Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and a love of all things tech, and it is
Speaker 1: time for a tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally
Speaker 1: published on September twenty three, two thirteen. It is titled
Speaker 1: videos in the Stream. That is what we are. So
Speaker 1: let's take a listen. There are a lot of different
Speaker 1: technologies out there that are all about streaming content over
Speaker 1: the Internet, your television or computer. Even YouTube. You could argue,
Speaker 1: is is it content provider? Oh sure, sure I can.
Speaker 1: I view YouTube all the time when I'm at home.
Speaker 1: There's this great series I love to watch at home
Speaker 1: on my big television. It's called Forward Thinking. It is amazing.
Speaker 1: The host is uber uber Hut and so I watched
Speaker 1: that all the time at home on my big television
Speaker 1: and it's great. I mean, you know, it is filmed
Speaker 1: with a red one so so the I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: actually we upgraded to a four km J to four K.
Speaker 1: I mean they went from to 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 disclosure, we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about Netflix, and Netflix has been one of our sponsors
Speaker 1: in the past. They are one of our sponsors for
Speaker 1: tech stuff. But that 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 ninete
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 wasted on paper. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be until that they actually launched a subscription DVD mail
Speaker 1: to home plan plan. Yeah, they were offering up rentals
Speaker 1: and sales, and but it was when the famous subscription
Speaker 1: service came in. That idea where you would make up
Speaker 1: a list of DVDs that you were really excited about seeing,
Speaker 1: and then they would send you one and it would
Speaker 1: sell on your coffee table for four months, and then
Speaker 1: you'd think, I never really got around to watching that,
Speaker 1: but I want to see the next thing on my list,
Speaker 1: and you send it back without ever watching. It was
Speaker 1: that just me Okay, good, I'm glad it wasn't just me. Um,
Speaker 1: I swear I'm going to see The Prestige one day.
Speaker 1: Oh you should. I know. It's a terrific film. It's
Speaker 1: said on my coffee table for four months, and that's
Speaker 1: a that's a that's a shame. I know, I know.
Speaker 1: But anyway, they were strictly physical media at first. In fact,
Speaker 1: for most of their their existence if you look at
Speaker 1: the full timeline, Yeah, they didn't even debut their watch
Speaker 1: instantly feature until two thousand seven, and they did not
Speaker 1: provide unlimited streaming content until early two thousand eight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and two thousand seven it was incredibly limited, and even
Speaker 1: two thousand eight when you look at this is one
Speaker 1: of those criticisms that are that is often leveled by
Speaker 1: by people at Netflix, which is, you know, I look
Speaker 1: at what you have available on your DVD list, and
Speaker 1: then I look at what you have available on your
Speaker 1: instant library list, and y'all, there's stuff I want to
Speaker 1: watch that just like I can't see on that instant side.
Speaker 1: And this is because there are some really complex deals
Speaker 1: going on in the back end between Netflix, which is
Speaker 1: a service provider, and the content creators that make the
Speaker 1: content to Netflix. So Netflix has to create and this
Speaker 1: is the same with other services as well. They have
Speaker 1: to enter into these agreements with various content creators to
Speaker 1: be able to broadcast stuff over streaming, the same way
Speaker 1: that a cable channel would license to content. Right now,
Speaker 1: in the case with the cable company, very similar, anyway,
Speaker 1: very similar. In the case with the cable companies, they're
Speaker 1: looking at channels or bundles of channels. So but with
Speaker 1: you know, with Netflix, it might be it might be
Speaker 1: a little more pick and choose. So instead of saying
Speaker 1: I want everything that MTV produces when it comes to
Speaker 1: their original content, I want every single show, it may
Speaker 1: be that I want these five shows that MTV produces,
Speaker 1: but that's the only five and the and in this case,
Speaker 1: those agreements can go through the instead of a cable company,
Speaker 1: where it's kind of an all or nothing proposition. UH,
Speaker 1: services like Netflix can enter into these agreements where they
Speaker 1: get certain things but not other things. And in some
Speaker 1: cases it's not necessarily uh to the benefit of Netflix.
