The Rise Of Group Subscriptions Or Accessing Television Subscription Content You Don’t Pay: The New York Times featured a cool article over the weekend which chronicles a growing trend – the growing number of people who access paid television content by using the cable subscription of a friend or relative so they don’t have to pay for the content. It seems an increasing number of people are accessing paid television shows and movies by accessing cable accounts online or via apps through their tablets or smartphones and then logging into their cable accounts with the log in information of a friend or relative. This new trend seems to be the most popular way for Cord Nevers. The term Cord Nevers referring to young adults that have grown up and accessed television shows and movies both online and by their parents or some other family members’ cable subscriptions and never had to pay for that content – and now they don’t want to so they are essentially getting accessing their favorite television shows and movies by a work-around logging into the HBO, Time Warner or other cable vendors subscription accounts with someone else’s login information.
Consider this example that is relayed in the article – the HBO television series Game of Thrones is in the midst of its third season. And episodes of the series can be streamed for free from the smartphone and tablet HBO app and also through the HBO website. And the only thing a person needs to stream the episodes is someone’s’ cable subscription login information – it doesn’t have to be theirs. Having the login information in hand can allow five or six members of the same family to watch episodes of Game of Thrones, or any other HBO content, on demand and when they want to! The only stipulation is that two people cannot be logged in and watching the same television episode at the same time.
This is an interesting trend as it shows how the traditional cable TV bundled channel subscription package business model is walking down the road to obsolesce.
Here’s the link to the New York Times article which is titled No TV? No Subscription? No Problem:
And Rdio Vdio Streaming Service Debuts: The company behind the Rdio streaming music service has just introduced a new video streaming service called Vdio. Unlike Rdio, which is a subscription music service, the new Vdio service allows you to buy or rent streaming videos. And currently Vdio is only available to Rdio Unlimited subscribers who can watch the Vdio videos through a web browser or if they have an Apple device through the Apple app – there isn’t yet a Vdio app for Android smartphones and tablets.
And as I’ve already gotten up on my soapbox on for the above section on the New York Times article and gone on about how the traditional cable TV bundled channel business model is changing in our 24-7-365-Internet connected world – I won’t do it again today!
Sufficient to say the new Vdio streaming videos service is another example of how the traditional way people watch movies and television shows.
Billboard offers an article with more in-depth information on this new streaming video service via the following link:
Have a great day!
Linda R
References
Dredge, Stuart. (2013, April 4). Vdio streaming TV and film service goes live in the US and UK. The Guardian. Online.
Wortham, Jenna. (2013, April 6). No TV? No Subscription? No Problem. New York Times. Online.
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