View Full Version : On Demand for the networks?
Greggbb
11-19-09, 12:56 PM
Why do we have OnDemand for basic/premium channels but not for the basic NBC/CBS etc? Is there some contractual reason for this? I know people with FIOS just watch all of their network shows OnDemand, and don't bother with season passes.
Would be nice to have this, since the local comcrap offers this. You could watch past episodes of network shows you've missed. As long as the networks can put ads at the beginning or end (in an effort to make $$), not sure why this isn't on there already. I would expect this to be on D* at some time in the future.
Stuart Sweet
11-19-09, 04:51 PM
It's funny, this was something I believed would happen after On Demand went out of beta but it never did. Maybe there's some research showing that there isn't a real demand for it, or maybe the parties couldn't come to a reasonable agreement. Maybe with Hulu and other online services they didn't think it was a priority.
Movieman
11-19-09, 04:57 PM
Or maybe the networks would prefer us going to their websites for shows so that they can do some advertising.
RunnerFL
11-19-09, 05:04 PM
We had NBC On Demand for a while but they were charging for downloads so there was a lot of complaining. After that NBC On Demand was gone.
Coca Cola Kid
11-19-09, 05:13 PM
A lot of shows are on cable a few weeks later (USA, Spike, TNT etc.) so maybe that's the reason
Newshawk
11-19-09, 05:35 PM
One word-Hulu
Oh, and according to Chase, get ready to pay for it (access, that is).
One word-Hulu
Oh, and according to Chase, get ready to pay for it (access, that is).
I thought what was free now stays free, but some premium content would be pay?
We had NBC On Demand for a while but they were charging for downloads so there was a lot of complaining. After that NBC On Demand was gone.
They were not charging for the Olympics and had it on D* then to.
hilmar2k
11-20-09, 06:01 AM
I don't even bother with On Demand due to lack on content. I went into it again for the first time in a long time, expecting to see a ton more content......oh well, maybe next time.
RunnerFL
11-20-09, 08:41 AM
They were not charging for the Olympics and had it on D* then to.
The Olympics were the only thing they weren't charging for. It was something like $1 an episode in SD and $2 in HD. Kinda silly to pay when you can just watch the episodes on their website.
ffemtreed
11-20-09, 08:44 AM
I use on demand for some of the movies on the premium channels. That is about it for me. The big thing I wish networks would do is re-run all the primetime shows at like 3 or 4 am.
tonyd79
11-20-09, 09:43 AM
How do those agreements work for a national provider like DirecTV? Cable companies, even when conglomerates like Comcast, are still managed regionally. Do they need to negogiate agreements with local affiliates perhaps?
DirecTV on demand still needs a lot of work if you ask me. It seems unacceptable that it takes hours to download a show in HD when I could download the same show via torrents in 30 minutes or less. I have a fast connection - it is way too slow on DirecTV's end. Comast on Demand is instantaneous - if you ask me Directv on demand is unusable for HD in it's present state (SD speed is OK but could be better as well).
dvrblogger
11-24-09, 03:45 PM
How do those agreements work for a national provider like DirecTV? Cable companies, even when conglomerates like Comcast, are still managed regionally. Do they need to negogiate agreements with local affiliates perhaps?
agreements are usually national but the networks got concessions from cable to disacble fast forwarding on VOD.
JoeTheDragon
11-24-09, 10:24 PM
. Comast on Demand is instantaneous - if you ask me Directv on demand is unusable for HD in it's present state (SD speed is OK but could be better as well).
only if the vod slots are not full and then there is the control lag.
Coca Cola Kid
11-25-09, 07:09 AM
DirecTV on demand still needs a lot of work if you ask me. It seems unacceptable that it takes hours to download a show in HD when I could download the same show via torrents in 30 minutes or less. I have a fast connection - it is way too slow on DirecTV's end. Comast on Demand is instantaneous - if you ask me Directv on demand is unusable for HD in it's present state (SD speed is OK but could be better as well).
What Comcast doesn't tell you though is that all of the on demand garbage they send you takes up 80 % of your DVR's hard drive. So you record 5 HD shows and its full. Yeah real convenient.
