Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys,
I am looking for thoughts/opinions. Is there any interest in a Bitcoin-based Netflix clone?

I am considering building a bitcoin-based netflix clone.
The service would offer up-to-date tv shows and movies. So if you are located outside the US and have difficulty watching US-based shows, you can watch them on this site.
We would include subtitles and dubs for other languages when possible.
You could watch all you want, in high-definition for a flat fee, around $8 a month via bitcoin for anonymity.
We would offer the popular tv series for bing- viewing, and users could request additional ones.

The main 3 benefits are bitcoin for privacy, all popular tv shows from all networks, and all-you-can-watch pricing.

Does this service already exist, or is anyone interested in using a service?
If not, -
What features would make you want to use this service? What features do you want included? 

Please let me know what you think.

thanks,
Jae

Equal content as Hulu/Netflix? I don't really see how that's possible, but I'd def be interested

I hope you have big pockets. ^Wink^
I would like to see such a service, because Netflix is not availlable in my country.
Would this be pirated content or a legitimate operation?

There are so many Torrentz providing this service for free, but I guess doing this the right way, with better and high quality content, would be much better. ^Smile^

This service would definitely be good, but I doubt you will get a large enough customer base to sustain your expenses.

You will never be able to cover your expenses if you approach this legally. Also, a lot of people are already subscribed to Netflix, and shifting for them might not be much convenient.

What shifting? Netflix will never work with a competing company to shift users.
This is a whole new service, with a bitcoin payment system.
Your current users at Netflix using fiat will not move, but a whole lot of bitcoin users might be, if it is legit. ^grin^

Well people just like by fiat with netflix, and building such with bitcoins requires a lot of publicity and investment, and offcourse, people are not dumb, they know which one has more options.

So if you want to build such, it will take a lot of time, and also people must need bitcoins to subscribe, so basically they choose netflix.

It's not possible at this moment unless companies like Netflix or Hulu decide to integrate bitcoin.

No new bigger company will take risk of launching a bitcoin based business that bigger.

How much media do you feel is worth $8/month?

Initially we would have the top 150 shows (according to IMDB) and the top 1000 movies of the last 10 years.
We will keep the tv shows up to date.

Would it deter you from using the service if the content was pirated? 
Using bitcoins and an anonymous email account would absolve you of any legal liability.

We would emphasize organization and quality. So the service would be easier for those who don't have time or energy use torrent files.

It surely will be a challenge.
One idea we are experimenting with is enabling users to queue up content they want to watch. A separate standalone program would download this content  to your hard drive during off-peak hours.

This way heavy users could watch as much as they want without impacting other users.

Wasn't planning on taking on Netflix directly. I was think this would be more useful international users.
As stated previously, would it deter you from using the service if the content was pirated? 

The site would only accept bitcoins. The netflix demographic wouldn't be the focus. 

I've always wanted a website like this one: http://viptv.net/ (in terms of quality and quantity of offered shows to watch) that did the same thing for movies.

This is similiar to what we are planning. They have more tv shows than we planned on starting with. (400 vs 150) But we want to include movies.
 The price point seems high, viptv and tvonline.cc charge $30 for unlimited monthly service, and $.25 per epsidoe.

What is it about viptv.net that you like?

Through my time of using them, the price breaks I did for buying in bulk: I get about 10-17 cents per episode. I don't really think it's that high considering the money is spent per episode I watch, so I'm only paying for what I want to watch, and get to watch them without commercials in contrast to paying for a subscription for a website like Netflix that (to my understanding and I might be wrong) charges per month whether you use it or not.

I mostly use it to supplement my tv viewing. I don't get certain channels, and so I watch those shows from those channels through this website.

You will be sued for this and there are plenty of torrent sites out there already, if however you're planning on putting on some unique shows there might be interest.

You will be raped by legal threats :P , it is always an issue because you dont even have to be committing illegal activities... MPAA is just too strong :/

1- If you officially buy rights to publish
2- If you add support for different subtitles. (We should be able to add subtitles to videos.)
I can pay up to 0.03 btc per month for premium.

I don't think it is feasible.

It would be good, bu unlikely to get the same content as Netflix. They would not allow it to live.


I think make Netflix accepts BTC is more feasible

Why would people drop Netflix in order to pay the same amount for pirated content with a lot less flexibility? You won't be able to stream to a tv, for instance. And with the size of your library, small as it is in comparison to Netflix, how many users will you need to achieve break even just for the storage, before even thinking about bandwidth?

Besides, I'd bet that the Bitcoin userbase is considerably more tech savy then ordinary users, much more willing/able to torrent their content. Why pay you when they can get the same exact content for free?

Just don't see how this could succeed, even if this is based on pirated content. To do it legitimately, paying licensing fees to the copyright holders, would make it even more unachievable

Hey lucasjkr, Thanks for your feedback. Good points.

This geared towards users outside the US. Nettflix and Hulu are not available outside the US.

Incorrect, users can connect their laptop / android phone to a tv.

For storage we break even on < 30 users.

Torrenting can be time consuming. On this service content will be well organized and instant viewing.
Also since files are on site, you can access your shows away from your main pc.

Alas, we will try our best. Sites like tvonline and viptv have made it work

I agree doing this legitimately is not possible.

Thanks.

Hi catena5260, we are outside the US so we are not under US legal jurisdiction.

So what you're saying is, you'd prefer the pay-as-you-go model.
I never thought of it that way. Essentially if stop watching shows for a few weeks, you are not charged. We will definitely consider adding a pay-as-you-go plan in the future.

i am interested in a Bitcoin-based Netflix site.

The only advantage of this would be to people living outside the US. However a lot of other countries have their own options.

If its illegal, then why would someone chose this over torrents?

Convenience and ease of use. Some shows have many episodes, torrenting and organizing the files will take a lot of time.
Also you can watch shows from any device, not just the device you downloaded the files on.

 Netflix does not offer all of the popular US based shows and movies. The Netflix library has some notable gaps like HB O stuff. 

Thats true, that might be one thing you could improve on.

 Cool, will definitely let you know when we have something ready.

Just a suggestion, since you would not have many expenses. Maybe, you can make it cheaper than netflix, say around 5$. That way, a lot of people who use Netflix might also shift to this. But you will definitely have to do the math to see, if it will be profitable.

I would love it. Especially a pay-per-view system. But I think you are going to need about $10 million dollars to get the airing rights to just a few popular shows.

Yes. Sometimes I go weeks if not a month or so without watching when I'm busy, and then I'll have some free time and catch up on a season and half of a show in a couple of a days. I wouldn't like paying for time I'm not watching, but I don't mind paying for watching all the times I do.

Companies like Netflix will generally not pay a flat fee for broadcasting their content. They will generally pay on a per viewer basis (or some other way that is based on how many times and how many people watch particular shows).

The same is essentially true for affiliates of the "big 4" broadcasters - NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX

Ah, well I stand corrected then. I thought they had to put up huge money to secure broadcast rights. Perhaps it would not be so expensive to start.

I don't see how this would work. You can't compete with Netflix since they have a huge database and Popcorn Time is a really popular (free) alternative.

Seems, the op plans to launch this for various reasons. The primary reason being that Netflix isn''t available in countries outside the US.

u have no power to be like netflix, unless of course, site will be illegal, and im sure thats what u meant

Asking people to pay $5 on a monthly basis to watch on an illegal site...that'll be interesting to see how it turns out. It doesn't seem like it'd be successful...