Speaker 1: It might be the case that the content creator says,
Speaker 1: you know, this is my best stuff and I want
Speaker 1: to make uh my money. Going through the traditional broadcast
Speaker 1: or cable route and then make more money through DVD
Speaker 1: sales whatever. Um, I don't want to provide this to
Speaker 1: your subscribers. So it's a very complicated dance that Netflix
Speaker 1: has to do every time. It's trying to get more content,
Speaker 1: and obviously, from a consumer standpoint, you want there to
Speaker 1: be as much content in which ever service you are
Speaker 1: subscribing to. Also, to make matters even more complicated, there
Speaker 1: are issues about what kind of content can be shown where. So,
Speaker 1: in other words, if I'm a Netflix customer in Canada,
Speaker 1: the options I have are different than the ones I
Speaker 1: would have in the United States. If I were a
Speaker 1: customer somewhere else in the world, 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 of thirteen,
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, it
Speaker 1: supposedly Netflix accounts for one third of streaming video on
Speaker 1: any given day. Yeah. Um, that's that's twice what YouTube does. Yeah,
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. Now,
Speaker 1: that might also be because a lot of the content
Speaker 1: on Netflix is long form and a lot of the
Speaker 1: content on YouTube is very short form, and Netflix provides
Speaker 1: a lot more in HD. Yes, that's also true. So
Speaker 1: in other words, those file sizes are are bigger for
Speaker 1: multiple reasons, not only because they are longer, as in
Speaker 1: they last longer, like it's a thirty minute show or
Speaker 1: twenty minute but it's a larger file to begin like exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: as of November twelve, this accounted for about a third
Speaker 1: of all US downstream traffic. Uh. Yeah, this is uh.
Speaker 1: It's also why a lot of Internet provider companies i
Speaker 1: sp s are starting to talk about caps. Yeah, where
Speaker 1: they were like especially initially when Netflix Instant was starting off. Now,
Speaker 1: back then, there weren't as many customers who were taking
Speaker 1: advantage of it. I would say that this is something
Speaker 1: that's really starting to explode. Over the last like maybe
Speaker 1: a year or two, we've really seen it like take off.
Speaker 1: Before that, there were early adopters who were very enthusiastic
Speaker 1: about it, and then there were a few other people
Speaker 1: who were curious about it, and some people had it,
Speaker 1: you know, added on as part of their DVD service
Speaker 1: and so they played with it once or twice. UM.
Speaker 1: Now that one of I think one of the things
Speaker 1: Netflix did that they did really well was they got
Speaker 1: their app on as many different platforms as possible. It's
Speaker 1: one of the things I thought this company's very savvy.
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: stale 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 inn you guys might remember,
Speaker 1: there was the entire quick Ster debacle. Netflix was just
Speaker 1: going to become streaming only in a new company called
Speaker 1: Quickster would be all the DVDs and and that was
Speaker 1: after another controversial thing where where they were um planning
Speaker 1: on on splitting the DVD and streaming plans with like
Speaker 1: a 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 I 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 when
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 out. I remember seeing Facebook explode when
Speaker 1: this happened, and Twitch exploded to I had friends who
Speaker 1: were immediately and vociferously proclaiming that they would leave Netflix
Speaker 1: never to return and burn the villages behind them, and
Speaker 1: so the ground was salt, whereas I was seeing, 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 a 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 you've had you know,
Speaker 1: we've of course seen stories about ceo is admitting that
Speaker 1: certain products in the company's past was were possibly a
Speaker 1: mistake or badly handled. But this was an outright apology
Speaker 1: to the public saying, you know, guys, um I was
Speaker 1: thinking it was a great idea. I clearly you guys
Speaker 1: feel differently. We are not going to do it, so
Speaker 1: don't worry. Yeah, but that was that was a big
Speaker 1: strike against Netflix at that point when they tried to
Speaker 1: do the whole Netflix Quickster thing. Now, Netflix has made
Speaker 1: some pretty big deals, not all of them are exclusive deals,
Speaker 1: I should say, we're gonna be talking about some of
Speaker 1: the deals that they've made with various content creators so
Speaker 1: that they can be allowed to show certain types of
Speaker 1: content on their channels or on their service. I should say, Uh,
Speaker 1: one of them, which was announced the day that we
Speaker 1: are or I think two days before we actually record
Speaker 1: this podcast, is an exclusive deal, and that is that
Speaker 1: Netflix and the Weinstein Company or Weinstein Company, depending on
Speaker 1: how you want to pronounce it, announced that they are
Speaker 1: going to enter a multi year premium pay TV window
Speaker 1: agreement in the United States starting in ten and that
Speaker 1: Netflix will become the quote ex elusive US subscription television
Speaker 1: service for first run films from the Weinstein Company end quote.
