Why can I not watch films on iPlayer via TV?
Jimmy_McNulty
Posts: 11,378 Forum Member
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I wanted to watch Wall-E, but no films are on iPlayer on my tv, yet i can watch films on the net version 
Who wants to explain why to me
Who wants to explain why to me
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Started off with Alexander Korda refusing the rights for a TV adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel - which can be seen on The Fools on the Hill - reason? Film studios were scared.
IMHO, it's down to nontechnical lawyers - TVs are seen as a separate Device Class to Computers, to Mobiles... it IS pretty stupid - as they're all pretty much running the same thing. I mean - there's really no difference between an Internet TV and a PC with a large display hanging off it...
And the media industry wonder why people go to the grey sites, and why "piracy" is so prevalent... *headdesk* *headdesk*
It's just bizare that the box you are using to watch something creates a rights issue, when the infrastructure is the very same!
One day the penny will drop that a programme should be available on all formats, so that the viewing figures (and therefore income, if commercial) are maximised as everyone who wants to watch can.
But as the entertainment industries are so happy to keep in the dark ages, I'm not holding my breath.
Just down to someone calling this "piracy" or "unauthorised access". Only in the mind of a media lawyer can "unauthorised" mean "ah - we didn't think of that". Funny - I thought this same process was called "innovation"....
....and no surprise....
THEY are the ones that cause all this timewasting with DRM arms-races. THEY are the ones who insist on exclusivity, market separation etc, that only CAUSES "piracy" to continue.
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHAT CLIENT DEVICE IS USED TO VIEW THE MATERIAL???? If someone is streaming off a legit site, it SHOULDN'T MATTER AT ALL whether they're using a PC running whatever OS, a Smart TV, tablet, homebrew device...
I think back to Rev... original release date was slated for 6 months after the first series aired - Oct/Nov 2010. It was put back by a ****ing YEAR simply based on some dumb marketing decision. In the meantime, torrents were made available and the whole damn thing was put up on Youtube.. I'm sure part of the takeup of these alternative methods was out of sheer frustration as people reacted the same way I did when I got the "pushed back by 6 months" email 3 times from Amazon..
Christ, I even think back to ET! THAT was hyped beyond belief, and if global release had been the way they did things... (OK - so you had the whole having to shift reels of film thing - but bear with me) you wouldn't have had the same issues with knockoffs..
People WANT to buy content.. but the media middlemen seem to want it both ways. And it appears it's mostly the middlemen who are getting in the way.
Universal, Viacom, Paramount, EMI, the rest of you... LISTEN. Release globally, in open formats so your content is playable on anything, get a clue from the music industries and release withOUT DRM, at a sensible price point (say, 50% of the equivalent price on DVD as the infrastructure is there)... people will come flocking.
BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, other broadcasters... release open public specs of how clients can connect to your streaming services on a non-royalty bases (you know - like PAL and DVB-T is specified), allow independent development and release of user agents to connect to said services (you know - like "TV sets"), quit with the NDA bull, move the curation and presentation window logic back into the server-side code...
Make rapid release onto DVD the norm.. and if the rights issues re DVD sales are sticky - then organise for permanent availability through streaming archives (with open, public client specs as above)...
Make EVERYTHING available to ALL client types, as you can only maximise exposure - and BTW, if you have to charge, I'm sure more people will be willing to pay IF they can watch on any device, at any time.
In short, QUIT WITH TRYING TO CONTROL EVERY ASPECT OF THE "VIEWING EXPERIENCE". Do what you do best, and give your users a but of trust.
Long ago, I may have accepted the media industry;'s arguments regarding "piracy". But with language conflation, and Luddite tendencies, I'm sure a lot of it is just led by sheer anger now.
Think back to the DeCSS case. "Oooh - OK - I'll buy that. Is there a DVD player for Linux available?" "No." "OK, I'll write my own." "That's PIRACY!".
Back to MP3s... again - same argument.
Video streaming, digital forms. Same argument.
it's why VHS/Beta won over Cartrivision...
Someone compared the rants by one media industry lawyer to an equestrian supplies manufacturer kicking off when the car was invented...
OK - rant over...
In some cases the legal agreements pre-date a particular service being available on a particular device - and it would be an idiotic lawyer that allowed the BBC (or whoever) to do whatever they wanted with the content - including things that hadn't been thought of at the time the agreement was signed.
In other cases, the same rights are being sold to other providers. You can't watch these movies on a TV using iPlayer, but you can using Netflix (?). I'm sure the BBC could have outbid Netflix (or whoever) if they'd wanted, but what would be the point?
Cheers,
David.
Surely the deal they make will be the one that offers the most money, and exclusivity is probably still the most valuable option because it drives subscriber numbers for Sky etc. If that changes then exclusivity will have to go.
They wouldn't. They'd get less money.
Exclusivity drives subscriptions. Sky pay the Premier League orders of magnitude more money than they would otherwise for exclusivity - who'd subscribe to Sky Sports for £20 a month if you could watch the games for much less or free elsewhere?
People behave differently on different platforms - for instance, it is a demonstrable fact that people who own iPhones purchase more content per capita than people with Android phones. So why would you charge the same for the rights? If you do then then you charge the amount the iPhone rights are worth, and the Android app is unsustainable as it won't bring in the revenue to cover it's rights costs. If you charge the amount the Android rights are worth for both platforms you lose 90% of your money.
So once you accept that different platforms generate different revenue, and thus will be able to pay different amounts, and you accept that exclusivity generates substantial extra profits, and again will be able to pay different amounts, you end up exactly where you are.
Neither of the above factors are going to go away. Nor is the fact there is a considerable difference between the laws (and therefore costs) on copyright across territories, so you'll never get day one global releases either without a massive increase in costs overall.
Phazer
Oh great(!)
A Roku to get Netflix, somethign else to get Lovefilm, ANOTHER to get other material...
Then have to replace them every other year, AND a subscription for each...
Juggle remotes and HDMI sources to just sit down and watch the damn material...
NO BLOODY WONDER Big Media is hated... why does it have to be so bloody complicated just to WATCH CONTENT?
Same transcoded files, same backend, same infrastructure, same path through peering, same ISP, same DSL line, same router. Different kit.
Hollywood, if you're listening, please just authorise any-any... ESPECIALLY when it comes to catchup rights with broadcasters. Just make a few calls and green it up. Call the BBC and clear all the films you let them broadcast and allow on iPlayer to allow ANY authorised iPlayer client to see it.
There should be NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER relating to client end-user kit. Especially as catchup services are a major selling point of Smart Tvs.
Yeah - I know I can always record it... but that's beside the point. A lot of people will want to use Iplayer for catchup...
We're getting there... but it seems to be a pitted road...
Almost certainly not - the F1 deal doesn't appear to have any platform differences and races are usually available.
Live events that can't be pre-encoded take a long time to go on iPlayer, it's more likely that the device you were trying to watch on just didn't have it's version ready yet.
Phazer