Category: SubscriptionEconomyPro

SubscriptionEconomyPro

YouTube Crosses 1 Billion Subscriptions, Launches Tool for a Quicker 2nd Billion

YouTube announced that its crossed a billion subscriptions. That’s subscriptions to YouTube channels.

"Early on (we’re talking ’06 here, people!), the yellow subscribe button made its debut so the latest videos from your favorite channels could make a beeline to your inbox/eager eyes," YouTube Product Marketing Manager Georges Haddad, said in a blog post yesterday. "Today, the button that’s been immortalized as a throw cushion hits an important landmark: it’s been clicked over one billion times."

While it was MachinimaSports that got the billionth subscription (featured on YouTube’s homepage today), a number of channels have over a million subscribers. In fact there are 15 of them. These include: fred, nigahiga, kassemg, shanedawsonTV, shanedawsonTV2, smosh, universalmusicgroup,machinima, sxephil, mysteryguitarman, davedays, kevjumba, realannoyingorange, raywilliamjohnson, collegehumor, failblog.

YouTube has also launched a new widget for video producers to embed on their sites and blogs that allows for one-click YouTube channel subscription. That should help the second billion come a lot faster.

When a user clicks the button, they don’t have to leave the content provider’s site to log into YouTube or to confirm their subscription. It all happens right in the widget. Content providers can get the source code for the widget here.

In other YouTube news, CEO Chad Hurley announced that he is stepping down from his post, and will assume an advisory role with YouTube. As Doug Caverly points out, he was the last of YouTube’s co-founders to have close ties to the company.

October 29, 2010
WordPress Subscriptions, Facebook Ad Impressions & More

There’s been a lot going on in web news over the last few days, and there have been some things worth looking at that I haven’t gotten a chance to cover, but I’d like to point out just in case you missed them.

WordPress introduced a new subscriptions feature. "Let’s say you’re reading a blog on WordPress.com that you really enjoy — so much so you want to be notified when new posts are published so you remember to read them," WordPress explains. "You can subscribe to this blog really easily by using the ‘Subscribe’ menu in the admin bar. By going up to your admin bar, and clicking ‘Subscribe to blog’, you’ll be instantly subscribed and all current and future posts will be added to the subscriptions tab on your WordPress.com home screen."

Facebook added a new ad impressions counter. As PaidContent’s David Kaplan writes, this social metric will show benefits of ads that include social context from people’s friends on Facebook.

Seesmic released a new version of Seesmic Desktop. "The inspiration to build SD2 came from the understanding that our users desired support of many different social services, more than just Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin," a representative for Seesmic told us. "And so, SD2 was born. With the plugin architecture in SD2, you can easily add, remove and customize the platform to include only the services that matter to you."

Netflix streaming is now available for Panazonic VIERA Cast HDTVs and Blu-Ray players. CrunchGear has more on this.

Opera and Netrange MMH revealed a new way for device manufacturers to give consumers a wide variety of content on their connected TVs – a space that it is obviously getting more competitive by the day. They will deliver the Opera Devices SDK and a pre-qualified suite of web-based TV content to be deployed on TV platforms supporting HbbTV and other pan-European initiatives. More on this here.

Intel released an iGoogle gadget for MESH power management information.

September 14, 2010
Facebook Tests Subscriptions, Will Launch Remote Log-Out

Facebook is testing a feature that lets users "subscribe" to other users. Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook shares an official statement from Facebook: "This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links, or notes)."

This could make Facebook more attractive as a news reader, a way Facebook has encouraged users to use the service in the past, and a functionality that is probably more often associated with Twitter, though the capabilities are clearly both there with either service. Notifications of updates would only enhance Facebook for this purpose.

O’Neill shows a screenshot, which shows a simple link to subscribe to a user under their profile picture, and an update from that person appearing in the notifications along with all the other ones.

Keep in mind, this is just a feature they’re testing, and it’s possible that it won’t ever become available, but I can’t see too many downsides to it as long as users have to opt in to subscriptions.

Would you find this feature useful? Share your thoughts.

Facebook also announced that users will soon have a new way to control their accounts, with a remote log-out feature (pictured above). Users will be about to log out of any Facebook session from another computer or device. More on that here.

September 3, 2010
Amazon to Take On Netflix With Subscription Service?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is working on a subscription service for TV shows and movies. The company has reportedly been talking with NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp. Viacom, and others about such a service.

The offering would appear to be a direct competitor to things like Netflix, iTunes, and Hulu plus. According to the WSJ, it would focus on old catalogue content, and would work through the browser or connected devices like TVs, Blu-ray players, Xbox, etc – very much like Netflix.

Amazon already offers movies and TV episodes for download, but a subscription service could attract a different audience, and Amazon probably has the power to be a bigger threat to Netflix than some other competitors.

The battles for web television are seriously going to be heating up soon. Apple is expected to announce an update to its Apple TV offering today. Google TV will be here in the coming months. Yahoo has its Connected TV offerings. Samsung is pushing development on its platform hard right now. It’s going to be very interesting to see how things unfold in this industry. 2011 is going to be a very interesting year for television.

Netflix itself is doing all it can to expand. The company is expected to be feature on the new Apple TV offering, and it has recently launched an iPhone app, with an Android app on the way.

September 1, 2010
Blockbuster Adds Xbox, Playstation, Wii Games to Subscription Rental Service

Blockbuster has announced that it’s adding games to its mail rental service. Customers now have access to over 3,000 titles for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii through the company’s mail subscriptions service.

Blockbuster says the move makes them the only entertainment company to offer rentals of games, movies, and TV shows for home delivery through a single subscription service.

