it. Okay, in
Speaker 1: the I T crowd, so I knew about those. Crystal
Speaker 1: Dowd plays the Imaginary Friend of a little Boy, so uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great, you know, fantastic stuff, but that was produced
Speaker 1: in the UK and uh and Hulu is the the
Speaker 1: exclusive provider in the U States. So yeah. Beyond that,
Speaker 1: they also are creating their own content, including stuff like
Speaker 1: The Awesome's which is a superhero comedy cartoon series. Right right.
Speaker 1: They begin production of original stuff in August of eleven.
Speaker 1: Um there their first show was an interview series by
Speaker 1: Morgan Spurlock. Um early is when they grin their first
Speaker 1: scripted show, Battleground. And I think that they are also
Speaker 1: kind of trying to figure out where this original content
Speaker 1: is going to fit into their business model. They're they're
Speaker 1: kind of waiting to see, you know, whether people will
Speaker 1: bite and how well it will do, and since they
Speaker 1: are ad based, how that's going to affect everything. Not
Speaker 1: to mention the fact that they are a branch of
Speaker 1: these that are producing content on their own for other
Speaker 1: platforms they're owned ABC. Disney is also part owner of
Speaker 1: them at this point, and so yeah, how do you
Speaker 1: how do you if you're creating content that's in direct
Speaker 1: competition to owners content. Yeah, that's a problem, right, you're
Speaker 1: talking about because now you're talking about there, they could
Speaker 1: come up with an idea of saying, well, yeah, we
Speaker 1: can create this for Hulu, but why don't we create
Speaker 1: it for a different channel instead if we have that option,
Speaker 1: or maybe they even start using Hulu as a testing
Speaker 1: ground for stuff that they decide to then appropriate for television.
Speaker 1: We don't know because it's so early on with this experiment,
Speaker 1: really Hulu, but it is a little more complicated than Netflix.
Speaker 1: Netflix is its own independent company that is not beholden
Speaker 1: in this way to content creators. They're beholden in an
Speaker 1: entirely different way. Like they will come to a content
Speaker 1: creator and say I want that show, and then you
Speaker 1: do not get this show because we want this show
Speaker 1: to go somewhere else, not you. Yeah, and that's that's
Speaker 1: not an interesting thing, is that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: hour struggles going on in this entertainment world. No one
Speaker 1: wants any of these services to become the dominant one
Speaker 1: because then that service has leverage over the content creators.
Speaker 1: So it's a constant chess battle right to see who
Speaker 1: is going to be the one who has the advantage
Speaker 1: in these negotiations. Yeah, this is part of why if if,
Speaker 1: if you've tried to subscribe to Hulu, you may have
Speaker 1: noticed that you cannot transfer all shows from your television
Speaker 1: box to your laptop to your iPad. Um. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: might have limitations it. Maybe that certain shows you can
Speaker 1: only watch if you're watching it streaming to your TV
Speaker 1: because some some content providers have said nope, yeah, thanks, no, thanks,
Speaker 1: I don't want that on tablet. Yeah, you can't watch
Speaker 1: that when you're on the train or whatever or driving
Speaker 1: to work. Don't watch TV while you're driving. Don't do that.
Speaker 1: Never do that. So so Hulu as of April had
Speaker 1: uh four million subscribers, which is is has doubled in
Speaker 1: the past year. It's still pretty shy of the thirty
Speaker 1: million in the US that Netflix has, but's growing. All right.
Speaker 1: So that's Hulu Plus and Hulu, we've we've covered that.
