RE: Pay per view: PH Blog

[GilesGuthrie]

I'm in, for the first year at least. It's a shame that the free YouTube model hasn't worked, but then my experience of online advertising is that it's not exactly a moneyspinner unless you're willing to utterly compromise your morality (yes, MailOnline, I'm talking about you).

The carping about Chris Harris's personal circumstances is pretty disgraceful. It doesn't matter whether someone is rich or poor, if you value what they do, you should pay them. "He can afford it" is a pathetic proposition (which almost always leads to allegations of elitism: just look at the market for young interns).

Hopefully /DRIVE will be able to use /DRIVE+ as a sort of "freemium" model which will give subscribers the value that they crave for their subscription money, whilst also allowing a level of production of free content that should continue to attract people to the channel.

Good luck with it JF and the rest of the team.

[nicfaz]

I've subscribed - I like the CH stuff and also Mike M's musings on musclecars. I would like this to work, but:

1) There had better be a decent amount of content, with the quality maintained.
2) Can someone sort out how to find it on youtube? I shouldn't have to go via drive, via the season 10 preview, find the obscured address and then manually have to type in youtube.com/driveplus. Sort it out.
3) Keep a weather eye on the business model. I pay £5.99 for netflix and £2.49 for driveplus. Has driveplus got 40% of the content of netflix? Fail. People might be more willing to pay $1 for a video about a LaFerrari than a monthly sub to something that compares badly to netflix.
4) the interface would need to be better than the youtube default. Lets make it easy for people to discover the new stuff and look back on the good stuff you've done before.

Good luck chaps!

[RobertK81]

jfmusial said:

I'm here to answer any questions...

Regards,
JF
Executive Producer, /DRIVE.

Well, the main question is what those of us in the “unfortunate countries“ can do.
I know you have no control over Youtube's decision regarding availability of paid channels, but you are their business partners, not mere users like us.
So I wonder if you could at least ask Youtube what their plans are regarding the likes of Germany, Netherlands or France, and pass that information on to us.

I for one want to be able to pay for your content, I love watching it enough anyways. Right now though, with no word about availability here (Germany), I'm afraid @Drive is done for me, simply by being locked out of a way to pay for it the money you deserve.

Regards,

Robert

P.S.: As Vimeo was just mentioned - it appears they are indeed better suited for international viewers. The TST film was easy to pay for and download there.

[WokkaWokka]

b14 said:

Chris, I love your videos, and will probably subscribe (depending on price), but it's difficult for me to reconcile this with all the stories about your many expensive cars - leases on FFs, shiny Range Rovers, M3 rally cars, 2CVs, M5s, 512TRs, etc etc.

I know, you aren't going to personally fund the Drive videos and I get that, but you many need to manage this perception in order to avoid a negative view on this story.

Just leave it out.

[Actus Reus]

nicfaz said:

3) Keep a weather eye on the business model. I pay £5.99 for netflix and £2.49 for driveplus. Has driveplus got 40% of the content of netflix? Fail. People might be more willing to pay $1 for a video about a LaFerrari than a monthly sub to something that compares badly to netflix.

Good luck chaps!

Basically this for me - I won't be subscribing. I'd love some decent car telly, but Top Gear, despite being mostly rubbish, is free, and well shot. Good luck nevertheless - if it works reasonably well I hope the price will come down, and viewing figures will go up.

[0llie]

Interested to see how this pans out, I'm currently neither for nor against it.

I paid to download Matt Farah's film, I thoroughly enjoyed that as it was enjoyable, but mainly as it was something a little bit different.

For the same reason, I also enjoy Hot Rod Garage, Dirt Everyday & Roadkill as hosted by Motor Trend, as well as Jay Leno's Garage. I think more than anything we're lucky that this content is still free.

The key is in the individuality for me, there are many other channels offering free videos with similar content/format to DRIVE.

[RobertK81]

Konan said:

How's Vimeo's network these days? I was going to 'rent' the Smoking Tire roadtrip film until I realised it was on Vimeo and I'd spend 50% of my time buffering.

Of course, it could be my ISP doesn't have the same links with Vimeo as it does with YouTube/iPlayer and I'm suffering from that, but the end result is the same.. .didn't spend the money.

In Germany on a Deutsche Telekom DSL line, vimeo.com usually works better than Youtube.
Much better if you count in the fact that paid Vimeo channels are available to me, paid Youtube channels are not.