Movieman
11-25-09, 07:55 AM
DirecTV on demand still needs a lot of work if you ask me. It seems unacceptable that it takes hours to download a show in HD when I could download the same show via torrents in 30 minutes or less. I have a fast connection - it is way too slow on DirecTV's end. Comast on Demand is instantaneous - if you ask me Directv on demand is unusable for HD in it's present state (SD speed is OK but could be better as well).
Although you are correct you dont have to wait for the full download to start the playback. I use the DOD a lot but I would like to see it match more of what i had with Comcast. I think that might have been the only thing good about them.
Coca Cola Kid
11-25-09, 08:01 AM
Although you are correct you dont have to wait for the full download to start the playback. I use the DOD a lot but I would like to see it match more of what i had with Comcast. I think that might have been the only thing good about them.
The instantaneousness comes at a price though: hard drive space and your lack of control over it. When you're done watching the VOD content, you can't delete it and use the space for recording, you're stuck with it until Comcast decides to replace it with something else. With DirecTV you get (almost) complete control over what is and isn't on your hard drive.
Movieman
11-25-09, 08:07 AM
The instantaneousness comes at a price though: hard drive space and your lack of control over it. When you're done watching the VOD content, you can't delete it and use the space for recording, you're stuck with it until Comcast decides to replace it with something else. With DirecTV you get (almost) complete control over what is and isn't on your hard drive.
Right but it just goes back to the previous comment on that most customers wouldnt see this difference. Most customers just see instant access and have no real understanding of what is going on with their DVR. When I had Comcast the VOD never caused an issue for my recordings. Granted I didnt record because my HD content was poor. I was referring to that I use DOD and can see room for improvement.
Different providers treat these on demand feeds in different ways. For example, I know that U-Verse charges $1/episode to watch network TV on demand content. Other providers (e.g. Comcast) I believe do the same thing. Verizon, though, doesn't charge for it. But they (per the contract they have with the networks) disabled ffwd, rwd, and pause for ABC and NBC VOD offerings. I can understand disabling the ffwd, but I don't know why they would do that with rwd and pause. But anyway, it is a nice to have. If there's a show that I want to start watching, but have missed the first couple episodes of the season (which I'll do to check out a new show that comes on), I can go to the VOD library, and they tend to have 3 - 5 of the most recent episodes (this is how I caught up with Flashforward on ABC, and in the past I did this with shows that were marginal - ok, but not good enough to warrant taking up space on my DVR). It's also nice when I have nothing else to watch, and I'm just flipping around, I'll go to one of these VOD libraries and check out some shows in that one series that I keep hearing people talk about to see if the show is worth watching. That kind of thing. And the fact that I don't need to be on the DVR to do that is another nice to have.
Edit - the stuff written here about how Comcast works their VOD is very interesting. I never knew that. Verizon definitely doesn't do that - VOD takes up no space on my harddrive, is darn near instantaneous to start up (it does take about 20 seconds before the show starts playing), and the PQ is excellent.
Coca Cola Kid
11-25-09, 08:14 AM
Right but it just goes back to the previous comment on that most customers wouldnt see this difference. Most customers just see instant access and have no real understanding of what is going on with their DVR. When I had Comcast the VOD never caused an issue for my recordings. Granted I didnt record because my HD content was poor. I was referring to that I use DOD and can see room for improvement.
I had Comcast too so thats how I know about all of this
I've always found the PQ of DOD excellent on both SD and HD shows. Also with D* I can record 10 times as much HD shows and the hard drive will only be just over half full. I record a lot of stuff too so this is a major improvement over Comcast, whose hard drive would fill up with only 5-10 HD shows.
Movieman
11-28-09, 04:16 PM
I had Comcast too so thats how I know about all of this
I've always found the PQ of DOD excellent on both SD and HD shows. Also with D* I can record 10 times as much HD shows and the hard drive will only be just over half full. I record a lot of stuff too so this is a major improvement over Comcast, whose hard drive would fill up with only 5-10 HD shows.
We may not be talking about the same thing. I never noticed instant view programs staying on my playlist. I know that I could instantly view everything I wanted but cant completely remember right now. (been awhile since I had Comcast). No doubt over all Directv's product is better but could use more work.
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