Speaker 1: That leaves the other of the Big three, and that's
Speaker 1: Amazon and Amazon. Again, like all three of these are
Speaker 1: very different from each other. They have different approaches to
Speaker 1: the way that they handle content. They have different approaches
Speaker 1: the way that they handle revenue. With Amazon Prime Instant Video,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of different things, like you can
Speaker 1: have actual access to a certain portion of their television
Speaker 1: shows and movies that are available if you're an Amazon
Speaker 1: Prime member. That's a subscription based service that goes beyond
Speaker 1: just instant Video, right right. It's not the same subscription
Speaker 1: that you would get just for Hulu Plus or just
Speaker 1: for Netflix. This is tied into its other Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: shenanigans where you know, you get free or discounted chipping
Speaker 1: and all discounts on certain goods and services and can
Speaker 1: borrow kindle books, stuff like that. It's wrapped a laws
Speaker 1: wrapped up into is what we're getting at. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is which is uh I think somewhere around seventy
Speaker 1: five bucks a year. I think it's seventy nine totals.
Speaker 1: So when you when you look at it, it actually
Speaker 1: ends up being a little cheaper than some of the
Speaker 1: other services on a monthly basis. Uh So in the
Speaker 1: United States anyway, seventy nine per per years. Sure so
Speaker 1: so Amazon Amazon Prime Instant Video launched in February eleven,
Speaker 1: and you know you can also use it to rent
Speaker 1: or buy titles separately. Right, So there's some titles that
Speaker 1: are available for free viewing once you have this. About
Speaker 1: about forty thou movies and television episodes are available with
Speaker 1: the prescription UM subscription subscription why can't I say that
Speaker 1: word today? Um? And and about something over a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand titles are available per Yeah. If you
Speaker 1: want to actually purchase stuff or rent stuff, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I've done. I've done both. I rented titles through Amazon
Speaker 1: Instant and I've purchased titles on Amazon Instant. So um.
Speaker 1: And the way it works is if you're renting it,
Speaker 1: if you have you know, you obviously need to watch
Speaker 1: it on something. You could watch it on a computer
Speaker 1: or tablet or in my case, I'm using a video
Speaker 1: game console and I'm watching it through there. But if
Speaker 1: you rent it, essentially once you start watching it, that
Speaker 1: the timers on and you have a certain amount of
Speaker 1: time to watch it before it gets uh bleated from
Speaker 1: your your devices drive and you don't get to watch
Speaker 1: it anymore. If you buy it, of course, it stays
Speaker 1: in the cloud and you have the access to it
Speaker 1: on whatever device as long as you're signed in as
Speaker 1: you you can watch the programming. Right. Um, they also
Speaker 1: have exclusive deals. Like I mentioned earlier, they had nabbed
Speaker 1: down to Nabby from Netflix and they're starting something with Viacom.
Speaker 1: They've invested in a CBS show called Under the Dome.
Speaker 1: Um in exchange for a digital distribution, They've got exclusive
Speaker 1: rights to digitally distribute the show four days after it
Speaker 1: airs on network TV. Yeah. So this is similar to
Speaker 1: kind of the way Hulu does things with some of
Speaker 1: their shows, right where it airs on television and then
Speaker 1: within a certain amount of time after word, depending upon
Speaker 1: the agreement, Hulu can then show it on their service.
Speaker 1: This is the same thing but on Amazon. Under the
Speaker 1: Dome is based off a Stephen King story. Right. They
Speaker 1: are also producing their own original content, say what yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: true factum. As of in fact, they unveiled Amazon Studios
Speaker 1: and started collecting scripts from the public. They opened up
Speaker 1: the process and we're just like, if you've got a
Speaker 1: good script, send it to pit. If you have a pitch,
Speaker 1: pitch it to us. And this is this is incredible.
Speaker 1: It does I mean, it means that you're going to
Speaker 1: get a lot of stuff, right, You're gonna get a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that's not ever going to be producible.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna be things you read this like, this
Speaker 1: might have been an interesting idea, but it's a terrible script,
Speaker 1: or this is a good script, but it's boring. And
Speaker 1: they took a certain number of those and and filmed
Speaker 1: pilots of them, and in put those pilots online and
Speaker 1: didn't use exclusively user feedback, but but kill that into account.
Speaker 1: They they let the members of Amazon Prime watch them
Speaker 1: and help decide what they wanted to see proceed to
Speaker 1: a series. It's kind of a democratization of content creation,
Speaker 1: sort of like what you would see if someone were
Speaker 1: to pitch a series on say Kickstarter. People have pitched it,
Speaker 1: they shot the pilots, they showed them off, and some
Speaker 1: of them are now going to become actual series that
Speaker 1: will be available probably late. I saw that in the
Speaker 1: fall of is when we can expect to see the
Speaker 1: first episodes of some of these shows. Right as of August,
Speaker 1: they had Alpha House and also Beta's. Wait wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: so they've got Alpha House and they have a show
Speaker 1: called Beta's. I actually just got that. That's pretty silly
Speaker 1: that happened. And these are two different shows. It's not
Speaker 1: Alpha House in Beta's It's Alpha House, and then there's
Speaker 1: another series called Beta's. I guess the last show will
Speaker 1: ever see will be Omega. That will be the last
Speaker 1: show that Amazon ever makes. And they've also got three
Speaker 1: children series and production the names of which I do
Speaker 1: not have in front of me. They were looking specifically
Speaker 1: for comedies and kids shows. Well yeah, and and if
Speaker 1: you if you look at the different series, a lot
Speaker 1: of them have focused, especially recently on on children's programming,
Speaker 1: on on on comedy and children's programs like Amazon's. Amazon's
Speaker 1: deal with Viacom is largely based on children's programming from
Speaker 1: things like Nickelodeon. Uh. Netflix has an entire section that's
Speaker 1: just like they had Netflix for Kids that they launched
Speaker 1: where you could create a little uh sub profile for
Speaker 1: your children so that they could easily find content from
Speaker 1: everyone from Disney to to Nickelodeon to I think Nickelodeon.
Speaker 1: Maybe Nickelodeon didn't have anything. Viacom and Netflix did have
Speaker 1: a deal, but like we said, they are letting that
Speaker 1: deal uh uh end and they're not renewing. And also,
Speaker 1: have you know less of the more colorful content pop
Speaker 1: up in your kids video streams? Yes, yes, you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about, say, the hell Raisers series showing
Speaker 1: up in sequence in there. I've been working my way
Speaker 1: through them and my pain is delicious. So anyway, um, yes,
Speaker 1: I just killed Lauren there. But yeah again, So we
Speaker 1: we're seeing some more of these exclusive deals. We're seeing
Speaker 1: some more of this, uh, this specific content created for
Speaker 1: the platform. I love what Amazon is doing here as
Speaker 1: far as creating a production studio and making it this
Speaker 1: opportunity for people who I wouldn't necessarily have a voice otherwise, right,
Speaker 1: they would have no way of getting into the industry,
Speaker 1: and now there's a chance for them to actually create
Speaker 1: something that could end up leading to a long career.
Speaker 1: And you know, who knows, maybe the next fantastic storyteller,
Speaker 1: maybe the next Josh Weeden is in this group, and
Speaker 1: we can look forward to having his or her scripts
Speaker 1: produced and canceled mid season. Well hope, hopefully this entire
Speaker 1: this entire um strategy is going to avoid having things
Speaker 1: like like cancelations mid season. See. That's the other thing
Speaker 1: is that because of this approach, you no longer have
Speaker 1: excuses like a network moving a show around in a
Speaker 1: lineup over and over again. That now lineups mean nothing, right,
Speaker 1: And you can also produce more than twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day of content or way less if that's what
Speaker 1: you want to do, or if that's what you have
Speaker 1: money to do, right, and you can produce far more
Speaker 1: diverse content and uh and not have to worry about
Speaker 1: catering to a specific audience with a bunch of themed content.
