WebProNews

Tag: Premium Content

  • PlayStation Network to Get Epix App

    Sony today announced that content from video-on-demand service Epix will soon be added to the PlayStation Network. The deal between Sony and Epix will add over 3,000 new movies, concerts, and sports programming to the library of titles available to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita owners in the U.S. Epix subscribers will be able to use an Epix app to stream content through their Sony devices.

    Epix is a joint venture between Viacom, MGM, and Lionsgate. In addition to its on-demand offerings, which are available on many cable and satellite services, as well as online and through mobile apps, the Epix premium TV channel broadcasts content that includes movies, boxing, and mixed martial arts events.

    Epix had long had a deal with Netflix to provide its content over the service’s Watch Instantly streaming service. However, Epix ended its relationship with Netflix in September 2012, signing with Amazon to bring movies such as The Hunger Games to Amazon Instant Video. The PlayStation 3 already features an Amazon Instant Video app, meaning many of the same titles will be found on both services.

    Sony has stated that the new Epix app will be launching on the PlayStation 3 sometime “this quarter,” and an app for the Vita will be coming “later in the spring.”

  • Google Launches Google Wallet For Web Content

    Update: Google has officially launched this product now. You can check it out here.

    It looks like Google has again let some news slip a little earlier than intended. A blog post on Google’s Commerce blog came through the RSS feeds, titled, “Bring New Content to the Web with Google Wallet”. The post, however, is not on the blog now.

    The post announces Google Wallet for Web Content, which Google describes as an experiment designed to help content creators “bring more high quality content to the web.” Google says that while it expects advertising to remain the most effective monetization model for most web content, it knows there is more content that creators could bring to the web if they had an effective way to sell individual articles that users can find with search.

    According to the post from Google’s Rob Ennals and Pali Bhat, Google Wallet for Web Content comes with the following features:

    • Buy web pages individually. Your users can buy exactly what they want, with typical prices ranging from 25¢ to 99¢.
    • Instant Refund if they don’t like the content. Help users feel comfortable buying your web content by offering them an “Instant Refund” within 30 minutes if they aren’t happy with it. There are checks in place to prevent excessive refunding.
    • Long preview content. Provide free preview content to give users a feel for what the rest of the content will be like. Search engines rank articles based on the free preview content (not the paid content), so you should make the preview reasonably long in order to rank well.
    • Rich obfuscated content. Let your users know what they can buy, by showing them a rich obfuscated version of the rest of the page.
    • Single secure payment method. Let users buy web content using the same Google Wallet account they already use to pay for content across all Google properties.
    • Provide perpetual access. Once your users buy content, they own it forever. Google provides an archive service help you provide perpetual access, even if your web site ceases to exist.
    • Compatible with ads. By running ads alongside the preview content, you can get an ad impression even if a user doesn’t buy the content.

    In the post, Google reveals that Pearson (DK and Peachpit) and Oxford University Press are already selling web content with Google Wallet, and that “hopefully” GigaOm and Motley Fool “may be ready for launch”.