Speaker 1: So this would include movies made under TWC, the Weinstein Company,
Speaker 1: and also Dimension Films, and that would become available to
Speaker 1: Netflix members who are subscribed to Netflix. So the interesting
Speaker 1: thing here to me is that, uh, it is exclusive.
Speaker 1: That means you're not going to find these same titles
Speaker 1: on the other services we'll be talking about a little
Speaker 1: bit later. Uh. Now, that's not the only deal they've
Speaker 1: made recently. They made a big deal with Disney Netflix. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that agreement starts in seventeen. We're talking long term
Speaker 1: goals here, folks. Now you might notice that there are
Speaker 1: some Disney titles now, right, which was part of this
Speaker 1: deal as well, But the larger percentage of Disney films
Speaker 1: will be available beginning in twenty seventeen. Again not necessarily exclusive,
Speaker 1: but they will be available on Netflix and again depending
Speaker 1: upon where you are, because these the regional rules still
Speaker 1: are in effect here. Then you also have the deal
Speaker 1: Netflix made with DreamWorks. Now, that agreement begins in ten,
Speaker 1: so that's a little earlier. And we I have already
Speaker 1: seen some Dreamwork stuff available there too, but it's all
Speaker 1: kind of like they're second or third tier titles, I
Speaker 1: would say, or sequels to movies that I like. I
Speaker 1: would watch this, but I haven't seen the first one
Speaker 1: and it's not available. Um, I'll have to wait till
Speaker 1: I suppose or get a DVD subscription. Now, you're just
Speaker 1: talking crazy talk, all right. So Netflix, of course is
Speaker 1: not the only one to make these deals, whether they're
Speaker 1: exclusive or not, in order to get content. That's kind
Speaker 1: of how the game is played, right, sure, sure, and
Speaker 1: and a lot of it is is kind of being
Speaker 1: continually mixed up between these top three companies. There's there's like,
Speaker 1: for example, I think Amazon just stole Downton Abbey out
Speaker 1: from under Netflix. Um yeah, but like and I think
Speaker 1: for example, a Netflix had a deal with Viacom for
Speaker 1: a while and then they're letting the deal expire and
Speaker 1: they're not planning on renewing it. But other services are
Speaker 1: going to definitely work with Viacom. So it's it's going
Speaker 1: to change over time. But there's something else that all
Speaker 1: these companies are doing too, right, Yeah, and and this
Speaker 1: is something that no one else certainly will have, and
Speaker 1: that is Netflix's original content. Um. This is and this
Speaker 1: is kind of a big deal because you know, up
Speaker 1: until up until um, none of these streaming service on
Speaker 1: demand companies were creating their own new stuff, right. They were.
Speaker 1: They were a pipe, but they weren't creating any of
Speaker 1: the stuff that was in the pipe. They were just
Speaker 1: giving access to it. Um. But but as of February twelve,
Speaker 1: they they offered a show called Lily Hammer, which was
Speaker 1: a co production with a Norwegian producer and not that
Speaker 1: many people in the United States have probably even heard
Speaker 1: of it, and it was pretty big in Norway. But
Speaker 1: House of Cards came out. I don't have a date
Speaker 1: on that, but the House of Cards came out I
Speaker 1: think either. I think House of Cards came out late.
Speaker 1: And that was the first US kind of I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say blockbuster but um but but the first popular
Speaker 1: original show, right, And keep in mind, this was a
Speaker 1: remake of a show that was made in the UK,
Speaker 1: but the US version had Kevin Spacey in the lead
Speaker 1: role and that was a big which, Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you're talking about an award winning film actor playing a
Speaker 1: part in a series that was doing something really different. Now,
Speaker 1: what Netflix was doing was not just producing this series,
Speaker 1: which would have been remarkable all on its own, and
Speaker 1: then giving the exclusive look at the series to its members.
Speaker 1: You could not watch it anywhere else other than if
Speaker 1: you were to maybe buy the DVD set, which you
Speaker 1: can do. But they also offered up the entire series
Speaker 1: at one time, so instead of telling that like you do,
Speaker 1: you can just you know, crunch through the entire series
Speaker 1: you want a day or two if you want to
Speaker 1: just marathon it, you totally could because the first season
Speaker 1: of it anyway, first season of it. So this was
Speaker 1: a big difference from the way we usually can conto
Speaker 1: media 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. Yeah, he says, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Kevin Spacey up 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 at 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 sucked
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 marathon when
Speaker 1: it came out, Hemlock Grove, 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, however, 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. They've got upcoming shows from from Mikeegervass,
Speaker 1: Derek um and since eight from the Wachowski siblings, the Wakawskis. Yeah, excellent.
Speaker 1: So you know that's that's a big deal that this
Speaker 1: idea not only getting these exclusive deals from other content creators,
Speaker 1: but to create your own content. They're getting into this game. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's interesting also because the way Netflix generates revenue is
Speaker 1: through subscriptions, right, they don't they don't have ads in
Speaker 1: their shows and uh, and will contrast that with some
Speaker 1: of the other stuff that we'll talk about in a
Speaker 1: little bit. So there are no ads, and they're getting
Speaker 1: it mainly through subscriptions. And from what I can tell,
Speaker 1: Netflix does not really let anyone know how many people
Speaker 1: are watching any given title necessarily unless it's a huge
Speaker 1: deal and they'll say, like, over x million people watch
Speaker 1: this one thing right there there. They're being pretty pretty
Speaker 1: under wraps about it. Yeah, So that leads you to
Speaker 1: wonder is the content creation business working for Netflix? Is
Speaker 1: that is that adding to their bottom line? Are they
Speaker 1: getting more subscribers because of it? I think that's what
Speaker 1: they're trying to figure out right now. You know. They
Speaker 1: I read something that said that they could they could
Speaker 1: see themselves um doubling their current content output um in
Speaker 1: in the next couple of years and even going up
Speaker 1: to twenty pretty soon. And they're looking to get into
Speaker 1: a documentary production and stand up specials, even even which
Speaker 1: are Spanish soaps. Hodgeman's Ragnarok was a Netflix exclusive, right, Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was creative for them. They're they're being compared to
Speaker 1: to HBO, Showtime, AMC, these big cable heavy hitters, UM
Speaker 1: and uh Ted Serrando's the chief content officer, told g
Speaker 1: Q in February. The goal is to become HBO faster
Speaker 1: than HBO can become us. Wow, that's interesting. That's a
Speaker 1: really good point because of course HBO does have its
Speaker 1: own Hbo Go service, but you have to be a
Speaker 1: subscriber through cable package in order to access it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to be a double subscriber, right, You have
Speaker 1: to subscribe to cable and you have to have a
Speaker 1: cable subscription that includes HBO in the first place before
Speaker 1: 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 getting
Speaker 1: 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 deales with a lot of gender issues.
Speaker 1: That's something that you probably wouldn't see on a lot
Speaker 1: of traditional cable companies. So um and and it's it's
Speaker 1: it's paying off in terms of critical acclaim. They just
Speaker 1: got fourteen Emmy nominations for original content. Yeah, and that's,
Speaker 1: by the way, we should point out that the this year,
Speaker 1: this is the first time we're starting to see Emmy
Speaker 1: nominations for streaming video or something that was not created
Speaker 1: by cable or broadcast. Hey, guys, Jonathan from twenty here,
Speaker 1: we're going to take a quick break, but we will
Speaker 1: be right back. All right. So we've covered Netflix from
Speaker 1: beginning to end thoroughly. I think let's uh, let's move
Speaker 1: on to a different one. Let's talk about Hulu and
Speaker 1: Hulu Plus. All right. So, um so Hulu period and
Speaker 1: not Hulu Plus launched in two thousand eight. It was
Speaker 1: it was a joint effort from NBC Universal and at
Speaker 1: that point News Corporation, you know, Murdox, Fox Fox Corporation exactly, um,
Speaker 1: which which was interesting in and of itself that these
Speaker 1: two major cable cable providers were playing nice. We're joining
Speaker 1: forces to create something interesting. I don't know you watched
Speaker 1: those alec Baldwin spots where he would he was convincing
Speaker 1: everyone that who was really just a front for aliens
Speaker 1: to take over. And I'm like, how is this supposed
Speaker 1: to sell me on watching? I mean, I'm going to
Speaker 1: because now I got to find out what happens in
Speaker 1: these commercials. But right right, yeah, I know the commercials
Speaker 1: with him and Alianza Dick Shoo did those were great.
Speaker 1: Hulu Plus launched in and that was the subscription based end. Now,
Speaker 1: what's one thing that says the Hulu and Hulu Plus
Speaker 1: apart from Netflix is unlike Netflix, WHU content is AD supported,
Speaker 1: right right? Um? And the the deals that they make
Speaker 1: with the content providers. Um. Some of them are for
Speaker 1: for a straight licensing fee, some of them are strictly
Speaker 1: AD revenue based, and some of them are kind of
Speaker 1: a sticky gray area. Yes, this gets super complicated just
Speaker 1: in one example here. So you've got you've got shows
Speaker 1: that are to have ad breaks in them, whether it's
Speaker 1: in the subscription one or just the free version of
Speaker 1: the Hulu one. I believe that all content has ads
Speaker 1: in it, whether or not the content creator gets a
Speaker 1: share of the is the question, gotcha? So that's that's
Speaker 1: very that's that's very interesting all on its own. And
Speaker 1: then uh, on top of that, you know, you have
Speaker 1: deals with content creators that are different than the ones
Speaker 1: from the other two. Like they're there, they have access
Speaker 1: to some content that the other companies do not have
Speaker 1: access to. Sure, and and Hulu is um if you're
Speaker 1: unfamiliar with the service, is um as opposed to Netflix,
Speaker 1: which has prior seasons that have perhaps gone to DVD
Speaker 1: as an analog or um or films. Hulu does have
Speaker 1: a category of films, but is I think most of
Speaker 1: its traffic is from currently airing seasons of television, either
Speaker 1: either the entire current season to date or maybe the
Speaker 1: past five episodes, depending on what again with the licensing count.
Speaker 1: So so, for example, a typical television show in the
Speaker 1: United States that also is carried on Hulu, the a
Speaker 1: couple of days after it airs on television, that episode
Speaker 1: could become available on Hulu and you might be able
Speaker 1: to watch as many as the last five for a
Speaker 1: lot of them. Right, So let's say that I'm following,
Speaker 1: you know, ex television show and I missed the last
Speaker 1: two episodes because I was out of town. I could
Speaker 1: go on Hulu and catch up and and what and
Speaker 1: you know, be back up to speak, or if you
Speaker 1: don't have a cable subscription at all, and you could
Speaker 1: just watch it that way and just tell all your
Speaker 1: friends to not talk about the show for a couple
Speaker 1: of days so that it gives you a chance to
Speaker 1: catch up. Um. And if your friends are like mine,
Speaker 1: they will be happy to post lots of fakes boilers
Speaker 1: on your Facebook, the stuff that never happens. That's okay.
Speaker 1: So but also like Netflix, and besides that these deals
Speaker 1: that are being made for content, Hulu is also in
Speaker 1: the content creation business as well as uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we can talk about some of the exclusives and some
Speaker 1: of the originals as well. I guess some of the
Speaker 1: exclusives they have all other exclusives are from other countries. Right,
Speaker 1: almost five five or six percent of its content are
Speaker 1: these exclusive international television shows. UM for example, Misfits or
Speaker 1: pram Face. There's a Canadian drama called The Booth at
Speaker 1: the end. It helped fund production for BBCs The Thick
Speaker 1: of It. There's a whole bunch of Korean language dramas
Speaker 1: up there. And this is all because sometimes those international
Speaker 1: license fees can be cheaper, depending on what they are
Speaker 1: um and and it's also you know, it's it's really
Speaker 1: smart for on the content provider. And because I subscribed
Speaker 1: to Hulu Plus because I could get Misfits, I wanted
Speaker 1: that show. That was the only place I could get
Speaker 1: that show other than ordering the DVDs, and so I
Speaker 1: did it. See I the only two titles I even
Speaker 1: recognized all of their exclusive list that I was just
Speaker 1: kind of I was glancing at like a layout of
Speaker 1: a bunch of their exclusives. The only two titles I
Speaker 1: recognized were Misfits because you've talked about it before and
Speaker 1: moon Boy and moon Boy because it has Chrystodaled in
Speaker 1: it Gills in the I T crowd, so I knew
Speaker 1: about those. Chrystodal plays the imaginary friend of a little boy.
