#headweb

[cristianoalvesxd]

Que tal o novo Spidey?? #spidey #headweb (em Redenção da Serra, Brazil)

[mpeltola]

Headweb sneaked up on me - which was nice

Wow, the Swedes are really on a roll: not only have they invented Spotify and Voddler, they're already advancing full speed with VOD service Headweb in the Nordic market. Amazing! I registered last night, and despite the clumsy Finnish translations, the service seems quite convenient at first glance. Movie rentals are around 2-4 euros and the selection appears to be fairly diverse, with some new titles as well as older ones. A Serious Man, for example, premiers on Headweb tomorrow.

So far, information on Headweb has been pretty scarce in Finland, available mostly on IT discussion forums, but its launch did get mentions in tech magazine Tietokone (the article in Finnish) and financial online newspaper Taloussanomat. I also found an extremely informative entry comparing Voddler and Headweb by online strategist and Swedish startup guru Paula Marttila. She covers a wide variety of interesting stuff, I highly recommend browsing her sites.

I'm happy to see that we're finally getting a share of the action this spring, the online movie scene is downright buzzing! It'll be interesting to see which one - if either - will become the preferred VOD service here in Finland.

[meinto-se-julkalender-blog]

Tävla om ett presentkort från Headweb du skulle, om du nu gärna vill se en bra rulle. Passar ypperligt när du rensat ditt fat, på all din goda julmat. 

I dagens lucka finns en tävling från Headweb, som är Skandinaviens största videobutik på nätet. De ger bort ett presentkort till de 10 första som svarar rätt på frågan nedan. Ett presentkort gäller för en film, värde 50kr. 

Headweb är Skandinaviens största videobutik på nätet. Där kan du välja bland tusentals filmer, de senaste från videotoppen och dina gamla favoriter. Se filmen enkelt på din dator, iPad eller TV.

Fråga: Vilka två kända svenska skådespelare spelar huvudrollerna i Jägarna 2? Skriv även en motivering till varför du föredrar att se film på nätet. 

Svaret på frågan hittar du på filmsidan för Jägarna 2!

De första 10 som mailar det rätta svaret till: [email protected] vinner alltså ett presentkort på Headweb. Vad kan väl passa bättre än att smälta julmaten i soffan och till en bra film under julledigheten?

[digithoughts]

How to end movie piracy in Europe and get filthy rich

Europe has the excellent music service Spotify (maybe not so excellent anymore). US has Netflix for movies but not Spotify. We need Netflix in Europe. Movie piracy is on the decline in the US and music piracy is (was) on it’s way out in Europe. I mean; why bother searching a dubious website for a decent rip of the Strokes latest and greatest when you can just press play in Spotify? The same goes for movies and I guess we have a market opportunity here in Europe. If Spotify has been able to strike deals all over Europe for music, a movie service should be able to pull it off as well. Who will be the front runner and create a European Netflix?   Three simple rules to get it right:   1. All you can eat business model  I’m not after a pay per film streaming service. We have those. For me personal, they are not attractive at all. I need the all you can eat buffet business model. I just want to decide on WHICH movie, not thinking about payment procedures and whether or not I want to pay for a movie at all. In today’s climate, it’s actually becoming harder and harder to find the peace to commit to watch a movie at all. But if it’s already paid for; go ahead and start watching, it doesn’t matter if you’ll get interrupted or change your mind. No regrets. The all you can eat business model would also be a way for studios and content holders to monetize on older content. I watch older movies and TV-shows all the time, most of them I’ve already seen. But I wouldn’t pay for them unless they’re included in a monthly fee. One more thing. We’re not snobs, so don’t exclude those who are willing to pay for content but aren’t that into the all you can eat model. Make it easy for them to pay per view if that's what they prefer. Even better, make it cheap. Think “in app purchasing”-cheap. Make your customers want to use your service often. 2. No free versions The reasons are severalfold. You don’t have to rely on unsure ad money and you don’t have to sell those ads in the first place. With a clear monetisation strategy it will also be easier to get the movie-studios on board.  Furthermore, you will make money from day one and be able to expand your server parks organically as your subscription base grows. It’s not easy to make money on ad funded premium content services and ad funded services is no technical walk in the park either, just ask Voddler. If you create a compelling service with a wide selection of both premium and long tail content, people will be willing to pay. Start with €10/month. Don’t be too greedy. 3. Apps on everything Besides a compelling web service, create apps for smartphones, tablets (even though Android today is problematic due too DRM issues), media players like the Apple TV, Boxee Box and Popcorn Hour, gaming consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360, TV sets and DVD players etc. Make your app available everywhere and make it as easy as possible for users to to access the content. I have no interest in paying €10 per month for a web service alone, it needs the company of good apps. In Sweden we have several video on demand services like Voddler and Headweb. But they are partly ad-funded free movies (Voddler) and partly pay per view (Voddler and Headweb). Lovefilm UK have an on demand service where it’s possible to stream movies if you have one of their rental packages. Lovefilm could be a good candidate to expand their service, both market wise and feature wise. The company already has a pretty strong European presence. However, Lovefilm’s iPad app is today just for managing your rental list, not accessing the on demand content. The focus needs to shift from physical media to app delivered streaming.

Will you, Amazon or Google bring home the bacon?

Lovefilm owner Amazon seems to be the most likely candidate to succesfully ramp up this kind of has service in Europe. Amazon knows a thing or two about digital content sales, the company already has its own video on demand service included in their Amazon Prime service (besides Lovefilm) and has a strong European market presence. But surely you can beat Amazon to the punch? Maybe you can focus better than Amazon and make a more attractive package? There are many good reasons to try. Here are some quick stats from Netflix’ first quarter earnings in 2011: 23.6 million subscribers in total, 21.4 million paid subscribers in the U.S, revenues was $719 million and net income came in at $60 million. It's money on the table folks, so hurry up! Otherwise, Google will swipe in an grab it before your eyes with its upcoming youtube video on demand service.  The first vendor that can widely implement a well working service like this for, lets say, €10 per month, would gain a huge following. So; who will ease my life, kill movie piracy in Europe and earn a lot of money doing it?