Comments on: Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Gets a Crash Course in the TV Business

By: Boxee: Either Jeff Zucker or Jason Kilar Are Lying About Booting Us Off Hulu | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:45:34 +0000

[...] Kilar said that his actions were prompted by his “content owners”, which most people, including me, assumed meant GE’s NBC (GE) and/or News Corp.’s Fox (NWS), the media conglomerates [...]

By: Internet People Versus Content People : Beyond Search

Internet People Versus Content People : Beyond Search — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:04:08 +0000

[...] I enjoyed Mark Cuban’s “Why Do Internet People Think Content People Are Stupid?” here. To be fair, I also like Boxee’s CEO (Avner Ronen) and his compatriots view of content people. The trigger for this dust up is Hulu’s decision to block the Boxee service from Hulu content. You can get a refresher on this issue in Peter Kafka’s “Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Gets a Crash Course in the TV Business” here. [...]

By: Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman “Ides of March” Edition | Beth Callaghan | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:55:59 +0000

[...] Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Gets a Crash Course in the TV Business [...]

By: James Abele

James Abele — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:03:19 +0000

Yeah, Boxee is basically just a type of browser that is couch-potato friendly and is not circumventing the ad revenue, so the content owners wanting to block Boxee but having public RSS feeds shows that they really don’t get what they’ve unleashed. I think the execs who demanded Boxee be blocked think that somehow Boxee is THE WAY to get internet content onto their living room tv, and thus is the direct competition to broadcast model also watched on that same living room tv. But they fail to realize the game has changed, and its NOT the device that displays the content that is dividing the audiences, its how they get the content. Not recognizing that a tv these days is a glorifed second monitor is a key point. If the industry thinks users that were using Boxxee will now go back to traditional broadcast so they can use their tv, they are missing the point. I suspect the vast majority of boxxee users of Hulu will simply start watching hulu on the same tv via a standard browser sans boxee, or simply torrent the show. The apple TV boxxee hack users are basically the losers here, as they are the ones who didnt even have access to hulu content until this (and this issue exposes why I think AppleTV is a fatally flawed concept until it opens up to web content more). All other Boxxee fans will just keep getting the content off ip somehow. Big Media would prefer you to go back to watching at boradcast since they make more money on ads that way currently, but they need to wake up to the fact that folks using Boxxee are most likely already gone from the broadcast worldview…its not hulu ad vs tv ad…its hulu ad or NO ad…

By: Mark Sigal

Mark Sigal — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:49:44 +0000

What will be interesting to see play out, and where I think Boxee is playing their cards right is that folks like Hulu (and most of the big media cos) already have embeddable video and RSS-based syndication of same to encourage viral distribution and maximize reach of their content.

So long as Boxee is not mucking with their video player constructs and in video ad revenue sources, big media is going to have a hard time saying “we want Twittering Jim to spread our content but not Boxee.”

That’s why I liked the agility when Hulu formally blocked Boxee for Boxee to turn around pretty much in real time and leverage the RSS feeds of Hulu.

Hearkens back to the old MCI ads where they show how MCI had to fight big telcos all the way to the supreme court (or something like that) to break the long distance monopoly.

Obviously, Boxee prays it doesn’t go that path, but it starts to become a losing PR battle for Big Media when they start blocking upstarts from doing the exact same thing they are encouraging consumers to do with their content.

For more fodder on the social media center space, check out:

What it Means to be a “Social” Media Center: Boxee, Apple TV and Square Connect
http://bit.ly/qc5hA

Cheers,

Mark

By: Jonathan Marcus

Jonathan Marcus — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:17:20 +0000

Avner and Mike Ramsay, TiVo’s co-founder, could commiserate over a beer.

By: Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Gets a Crash Course in the TV Business [MediaMemo] | heave-ho.org

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:06:48 +0000

[...] More: Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Gets a Crash Course in the TV Business [MediaMemo] [...]

By: Aaron Booker

Aaron Booker — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:27:45 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Traditional video content providers should observe that the music content providers are now selling unprotected files via iTunes – after trying to control distribution for over a decade – and failing. Advertising is the method that works for monetizing content – and Boxee gives a way to keep those ads (which they want to do) without folks just going to BitTorrent to get the content in a higher quality adfree environment. The content providers would be smart to just deal with it… No cable here – just Netflix and Hulu. (and an Apple TV with all my DVDs ripped to it via Handbrake) I own all the content in it, but I view and listen to no plastic discs anymore…

By: avner ronen

avner ronen — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:05:04 +0000

crash course indeed :)

we made a conscious decision to continue to have the user at the top of our priority list. the industry may take a while to adjust but the users are not waiting..

By: Dalton Rooney

Dalton Rooney — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:16:05 +0000

Traditional distribution providers can kick and scream all they want, but they would be better served by getting on the bandwagon sooner rather than later. Like cell phones and digital music stores before them, web-based TV is the future.

I have no need for a land-line, haven’t had a working CD player for years, and I just cancelled my cable. I am part of the most sought-after demographic for advertisers. Why would Hulu take away the one chance they’ve got to show me ads?