Review: A better Apple TV doesn't beat competition

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

Every show, every movie, any time you want it.....

That's all ya gotta do, and they'll beat a path to your door.

The tech is all but here.......Now we just gotta get the licensing ass clowns in line.

The "licensing ass clowns" as you refer to them are the only reasons that there is a flow of income in the movie and tv businesses. Quite simply, without licensing and standardizes licensing terms, there wouldn't be much out there these days, because there wouldn't be the level of income.

Expressions like that tend to come from the piracy community, who point the fingers at people who actually have the balls to try to SELL their products rather than give them away. It is incredibly short sighted to think that the problem is licensing... it isn't. It is more to do with people being unwilling to pay for the products, be it actually buying them, renting them, or paying for them with their time (commercials, pre-roll ads, etc). With limited sources of income, the producers will make a limited product. Nobody seems to be thinking quite that far.

Generation Disrespect: They don't care about how it effects anyone else, they just want their binky now!

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

The "licensing ass clowns" as you refer to them are the only reasons that there is a flow of income in the movie and tv businesses. Quite simply, without licensing and standardizes licensing terms, there wouldn't be much out there these days, because there wouldn't be the level of income.

Expressions like that tend to come from the piracy community, who point the fingers at people who actually have the balls to try to SELL their products rather than give them away. It is incredibly short sighted to think that the problem is licensing... it isn't. It is more to do with people being unwilling to pay for the products, be it actually buying them, renting them, or paying for them with their time (commercials, pre-roll ads, etc). With limited sources of income, the producers will make a limited product. Nobody seems to be thinking quite that far.

Generation Disrespect: They don't care about how it effects anyone else, they just want their binky now!

I'm gonna assume you didn't just make a libelous accusation there.
I'm all broke up about those "ass-clowns" that are reaping untold millions on product that has been sitting on their shelves for years, and before ANY of the possibilities of these other revenue streams existed.
And, yea, by the way, they aren't sharing that revenue with the other people entitled to it...namely the artists.
No, they capitalized, profited, and wrote down that inventory years ago. Now they are getting greedy.

The deal was......we watch 4-8 minutes per hour of commercials to pay our "fee" for watching the content. The signal came to the house for free.
Now, we pay massive expense for the "cable," and watch up to 22 minutes of "commercial," for shitty content.
Apathy & Greed.

In our own industry, some most of those studios don't exist anymore. So, who's really "entitled" to the licensing revenues? The last guy in the room, or the guy that found the masters in the closet?
Yea, I'm crying for them.
Again, that material from the 80's and 90's was made, profited on, and sent to the $1 a tape sale bin. I know, I bought a WHOLE LOT of it. Now we have a new medium, (again, never imagined, or even written into most contracts, when there were contracts,) and someone jacks the prices to the fools that don't know any better?

Content has a value. And the people should be paid. And they should get maximum payout, and utilize all the income streams available to them.
But I'm getting tired of the "piracy is destroying the industry" cry, as a solution for mis-management, and bloated affiliate payout programs.

Paying out 60-125% affiliate commissions on sales is what destroyed the industry. The folks in the 80's seemed to be able to make money on just films and VHS, with an arcane, and difficult delivery system.
If you can't make money today, it's your own incompetence. Low up front costs, unlimited "talent," minuscule production costs, micro delivery expense, and you can't make money?
Please.

Piracy doesn't enter into it. It's just the bogeyman.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

The folks in the 80's seemed to be able to make money on just films and VHS, with an arcane, and difficult delivery system.
If you can't make money today, it's your own incompetence. Low up front costs, unlimited "talent," minuscule production costs, micro delivery expense, and you can't make money?

Try it yourself, I think you'll likely change your tune in short order.

P.S. You might want to join the rest of us in the 21st century first.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Toby

Try it yourself, I think you'll likely change your tune in short order.

P.S. You might want to join the rest of us in the 21st century first.

The point being.....they made money with much less advantage than we have today. They were working on the edge of being busted at every shoot, having the mob rape them for the lion's share of the revenue, working through the theater distribution system, and making, and shipping physical product.

And you want me to cry for digital hard drive cameras, downloaded to digital editing bays, and distributed through an automated server/payment system?

How about YOU try it back when it was work?
I do, actually produce videos for the local cable network, and DVD distribution. My "commitment to the community."

So, while I don't work with adult talent, I do the rest of it.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

So, while I don't work with adult talent, I do the rest of it.

But you're not comparing apples to apples, or even apples to oranges. You're equating sales and distribution of a physical product (VHS video) with digital media. Two markets as different as night and day, with significantly different limiting and non-limiting factors.

I spent 15 years in retail sales/management prior to doing this Interweb thing 12 years ago, so I think I have a pretty good grasp of the similarities and differences. There are some aspects that do translate from one to the other, but many others that simply do not. Pirating being a prime example. It was a minimal issue with VHS because the average consumer didn't have the means to make more than a few copies for friends. Entirely the opposite for digital media.