Speaker 1: So uh, yeah, it's great, you know, fantastic stuff. But
Speaker 1: that was produced in the UK, and uh and Hulu
Speaker 1: is the the exclusive provider in the States, so yeah.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, they also are creating their own content, including
Speaker 1: stuff like The Awesome's, which is a superhero comedy cartoon series.
Speaker 1: Right right. They began production of original stuff in August
Speaker 1: of eleven. Um there. Their first show was an interview
Speaker 1: series by Morgan spurlock Um. Early twelve is when they
Speaker 1: their first scripted show, Battleground, And I think that they
Speaker 1: are also kind of trying to figure out where this
Speaker 1: original content is going to fit into their business model.
Speaker 1: They're they're kind of waiting to see, you know, whether
Speaker 1: people will bite and how well it will do, and
Speaker 1: since they are ad based, how that's going to affect everything.
Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact that they are a branch
Speaker 1: of companies that are producing content on their own for
Speaker 1: other platforms because their owned ABC Disney is also part
Speaker 1: owner of them at this point. And so yeah, how
Speaker 1: do you how do you if you're creating content that's
Speaker 1: in direct competition to her owners content. Yeah, that's a problem, right,
Speaker 1: you're talking about because now you're talking about there they
Speaker 1: could come up with an idea of saying, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can create this for Hulu, but why don't we
Speaker 1: create it for a different channel instead, if we have
Speaker 1: that option, or maybe they even start using Hulu as
Speaker 1: a testing ground for stuff that they aside too then
Speaker 1: appropriate for television. We don't know because it's so early
Speaker 1: on with this experiment really or Hulu, but it is
Speaker 1: a little more complicated than Netflix. Netflix is its own
Speaker 1: independent company that is not beholden in this way to
Speaker 1: content creators. They're beholden in an entirely different way. Like
Speaker 1: they will come to a content creator and say I
Speaker 1: want that show and they say, you do not get
Speaker 1: this show, but you want the show to go somewhere else,
Speaker 1: not you. Yeah, and that's this. Another interesting thing is
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of power struggles going on in
Speaker 1: this entertainment world. No one wants any of these services
Speaker 1: to become the dominant one because then that service has
Speaker 1: leverage over the content creators. So it's a constant chess
Speaker 1: battle right to see who is going to be the
Speaker 1: one who has the advantage in these negotiations. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is part of why if if, if you've tried to
Speaker 1: subscribe to Hula, you may have noticed that you cannot
Speaker 1: transfer all shows from your television box to your laptop
Speaker 1: tow your iPad. Um. Yeah, you might have limitations and
Speaker 1: maybe that certain shows you can only watch if you're
Speaker 1: watching it streaming to your TV because some some content
Speaker 1: providers have said nope, thanks, no, thanks, I don't want
Speaker 1: that on tablet. Yeah, you can't watch that when you're
Speaker 1: on the train or whatever or driving to work. Don't
Speaker 1: watch TV while you're driving to work. Don't do that.
Speaker 1: Never do that. So so Hulu as of April had
Speaker 1: four million subscribers, which is is has doubled in the
Speaker 1: past year. It's still pretty shy of the thirty million
Speaker 1: in the US that Netflix has that's growing. It's Jonathan
Speaker 1: Frow again. We're going to take another quick break and
Speaker 1: then we'll be back to talk more about streaming video.
