This is the third article in this series entitled: The Economics of Video Entertainment
Part 1 Here
Part 2 Here
For the last couple of days I’ve been leading up to talking about the individual value proposition as to why people purchase, watch, read or listen to certain types of content.
Hedonic pricing components of entertainment are based on the public’s willingness to pay for perceived differences in entertainment offerings.
Chris and I have been batting the ball backwards and forwards over the variables that cause the purse or wallet to be opened and the transaction to take place.
We have concluded that the age old sin of pride in the context of gossip and water cooler conversations is the major culprit.
Being able to tell your friends that you attended a viewing of Avatar at the IMAX at Darling Harbour - and that the experience, as one Avatar attendee relayed to me: “Blew me away with the surround sound, the completely immersive nature of the film, I felt as if I was there, a part of the whole adventure. It was great!” (We’ll call this Experience 1 – “E1”) – is a cool thing to do. Especially so, if you were one of the first that recognised the “greatness” of the entertainment offering.
Experience 2 (“E2”) - Conversely : “I have been to some
bad cinemas showing brilliant films, yet the lumpy and ungiving seating has not
only ruined my enjoyment of the cinema experience, it has soured it for me so
that I no longer attend the smaller theatres that show the limited release
films.”
Here we have the two extremes of the Cinema experience.
E1 enjoyed the environment so much that he was gushing to tell me how great it was.
E2 put me off permanently from ever wanting to visit a certain Cinema chain.
Let’s break down the components:
Peer Review Outbound
– he enjoyed telling me about his experience
Peer Review
Inbound - I was so impressed with his
enthusiasm, that I immediately went to Rotten Tomatoes to read the Critics reviews where 82.4% said
it was great.
The E1 experience also dealt with
Visual Quality
Audio Quality
Rotten tomatoes brought to my attention the Director of the movie so let’s add:
Direction, Plot and Editing to our list.
Obviously the quality of the stars would be important so lets add:
Actors.
Now what would happen if we added one further ingredient?
Possibly the most important one.
What’s happening to Avatar on the P2P Networks?
At the
|
RANK |
NAME |
DATA |
Seeders |
Leechers |
|
10 |
Uploaded 12-20 2009,
Size 1.36 GiB, |
15882 |
5695 |
|
|
27 |
Uploaded
12-21 2009, Size 1.64 GiB, |
4109 |
6127 |
|
|
37 |
Uploaded
12-19 2009, Size 1.53 GiB, |
6342 |
2320 |
|
|
43 |
Uploaded
01-16 |
3763 |
4468 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTALS |
30096 |
18610 |
||
Which actually put it ahead of the most popular TV shows, however with P2P interest waning (decreasing Leecher numbers).
|
1 |
Uploaded Today |
28148 |
31306 |
||
|
2 |
Uploaded, Today 03:27Size
350.04 MiB |
24325 |
22834 |
Data is as at
Therefore TODAY – Avatar, the movie (albeit in three different languages) is the number one downloaded file in the world.
If we gave all of these items based on personal Hedonic preferences and here is the difficult part. What appeals to “moi” may not necessarily appeal to you and vice versa…. So obviously we have to nominate the following list as:
|
|
Arbitrary Hedonic Values |
|
|
1 |
Currency of
Content |
<1 Mnth =+35% |
|
1 |
Familiarity of
Content |
+3 for current
affairs memes, themes and Temes. |
|
1 |
Value of Content |
+1 for each minute
of content |
|
5 |
Action |
+5 for each
explosion/car chase/ |
|
2 |
Music |
+2 for appropriate
music scoring per scene. |
|
5 |
P2P Downloads |
+5 for each
download |
|
# |
Actors |
+10 for each
famous actor |
|
8 |
Director |
+8 for "Like
the Directors Films" |
|
5 |
Patriotism |
+2 for program
reflects my patriotic values |
|
5 |
Oscar Awards etc |
+5 for program has
been nominated for an award (x # of awards) |
|
1 |
Critiques |
+1 for every Critic
posting Positive or Negative. |
|
5 |
Technology |
+25 for every
unique Technology aspect. (3D/Imax). |
|
3 |
Social Networking |
+3 for every
mention on Facebook |
|
1 |
TV Advertising |
+1 for every time
I noticed a TV advertisement |
|
3 |
Newspaper
Advertising |
+3 for every time
I noticed a Newspaper Advert |
|
5 |
Scenery |
+5 for artistic
content - e.g.: Beautiful Scenery |
|
5 |
Plot |
+5 for Great plot |
|
5 |
Editing |
+5 for excellent
editing. |
|
5 |
Peer Review
Inbound |
+5 for every
person that has told me about it. |
|
5 |
Peer Review
Outbound |
+7 for every
person I talked to about the film. |
|
5 |
Venue Quality |
+5 for Great seats
and comfortable ambience |
|
1 |
Visual Quality |
+10 for IMAX, +8
for Cinema 2K +5 for HD +1 for 720 x 480 |
|
# |
Audio Quality |
+10 for Dolby
surround sound |
So now I have my very own personal Hedonic scoring method value for each piece of content viewed or under consideration for viewing.
The discerning consumer might then look-up his entertainment budget to ascertain whether a $27.00 ticket price is affordable, however, if we add “Peer Pressure” to the above mix, then we have obviously reached “Engagement Point” and the contents of the wallet/purse are then utilized.
The days when consumers are driven exclusively by free to air and print-press advertising are long past.
Word of Mouth has expanded to Peer to Peer networks including the social networks. A thumbs up on Facebook or the Torrent/ED2K Networks is an apparent guarantee of success at the Box Office.
The desire for non-cashed up young people to be able to be in the first group of viewers that have seen a film is high. Peer pressure demands conformance.
Short of building thousands of IMAX theatres throughout the
world, I don’t know how
Australians that download Avatar from the P2P networks pay approximately $3.00 in bandwidth charges for the privilege of being under-awed by the experience.
Down-loaders soon learn that the experiences of E1 are far superior to their own….
“Well I saw it for free”.
Free low-res computer-fare might have been cool in 2004, but now, it’s just so, ho-hum.
Free doesn’t have fresh popcorn smells.
Free doesnt include 3D
Free doesnt include a hugest screen.
(We blogged about the ersatz “taste” here.)
Value of the P2P download as recommending tool = High
Value of the P2P download to the downloader is questionable.
If
3D heads up display glasses anyone?
Just maybe, instead of ignoring these new technologies,
I see in the not too distant future, content companies with technology R&D departments.
Sort of like…. Sony and of course with the reverse process, Apple..
Old Hungarian saying – if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Tomorrow we are going to discuss the Value per minute.
Stay tuned.
Transformers 2: The IMAX Experience
http://screenrant.com/transformers-2-imax-experience-kofi-14656/
