The awkward moment he’s going through youzeeone of the online video stores that has opted for the model of flat rate and that it ended up eliminating it, once again highlights what is the problem for these platforms to succeed: the SGAE and the distributors.
Youzee’s recent announcement of dismissal of 80% of its staff and the end of its lump sum modality was received as a jug of cold water for anyone who believes this model can succeed in our country. The platform went live less than a year ago and its ambitious goal was to become the netflix Spanish. The North American streaming service is completely successful in the United States, where it has millions of users who pay their package religiously, making it a benchmark platform on the Internet.
However, Netflix itself has already pointed out what the main problems would be for such a service to succeed in Spain. Copyright managers such as SGAE as well as distributors are considered the worst enemies of these platforms. On the one hand, the demands of copyright managers require very large quantities to provide these services, which makes it unprofitable to invest in this market. As rumored last year, entities would ask for double or even triple in this concept of what is charged in other countries like France.
On the other hand we have distributors. As another similar service such as Wuaki denounced a few months ago, these companies are hampering their business model by forcing platforms to track calls.broadcast windowsimposed from Hollywood. These render obsolete the offer of obsolete and unattractive titles in the catalogs of online video libraries if they enter the flat rate modality or if they come out at a price that is far from what the consumer is willing to pay.
Well, it’s true that part of Youzee’s fiasco is partly his lack of planning. However, being forced to offer a unattractive catalog because the user caused them not to bet on the service. Even if consumers are willing to pay, which has been demonstrated in some cases, the lack of supply makes everything cost excessive.
It therefore seems that we are dealing with a company whose the future in Spain is still up in the air until copyright managers and the film industry itself gave in and agreed to reduce their claims. If they don’t, users will continue to resort to alternative methods such as network downloads. P2P without generating a euro profit.