Speaker 1: So that's one of the things we've seen with cable
Speaker 1: channels where they struggle. They create an identity for themselves,
Speaker 1: where they create very specific types of content that are
Speaker 1: meant for a particular audience, but then they grow as
Speaker 1: far as they can within that niche audience, and to
Speaker 1: grow further means that they have to go outside that
Speaker 1: definition sci fi. So uh, you know, this is something
Speaker 1: that they don't these these companies don't necessarily have that problem.
Speaker 1: They can experiment with doing stuff. You know, we've seen
Speaker 1: with Netflix making drama and making horror as well as
Speaker 1: making comedy with the fourth season of Arrested Development, Amazon's
Speaker 1: doing it with children's programming, and this this alpha and
Speaker 1: beta stuff. Hulu has got its own approach. It's I'm
Speaker 1: really excited about this because I mean, I love stories
Speaker 1: and I love the idea of people who otherwise would
Speaker 1: not have had this content produced, having this shot. I
Speaker 1: think it's really a great moment for someone who is
Speaker 1: interested in consuming entertainment as well as people who want
Speaker 1: to produce it. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't have a number
Speaker 1: of the for for Prime members like like I did
Speaker 1: for for Hulu and Netflix, because Amazon doesn't disclose that. Nope,
Speaker 1: they just say millions. Yep, it's in the millions, lots
Speaker 1: a bunch. I I do think it's pretty interesting that
Speaker 1: Netflix transitioned its site to Amazon's cloud servers in so well,
Speaker 1: you know, Amazon definitely does do the provide resources to
Speaker 1: other companies that well, one of their biggest businesses that
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with the general consumer. I mean,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to a business deal, I can
Speaker 1: totally see them going, all right, you know, we're competing
Speaker 1: against you, but if you're gonna give us money, that works. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting too, I see that One of the
Speaker 1: other notes you have here is about how Amazon is
Speaker 1: expected to spend a billion dollars acquiring rights to programming
Speaker 1: to show on their instant, which is half of what
Speaker 1: Netflix is spending, which is so much money. Two billion dollars, folks,
Speaker 1: that's just to get the content. See. So when you're
Speaker 1: complaining and when I say you, I'm including myself in this,
Speaker 1: when you're complaining that the show you really want to
Speaker 1: watch is not available online, think of how much money
Speaker 1: these companies are having to pay and just to get
Speaker 1: you know. And it's because there's this complicated relationship between
Speaker 1: the content creators and also cable companies and their relationship
Speaker 1: to content creators. That's one of the reasons why you're
Speaker 1: not going to find HBO in any of these for
Speaker 1: the time being. HBO's deals they're tied down. Yeah, hbos
Speaker 1: deal with cable companies is so important and so lucrative
Speaker 1: that in order for HBO to break out of that
Speaker 1: and leave the exclusivity of these cable deals would mean
Speaker 1: that we would have to have an astronomically good deal
Speaker 1: for HBO on streaming, because otherwise they're just losing money.
Speaker 1: And you don't go into a business to lose money.
Speaker 1: I would hope. I mean, it might happen to you,
Speaker 1: but that's not why you get into business. Hypothetically, not
Speaker 1: economic or the producers. I was going to say an
Speaker 1: economic masochist, but yeah, maybe if you're if you're if
Speaker 1: you're just trying to raise backing money and then immediately
Speaker 1: tank the company so that you can keep the backing money,
Speaker 1: you are not ethical, but you're also not really going
Speaker 1: into business. All right, Well, do you have anything else
Speaker 1: you want to say about these companies? Do not? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: let's sign off on that. So if you guys have
Speaker 1: any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, whether it's
Speaker 1: about a technology or some sort of trend in tech
Speaker 1: or a specific company, let us know, send us a
Speaker 1: message our email addresses tech Stuff at Discovery dot com,
Speaker 1: or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter. You
Speaker 1: can find us there with the handle of tech Stuff H. S.
Speaker 1: W and Lauren and I will talk to you again
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