Speaker 1: All right, So that's Hulu Plus and Hulu We've we've
Speaker 1: covered that. That leaves the other of the big three,
Speaker 1: and that's Amazon and Amazon Again, like all three of
Speaker 1: these are very different from each other. They have different
Speaker 1: approaches to the way that they handle intent, they have
Speaker 1: different approaches the way that they handle revenue. With Amazon
Speaker 1: Prime Instant Video, there are a couple of different things,
Speaker 1: like you can have actual access to a certain portion
Speaker 1: of their television shows and movies that are available if
Speaker 1: you're an Amazon Prime member. That's a subscription based service
Speaker 1: that goes beyond just instant video, right right. It's not
Speaker 1: the same subscription that you would get just for Hulu
Speaker 1: Plus or just for Netflix. This is tied into its
Speaker 1: other Amazon Prime shenanigans where you know, you get free
Speaker 1: or discounted chipping and all discounts on certain goods and services,
Speaker 1: can borrow kindle books, stuff like that's wrapped allaws wrapped
Speaker 1: up into is what we're getting at, yeah, yeah, which
Speaker 1: is which is I think somewhere around seventy five bucks
Speaker 1: a year against seventy nine total. So when you when
Speaker 1: you look at it, it actually ends up being a
Speaker 1: little cheaper than some of the other services on a
Speaker 1: monthly basis. So in the United States anyway, seventy nine
Speaker 1: per per year. So so Amazon Amazon Prime Instant Video
Speaker 1: launched in February, and you know you can also use
Speaker 1: it to rent or buy titles separately, right, So there
Speaker 1: are some titles that are available for free viewing once
Speaker 1: you have this. About about forty movies and television episodes
Speaker 1: are available with the prescription um subscription subscription why can't
Speaker 1: I say that word today? Um? And and about something
Speaker 1: over a hundred and fifty thousand titles are available per Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you want to actually purchase stuff or rent stuff,
Speaker 1: and I've done I've done both. I rented titles through
Speaker 1: Amazon Instant and I've purchased titles on Amazon Instant so
Speaker 1: um and and the way it works is if you're
Speaker 1: renting it, if you have you know, you obviously need
Speaker 1: to watch it on something. You could watch it on
Speaker 1: a computer or tablet or in my case, I'm using
Speaker 1: a video game console and I'm watching it through there.
Speaker 1: But if you rent it, essentially once you start watching it,
Speaker 1: that the timers on and you have a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time to watch it, but before it gets bleated
Speaker 1: from your your devices drive and you don't get to
Speaker 1: watch it anymore. If you buy it, of course it
Speaker 1: stays in the cloud and you have the access to
Speaker 1: it on whatever device as long as you're signed in
Speaker 1: as you you can watch the programming right. Um. They
Speaker 1: also have exclusive deals. Like I mentioned earlier, they had
Speaker 1: nabbed down to Nabby from Netflix and they're starting something
Speaker 1: with Viacom. They've invested in a CBS show called Under
Speaker 1: the Dome um in exchange for a digital distribution, They've
Speaker 1: got exclusive rights to digitally distribute the show four days
Speaker 1: after it airs on network TV. Yeah, so this is
Speaker 1: similar to kind of the way Hulu does things with
Speaker 1: some of their shows right where it airs on television
Speaker 1: and then within a certain amount of time afterward, depending
Speaker 1: upon 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,
Speaker 1: yeah true factum. As of in fact, they unveiled Amazon
Speaker 1: Studios and started collecting scripts from the public. They opened
Speaker 1: up the process and we're just like, if you've got
Speaker 1: a good script, send it to pit. If you have
Speaker 1: a pitch, pitch it to us. And this is this
Speaker 1: is incredible. It does I mean, it means that you're
Speaker 1: going to get a lot of stuff, right, You're gonna
Speaker 1: get a lot of stuff that's not ever going to
Speaker 1: be producible. It's just gonna be things you read this
Speaker 1: like this might have been an interesting idea, but it's
Speaker 1: a terrible script. Or this is a good script, but
Speaker 1: it's boring. And they took a certain number of those
Speaker 1: and and filmed pilots of them, and in put those
Speaker 1: pilots online and didn't use exclusively user feedback, but but
Speaker 1: took that into kill that into account. They let the
Speaker 1: members of Amazon Prime watch them and helped decide what
Speaker 1: they wanted to see. Proceed to a series. It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of a democratization of content creation, sort of like
Speaker 1: what you would see if someone were to pitch a
Speaker 1: series on say Kickstarter. People pitched it, they shot the pilots,
Speaker 1: they showed them off, and some of them are now
Speaker 1: going to become actual series that will be available probably late.
