More Details on the Verizon & Redbox Streaming Partnership

TechCrunch dug up some more information on the rumored Verizon & Redbox streaming offering:

The service is called Project Zoetrope internally, and will be a subscription, streaming, and downloading service for TV and movies that will be available on a broad variety of platforms: they plan support for iOS, Android, Google TV, Xbox, Roku and other streaming boxes, and browsers. “Set-top boxes,” by which they mean more traditional digital cable boxes, are not supported; this is an internet service, not a broadcast service.

Pricing and availability:

Launch is planned for May 28th, with a beta starting in late April. Pricing is expected to be monthly and credit-based, e.g. $5.95 per month for 6 credits, which could be used to rent X movies or Y shows. There will be several tiers and some will include physical disc rentals, and of course there will be ways to purchase more shows if necessary.

May 2012 is a long way away...

Comments

[ClydesMP]

"Pricing is expected to be monthly and credit-based, e.g. $5.95 per month for 6 credits, which could be used to rent X movies or Y shows."

Major fail right there. These companies are clueless. They just totally do not get it which is why I hate these big announcements that turn out to be a bunch of stuffed shirt executives trumpeting their own horn, nothing more. But after you shift through the manure, you find out it's all just crap.

[RJM35126]

all depends on the pricing.

x or y doesnt tell us much

[Gran]

X movies or y shows means "limited." When will they understand that Netflix's success is due to "unlimited" number of watches. The problem is, the studios hate this.

[moviegeek]

It's more of a competitor for CinemaNow and Vudu, I prefer buffet to PPV. If the studios had their way everything would be PPV.

[jheartney]

The problem with PPV is you are punishing your customers for using your service. Every time someone watches something, they take a hit. Even if it ended up being the same amount of money for watching the same amount of content, psychologically it's limiting.

Furthermore, it means people are much less likely to sample from unknown stuff. If it's going to cost me the same amount to watch 5 minutes of something as it does to watch the whole thing, I'm going to be very careful before queueing up a new title I don't know about.

One thing Netflix understood right from the start is that streaming competes (successfully) with piracy, generating a revenue stream from customers that might otherwise go to a stolen download. PPV is much less likely to get these customers.

[Robert Emmerich]

$ for credits is stupid. Even Nintendo changed over from a point system on the Wii and DS(s) to $ for the 3DS. I'm not as opposed to the PPV as other people, it makes economic sense for the business and many people would rather just pay for a movie they like than monthly for streaming stuff they don't, but I ain't buying no stinkin' credits (bad grammar intentional for comic effect)

[al]

anything that has to do with verizon i have no use for

[Emil Rekasi]

I agree with Al. Going with Verizon shut the door for me to.