Looks like Manilow TV is about to come online. For a short while on Sunday, the website was up. It got taken down when fans started accessing the website and sharing information. Or was it put up to test the waters? What a great way to gage fan’s reactions. After reading what fans said, then pricing and terms could be tweaked. Great marketing!
So what did the marketing testing show? Manilow TV has generated a lot of buzz in the fans world. Over on MMN, the official site, everyone is expressing what they would like to see. There is no mention of thoughts on the price of $20.00 a month. Lucky people over there do not seem to be feeling any affects from the recession. I am happy for them. Oh, wait a minute. Maybe they are being careful not to say anything negative so they won’t get banned. I’ll be positive and go with the Manilow Network is a recession proof zone.
That is not the case with the newsgroup and other places. The monthly fee seems too high for most of these folks who have been hit by the recession. One great idea was a pay for view tier of service. Fans pay for just what they want to watch, say for maybe a twenty-four hour period. (Thanks to a newsgroup poster for this idea.) That might make the service accessible to more viewers.
I can’t say I was surprised by the no downloading or allowing the material to be put on any other site, as stated in the Terms of Service. That is how it should be. The service is not giving away videos; you pay for the privilege of watching them. I’m just not sure how the videos can be monitored. A little thing like TOS never seemed to affect the illegal videos on the Manilow Network. Maybe Manilow TV will have something in place to make the downloading complicated.
I mean, come on, you and I both know that someone somewhere will figure out to download the videos. Nothing on the Internet is ever safe. The best you can do is make downloading hard. That will cut out a majority of down loaders. Only the hard core, download-or-die fans will be left and TPTB probably know who they are. If the videos end up on a site, some one will blab. They always do. Gotta score those Brownie points.
Manilow TV –here it comes. Stay tuned to see how it goes. You won’t be getting any first hand information from me. I’m one of those recession people. I wish the venture all the best. All the people who do sign up for the service, I hope you enjoy it. Tell us about it now and then. We’ll live vicariously through you.
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