Coming soon: Boxee Payments
A post over at the Boxee team blog reveals that the company is planning to implement a payment platform that will enable users to purchase content with a click of the remote. The goal is to entice more content producers to use Boxee for distribution. Here's what the Boxee team blog had to say...
Users want to see more content on Boxee. Content owners want to be paid for what they produce (whether that’s TV Shows, movies, music, or applications). We don’t believe these are conflicting interests.
This is why we plan to release a Payment Platform this summer where users will be able to make purchases with one click on the remote. The content partners we launch with will offer shows, movies and channels that were previously not available to Boxee users. The content owners will be able to package and price as they wish, including pay-per-view and subscription. Content partners will have the flexibility to decide what they make available, whether it’s premium content, content from their existing library, or extras that will never make it “on air”.
As content owners benefit, so will Boxee. While details are still to-be-determined, Boxee will charge a small fee (i.e. lower than the 30% charged by many app stores) for transactions which we enable. This beginning to the Boxee business model ties our success as a business to the success of our partners.
This is a direct result of the generational shift towards over the top video during the past few years. Recent college grads will tell you the Internet is vital to them in a way PayTV could never be. Their social, professional, and family lives are reinforced by (and sometimes wholly self-contained within) the social networks, blogs, and interaction the Internet provides. This generation has turned to the Internet for their entertainment needs as well.
The move towards the Internet as a main source of entertainment does not mean everything will be free however. The iTunes store has already shown us that people are willing to pay for content when it’s affordable and easy to access. Our goal is to equip the content providers that we’ve spoken with over the past year, both big and small, with a way to monetize their content above and beyond the advertising-only model.
It’s our belief that the Internet is ready to become the 4th method of distribution for broadcast & premium content after Cable, Satellite, and IPTV (FiOS, u-Verse, etc.). In the case of Satellite and IPTV, it took an act of congress to open up these delivery methods. This time it’s people who are demanding this change.
The Internet represents a great opportunity for the major media companies and for the independent content producers to create more engaging and immersive experiences around their content and for them to be paid for more eyeballs on yet another screen. The connected living room represents a new medium, one in which great value could be generated. There are also many business models that will thrive including Ad-supported, pay-per-view, subscription and authentication (e.g. TV Everywhere).
We hope we can play a key role in enabling these content owners to showcase and monetize their offerings while creating the best experience possible for users.
If you are a content owner and interested to be one of our first launch partners please email content@boxee.tv to start a conversation.