Speaker 1: I saw that in the fall is when we can
Speaker 1: expect to see the first episodes of some of these shows.
Speaker 1: Right as of August, they had Alpha House and also Beta's.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait, So they've got Alpha House and
Speaker 1: they have a show called Beta's. I actually just got that.
Speaker 1: That's pretty silly that happened. And these are two different shows.
Speaker 1: It's not Alpha House and Beta's. It's Alpha House. And
Speaker 1: then there's another series called Beta's. I guess the last
Speaker 1: show will ever see will be Omega. That will be
Speaker 1: the last show that Amazon ever makes. And they've also
Speaker 1: got three children series and production the names of which
Speaker 1: I do not have in front of me. They were
Speaker 1: looking specifically for comedies and kids shows. Well yeah, and
Speaker 1: then if you if you look at the different series,
Speaker 1: a lot of them have focused, especially recently on on
Speaker 1: children's programming, on on on comedy and children's programs like Amazon's.
Speaker 1: Amazon's deal with Viacom is largely based on children's programming
Speaker 1: from things like Nickelodeon. Uh. Netflix has an entire section
Speaker 1: that's just like they had Netflix for Kids that they
Speaker 1: launched where you could create a little uh sub profile
Speaker 1: for your children so that they could easily find content
Speaker 1: from 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 Raiser series showing
Speaker 1: up in sequence from 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: were 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: You can also produce more than twenty four hours a
Speaker 1: day of content or way less if that's what you
Speaker 1: want to do, or if that's what you have money
Speaker 1: to do, right, and you can produce far more diverse
Speaker 1: content and uh and not have to worry about catering
Speaker 1: 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 they create an identity for
Speaker 1: themselves where they create very specific types of content that
Speaker 1: are meant for a particular audience, but then they grow
Speaker 1: as far as they can within that niche audience, and
Speaker 1: to grow further means that they have to go outside
Speaker 1: that definition sci fi. So, uh, you know, this is
Speaker 1: something that they don't These these companies don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: that problem. They can experiment with doing stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen with Netflix making drama and making horror as
Speaker 1: well as making comedy with the fourth season of Arrested Development.
Speaker 1: Amazon is doing it with children's programming, and this this
Speaker 1: alpha and beta stuff Hulu as Guide's own approach. It's
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this because I mean, I love
Speaker 1: story and I love the idea of people who otherwise
Speaker 1: would not have had this content produced having this shot.
Speaker 1: I think it's really a great moment for someone who
Speaker 1: is interested in consuming entertainment as well as people who
Speaker 1: want to produce it. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't have a
Speaker 1: number of the for for prime members like like I
Speaker 1: did for for Hulu and Netflix, because Amazon doesn't disclose that. Nope,
Speaker 1: they just say millions. It's in the millions, lots a bunch.
Speaker 1: I I do think it's pretty interesting that Netflix transitioned
Speaker 1: its site to Amazon's cloud servers in so well, you know,
Speaker 1: Amazon definitely does do the provide resources to other companies.
Speaker 1: That's one of their biggest businesses. That doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with the general consumer. I mean, when it
Speaker 1: comes down to a business deal, I can totally see
Speaker 1: them going, all right, you know, we're competing against you,
Speaker 1: 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 complaining,
Speaker 1: 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, HBO's
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 astra rhonomically good
Speaker 1: deal 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. I hope you guys enjoyed that classic episode
Speaker 1: about videos in the stream. If you have suggestions for
Speaker 1: future topics I should cover on the show, reach out
Speaker 1: to me. You can do so on Twitter or Facebook.
Speaker 1: The handle at both of those is tech Stuff hs
Speaker 1: W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text
Speaker 1: Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more podcasts
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