"The addition of games for our BLOCKBUSTER By Mail customers – from families looking for entertainment experiences they can enjoy together, to serious gamers – is yet another convenient way to access entertainment content from Blockbuster," said Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice-President, Digital Entertainment. "This enhanced offering supports Blockbuster’s multichannel strategy and shows our commitment to being the leading provider of home entertainment content."

Customers have received emails like this:

The move is smart and probably overdue. The competition in this space is heating up on both the movie side and the games side, and Blockbuster has yet to make a significant impact on the movie side with regards to the direction things seem to be going in (streaming). Netflix continues to bolster its streaming offerings and other online-only content sources offer streaming and downloadable movies. Redbox also recently expressed interest in moving towards streaming.

On the games side of things, besides the increasing interest in online, social games, Gamefly is generally thought of as the leader in the console game rental-by-mail space. A couple weeks ago, Gamerang launched its new game rental site with social and API features, hoping to carve out a bigger name for itself in the space.

Blockbuster’s movie/game combination service does give consumers something they can’t easily get anywhere else – games and movies from a single subscription. That will at least entice some gamers.

Meanwhile, Netflix continues focusing on increasing its streaming catalog A new deal with Epix was just announced today. This will give Netflix customers more streaming titles from Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM.

August 10, 2010
Online Subscriptions Driving Magazine Sales

Online subscription will generate 24 percent of new business sales for magazines in 2010, according to a new report from the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA).

The percentage of subscriptions generated from the Internet has increased steadily since 2006:

"Magazine publishers are being smart about leveraging online marketing opportunities to expand their audience, grow readership and increase subscription revenues," said Nina Link, President and CEO, MPA.

"Internet sub sales have almost doubled in the last three years. The web is now the largest subscription source for one in five magazines."

Other highlights from the report include:

*The Internet will represent 13% of total subscription sales (new and renewal) in 2010.

*Magazine-branded websites are the leading source of Internet subscriptions, representing 43% of sales.

*Other leading Internet sources include email, cross selling, upsells and third-party partnerships and affiliates.

*93% of Internet subscriptions are sold direct to publishers.

*The leading subscription agents are Amazon.com and Magazines.com.

July 9, 2010
Hulu Gossip: Subscription Service Might Debut Next Week

Speculation about Hulu’s subscription service is beginning to feel never-ending; inaccurate rumors concerning the date of its arrival and other details have been circulating for far too long. But one new report indicates that a beta test of the subscription service might finally begin next week, and another hints that a deal with PlayStation is in the making.

Let’s start with the first tale. Peter Kafka reported, "The video web site is finalizing its plans to launch its subscription service, and people familiar with the company say a beta test of ‘Hulu Plus’ could launch as early as next week."

Something like 10,000 volunteers would then be able to pay $9.95 a month to see more shows and access Hulu with more devices (like the iPad), according to Kafka.

Also, according to Andy Fixmer and Cliff Edwards, people might get the chance to access it using the PlayStation 3. The pair wrote, "Sony Corp. is close to an agreement to carry a paid TV service from Hulu LLC, operator of the second-largest video website, on its PlayStation 3 game console, two people with knowledge of the talks said. . . . The partnership could be announced as soon as next week . . ."

So, one way or another, it looks like a substantial Hulu-related development may soon occur.

If not, well, losing everyone’s interest is at least one strategy Hulu can use to ensure expectations are low when it makes a move.

June 25, 2010
Hulu Subscription Service Launch Said To Be Month Or Two Away

While rumors about making people pay to use Hulu have been circulating for what feels like forever, a subscription service may, for better or worse, finally materialize this summer. New rumors put it a "month or two" out, and indicate that Xbox and iPad compatibility are also on the way.

Reuters talked to several people who opted not to have their names printed, and the good news is that not everything is supposed to be locked behind a pay wall. Hulu "will continue to offer newer episodes of shows like Fox’s ‘Glee’ free of charge, but it will also charge viewers a monthly fee to see older episodes and other content, two of the sources said."

Which is pretty much in line with other stories that have circulated from time to time, really.

The more interesting info is the "month or two" timeframe, then, and a tidbit about the subscription service being "rolled out on multiple devices," including the Xbox and iPad.

It’s not hard to imagine that the service would achieve some success with owners of those devices, since they’ve already opted to pay hundreds of dollars for the sake of being entertained. Or it might not, since tech-savvy individuals are more likely to be familiar with "alternative" ways of viewing content.

The E3 Expo is scheduled to take place between June 15th to 17th, though, and that means a prime opportunity to announce a Hulu-Xbox deal is right around the corner. Stay tuned.

June 9, 2010
Aircell Offers Monthly Inflight Internet Subscription

Aircell, a company that provides wireless inflight Internet access to a number of major airlines in the U.S., has introduced a new monthly subscription plan for its Gogo service.

The Gogo Monthly Subscription is aimed at frequent fliers and is available for $34.95 each month. Aircell says the service automatically renews each month.

"Building on the strong demand for our existing 30-Day product, frequent flyers are telling us that they want a single pass that provides a seamless and convenient way to stay connected across all Gogo equipped airlines," said Michael Small, Aircell’s President and CEO.

Users can purchase the Gogo Monthly Subscription via the inflight portal. After registering, users will have Internet access on all Gogo equipped flights. The number of airplanes that are Gogo equipped stands at more than 800.

Gogo Monthly Subscription will initially be available on AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta, and Virgin America. Aircell says those airlines have a high percentage of their fleets equipped with Gogo.

Aircell’s goal is to offer airline passengers a variety of pricing options. The company will still offer Gogo passes for single flights starting at $4.95.

Gogo is currently available on all AirTran and Virgin America flights and on some Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, US Airways and United flights. Later in 2010, Gogo will be available on Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines.

April 7, 2010