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Boxee gets a business plan: Subscription content coming soon
Boxee is a media center platform that helps bring internet video to your TV. The software runs on Mac, Windows, or Linux, and works great if you have a PC next to your TV. Soon you'll also be able to pick up a Boxee Box from D-Link which is a small A/V device that you can stick next to your TV, no PC required.
The company has gotten a lot of hype over the last few years, and the software is pretty slick. But I've kind of been wondering how the folks at Boxee plan to make money. Clearly the Boxee Box will help a bit, but just a bit. Today Boxee unveiled what may be a much larger revenue stream in the long run: Boxee Payments.
Basically, Boxee is making it easier for content partners to hide some or all of their content behind a paywall. Right now, virtually everything available from the Boxee interface is free (with the exception of services that require separate payment a login such as Netflix video streaming). But Boxee's upcoming Payment Platform will allow users to pay for content with a click of the remote control.
The idea is to offer both pay-per-view and subscription content. Boxee will take a cut of the action, and if the company can line up partners interested in selling videos and subscriptions, Boxee might have a bright future.
Comments
2
Subscribe to commentsdmitr77Jan 20th 2010 11:03AM
Personally I have never felt that Boxee is that good. With the new beta that came out a lot of progress was made (even if it's still a bit buggy), but I think that not even Boxee is ready to be a replacement for a cable, satellite, etc service.
ZaneJan 20th 2010 4:08PM
Here's my problem with this kind of model: I pay $100 per month for cable (which I think is a crime), and let's say I average 5 shows a day. That works out to about $0.33 per show. In order for met to be willing to switch to something else, it better be cheaper than that. All of these plans want to charge $0.99 or more per episode, or $10 - $20 per channel. If they'll let me watch for $0.10 - $0.20 per show (and save or rewatch like my DVR) then I'd be interested.