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“Certainly there’s some torrenting that goes on, and that’s true around the world, but some of that just creates the demand. Netflix is so much easier than torrenting. You don’t have to deal with files, you don’t have to download them and move them around. You just click and watch”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in an interview with Netherlands Tech site Tweakers

Netflix is the very popular IPTV Streaming website that’s got viewership that ‘s now global, thanks to launching not only in Latin America but most recently in the Netherlands. What’s not to love at US$8.99 for unlimited monthly streaming? Some of my stablemates here at Geezam have not-so-nice words to mince about the Netflix streaming here in the Caribbean as per Ramano’s article Is Netflix a Netjoke?

netflix-logo

With LIME TV yet to launch its IPTV Streaming service in Jamaica as promised in my article LIME Jamaica’s 2013AD Launch of IPTV “LIME TV” is a Streaming “TV Anywhere” Revolution, if you have Broadband Internet and you love Streaming, Netflix’s the thing! Especially if you have a ChromeCast Streaming Stick, the hottest Streaming device since the Roku box as per Kemory Grubb’s article Google Chromecast – Web Videos on your TV for USD $35.

But how do they choose their content? It must be a pretty difficult job for the Programmers to pick a winner time and time again and maintain their viewership in the face of Torrenting, P2P Downloading and illegal File Sharing Sites. Even Google is trying to stamp out Piracy by making them have a lower priority in Searches by directing folks to legit options as I’ve described in Google downgrades searches for Pirate Sites in a bid for IPTV Streaming Dominance!

Turns out it’s as simple as putting on an earring and an eye patch and following the pirates to the Spanish Main! Netflix totally does that folks; they use the stats from the Pirates and let them choose the Content that YOU wanna watch. Using this logic, it certainly explains how they choose Game of Thrones, First Blood, Spartacus and more recently Prison Break to be a part of their lineup.

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings attributes the success of Netflix to the fact that they make it easier to watch content than it is to torrent. Just pay the little monthly fee, connect to the Internet on your smart TV with a Roku or Apple iTV Streaming Box, go to Netflix and click on what you wanna watch! Torrenting, albeit free, doesn’t guarantee quality programming and there is also the technical aspect that requires you to be tech savvy – which most American aren’t.

Back in May 2013, he even attributes this ease of getting the content that you want to the decline in Torrenting in Canada, albeit I suspect it’s just too cold to go snooping about to your friend’s house to get a DVD copied. He might be onto something as by offering the same exact content as the Pirates, it becomes a no-brainer and an impulse for you to draw for your Credit Card to just pay for the Service and be done with it!

Plus aside from this, there is a genuine trend towards Streaming in the US of A which may catch on in Jamaica soon. That is, IF the pricing of Broadband Internet being offered by FLOW and Digicel, their main competitors were to follow the trend started by LIME in lowering their Internet Rates as per my article LIME’s JA$2.99 Flat Rate Plan and JA$300 30-Day Data Plan.

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According to Research Firm Parks Research Stats published on Wednesday August 14th 2013, based on a survey taken of 10,000 US households, it’s the Roku streaming Box is top Dog with the Apple iTV holding steady in the No. 2 slot:

  1. 37% favour the Roku Streaming box

  2. 24% Favour the Apple iTV Streaming box

  3. 300 million households by 2017

  4. 100% increase in Revenue from Streaming devices

The main driver of this trend?  Cheaper Broadband prices as well as the falling cost of HDTV Sets. Thus as I’d said before, when Broadband rates drop to that of LIME and HDTV sets get as cheap as their CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) cousins, we’ll see a small stampede for Streaming.

Streaming benefits Telecom Providers as it creates a reason for them to adopt the service on a more permanent basis, initially going for 1 week service and stepping it up to fortnightly and graduating to 30 days service packages and culminating with a Postpaid plan. Eventually it may even help to accelerate the DSO (Digital Switch Over) by the Free-to-Air Broadcasters as argued in The Future of Free-to-Air Broadcasters in Jamaica as Digital Switch Over Approaches in 2015.

In that day, Jamaican peeps buying DVD on the road that might not always work or have the best quality will easily switch to Streaming from Netflix or even Local Content Provider eMedia Interactive with whom FLOW has partnered to have their content in their lineup on a channel dedicate for them. With all this Streaming-phillic news, dear reader now would be a good time to take a second look at the Google Chromecast and what it means for the future of Television!

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