Hi,

You have have to understand where these incumbent operators are coming from, namely, they are the ones who are actually funding the substantive cost of production, with the web-video rights seen more as extra cherries.

However, the reason why online piracy has taken so much hold, though still not the norm for the mainstream, is because of the cost and convenience.

The way that it could work is if they offer something a leap apart from what is available for free, in terms of UI, speed, quality, personalisation, content longevity/archive, etc., but many people simply aren’t subscribers to legacy services, and they’re not going to go to the effort of signing up to something when what they can already access is adequate enough to meet their media needs.

In the UK, BskyB’s been offering such services under their “Sky player” brand for some years now, and really, it’s not a reason or even treated as a collar to remain with the service, simple an extra convenience, rather than a dogmatic fantasy that alternatives aren’t available.

On the other hand, Sky’s competitor, the former NTL, now Virgin Media, has signed up the web-based BBC iPlayer and moved it through its cable network onto consumers televisions, and been highly effective in appeal as a service advantage over its rival.

http://skyplayer.sky.com/vod/page/default/home.do
http://www.virginmedia.com/myvirginmedia/ondemand/bbc-iplayer.php

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak