Monday, April 16, 2007
Jalipo: The Anti-YouTube Launches
In a move up the value chain that is reminiscent of Joost's online video strategy, a new contender called Jalipo is aiming to be the anti-YouTube: it doesn't allow user-generated content, and you have to pay to watch videos on the site. What are you paying for? Channels like BBC World, Al Jazeera English, France 24, and Bloomberg have signed on to provide content to viewers.
Although you get 100 free "J:Credits" when you sign up, you'll have to buy more credits to keep watching once you've burned through your initial stash. It's $10 for 1000 credits, or $1 for 100 credits. How much video can you watch with one credit? This is actually a very important point in more ways than one.
You'll need to do some basic math using something called cr/min, which stands for credits per minute. Something high end like BBC World or Bloomberg Europe costs 2.5 credits per minute of viewing. That means you can watch 40 minutes of programming with the 100 free credits you get, but this is the good part: depending on the quality of the video stream you want to watch, you'll be charged a different rate. For instance, the low quality stream only costs 2.25 credits per minute.
Is Jalipo the future of watching video on the web? Certainly the differential pricing based on the the quality of the video stream (and hence on the amount and cost of bandwidth) is forward looking, but how likely are people to pay 2.5 cents per minute to watch a channel like Al Jazeera English when they can watch it for free on the main Al Jazeera site? Nevertheless, it's still a smart way for news channels that otherwise stream their content for free to get a foothold in the paid video space in the off chance it ever takes off.
Although you get 100 free "J:Credits" when you sign up, you'll have to buy more credits to keep watching once you've burned through your initial stash. It's $10 for 1000 credits, or $1 for 100 credits. How much video can you watch with one credit? This is actually a very important point in more ways than one.
You'll need to do some basic math using something called cr/min, which stands for credits per minute. Something high end like BBC World or Bloomberg Europe costs 2.5 credits per minute of viewing. That means you can watch 40 minutes of programming with the 100 free credits you get, but this is the good part: depending on the quality of the video stream you want to watch, you'll be charged a different rate. For instance, the low quality stream only costs 2.25 credits per minute.
Is Jalipo the future of watching video on the web? Certainly the differential pricing based on the the quality of the video stream (and hence on the amount and cost of bandwidth) is forward looking, but how likely are people to pay 2.5 cents per minute to watch a channel like Al Jazeera English when they can watch it for free on the main Al Jazeera site? Nevertheless, it's still a smart way for news channels that otherwise stream their content for free to get a foothold in the paid video space in the off chance it ever takes off.
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Labels: Technology
