Interchange Project

Episode 38: To go or not to go

This actually happened. And it happened several times while trying to watch one episode on HBO Go.

We discuss the usability issues with HBO’s app HBO Go.

Besides the problem with using it on the go, it’s a pretty good app. Make of that what you will.

We also discuss our iPad setups for work, and how we use the iPad to get stuff done.

We then discuss how we’re all lucky be subjected to a second unskippable government warning before movies we buy. Double your pleasure.

And then we discuss how the American Community Survey is in jeopardy. It’s kind of a BFD.

Listen to this week’s show: 

Download the MP3

Show notes:

• Why is HBO go not a to go service?
• Game of Thrones looks terrible streaming over hotel wifi (HBO No Go?)
• The American Community Survey in jeopardy
• Pat’s iPad setup
• DVDs and blurays will now come with two unskippable government warnings

Episode 8: Our cloud/streaming future — get excited, but be prepared to cry

This is our Net Neutrality episode, and it’s a great discussion about what could be and how that may not come to be.

We go into this whole big discussion about our cloud/streaming/awesome future that may be derailed by our terrible ISPs. So get excited — but be prepared to cry.

We ask some big questions:

• Do younger generations who have never paid for music have interest in owning digital content? Are we exiting the age of ownership?
• Can our Internet support our awesome cloud/streaming future?
• Will streaming digital content and better user experiences vanquish piracy?

We kick off the show by asking, are people being too harsh with Google and the whole Google+ deleting users for not using their real names? We think that people should cut Google some slack during a field test.

And organizations? Well you knew from the start that Google was rolling out pages for organizations at a later date. So, really how upset should you be that your organization’s page was deleted?

Out of nowhere we kind of do an Apple TV review at the end of the show. We talk about whispers of NFL Sunday Ticket coming to Apple TV.

Also, I lecture people about how only stupid people use P2P services such as Limewire. Is your computer acting weird? Is it slow? Might be because you’re using a P2P service filled with malware and viruses.

Listen to this week’s podcast:

Download the MP3

Show notes:

• Google+ kicking users off for not using their real names — The blogosphere has been all up in arms about this.
• Apple updates Apple TV to allow unlimited streaming of TV shows – We are excited.
• Your ISP is screwing you — We are not excited.
• Netflix is causing less piracy — People should be excited about this, but ISPs may not be. But seriously, if you make a great product, people will pirate a lot less.
• Former EMI boss says Limewire users were major iTunes users — So labels ended up suing their best customers? A solid business model, we’re sure.

Netflix uses its price increase to bring subscribers to the future (could news organizations do the same?)

Netflix’s price increase was largely created to encourage subscribers to adopt streaming only, because Netflix clearly sees that streaming is the future of video, not plastic disks shipped in the mail (and stored in big, expensive warehouses).

Netflix also wants to encourage content holders to release more content digitally. If the majority of Netflix’s customers are on streaming only plans (which is not the case today), that would push reluctant content holders to see that the days of the DVD are over.

A lot of people are upset with Netflix now, but in five years it will be clear that this was the prudent decision. They’ll end up convincing more subscribers to go streaming only and sell more new subscribers on the idea of streaming video, especially as their streaming library grows. Their streaming library will grow as content holders see more and more people signing up for Netflix streaming (and hopefully my streaming video dreams will come true).

The Nieman Lab tries to see if these lessons could be applied to the news industry:

Newspaper publishers started this process several years ago, saying, “Let’s have these print customers pay more of the freight of creating and delivering print.” Since then, community dailies that used to cost a quarter a day havetripled to 75 cents, and The New York Times goes for $6 on Sunday. They have priced in more of the cost of that expensive newsprint, ink, and delivery.

Now, this year, we’ve seen added in the charging for digital access. We’ve begun to see the answer to this question: How much will consumers pay for digital access? That’s still uncertain, though early evidence is coming in from The New York Times, Time Inc., and Journalism Online experiments, among others. In newspapers and in magazines, we see the interim play: the bundled, all-access subscription — pay us once and get both analog and digital, print and pixel. That’s a move for more consumer revenue in the short-term, but also a longer-term pricing play to get pure digital revenue as readers give up print.

What do you think? In my view, legacy news organizations, particularly newspapers, have been double- and triple- downing on print. Investment in digital has seen fits and starts, and there hasn’t been enough attention paid as to how to monetize the future, which is clearly digital distribution of news.

I have a dream for streaming movies, and it doesn’t involve mailing DVDs around the world.