[dinkel]

jimAtr said:

I'd rather a pay-per-view/video instead of a blanket subscription. I really enjoy Drive, but only Chris' videos and the occasional big muscle and tuned, I'd prefer to pay for only what I watch rather than feel like I'm paying for content I don't watch.

Agreed.

25 x 100.000 viewers = 2.5M

278 quality CH clips.

Ouch. I can see some money going into other stuff than vids. But 100 clips is about what I can take. And what about sharing these . . .It needs to go with at least one free share.

Make that 12,50 / year and I think you might close deals here.

[StottyEvo]

I'll probably wait a month or two, see what the subscribers think of the content. If its good enough I'll sign up, if its not worthy of a subscription cost then I won't.

Although I do have to add that I only really watch Chris' reviews, I've watched a few from the other blokes but I don't relate to them as much. I love the Koenigsegg (I doubt I've spelled that correctly) episodes and the technical detail.

I'm pretty sure they've already brainstormed this but a layout such as 3 group tests (Wales and hooning) 2 technical episodes (like the aforementioned Koenigsegg videos) and another 3 videos such as the one where they visited Panama and took out a 900hp Evo could be successful.

8 Video's a month totalling about 3hours of view time all with a £10,000 budget each would require 38,400 subscribers + costs...

Best of luck to all involved with Drive and I hope that the content will persuade me to sign up soon

[dinkel]

donteatpeople said:

At that price it’s cheaper than:
- A magazine subscription
- DVDs, hour for hour
- A TV licence

Seems reasonable value to me, I’ll be subscribing.

All of the above will be gone ... within a year or ... 10.

[hughcam]

I cant believe how tight some folk are on here. Its a few quid a month ffs.....

[KTF]

Does Haymarket have an interest in this as this is a free plug for their 'competition' and they wont be able to have the weekly Harris video any more which must attract a few people to the site?

Interesting to compare/contract the viewpoints on the original thread as well: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[trunks82]

I'd pay a couple of pound a month to watch Harris,the others on Drive,not so much.Also,would the films he has already recorded still be avalible to watch or would they disappear?

Edited by trunks82 on Wednesday 30th July 15:41

[JuanCarpantier]

£25 a year... I will happily pay that

[Actus Reus]

hughcam said:

I cant believe how tight some folk are on here. Its a few quid a month ffs.....

I think most can afford it - the question is is it worth it?

How easy is it to publish this sort of content to iTunes? I'd probably favour it being done that way.

[cheese]

Phil303 said:

I agree. Managing perception is absolutely required. I don't begrudge anyone who has a passion and the legitimate means to fund a lifestyle. Whatever your thoughts are on Mr Clarkson (for example - other presenters are available), he doesn't make many films using vehicles from his own garage. We all know he will have a decent selection of expensive machinery but they are rarely the focus of an item.

Be wary of drawing possible negative and bitter criticism to yourself for asking people to pay to watch you drive your own expensive cars, amongst others. Personally, I'd happily pay for a channel dedicated to nothing but watching the 512TR potter about but that's just me.

I really like the Drive videos since accidentally stumbling across Chris riding shotgun in the Group B classics a few years ago. I've been surprised they've been for free in all honesty. I'd consider a subscription but have a think about toning down the 'doh, look what I've gone done and bought now' angle, or at least sell it in a different way perhaps?

This, and others like it, are utter rubbish in my view. On the one hand you are saying that you like his honesty and particularly enjoy the insight into one of his cars and that you have been surprised that the service is free and then you criticise him for being honest and open about his car collection?!

He's been providing entirely free videos for a couple of years, none of which you have been forced to watch, and most people have been over the moon with them. Now he asks for a small fee (after an initial free period) as the original funding has expired and half the people seem to have st the bed about it.

What has it got to do with any of us how much money CH has. This is his WORK and he deserves to be paid for it.

What world do you live in where people have to hide away the benefits of their work?

[dinkel]

hughcam said:

I cant believe how tight some folk are on here. Its a few quid a month ffs.....

It's not about the 25 ...

In the very near future PPV will be all over the internet. To keep our greedy mouths fed with automotive porn - and the sounds to match - we will be paying for everything we'd like to see or hear.

As always the pornindustry gives us the future example.

So, it wil be 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 etc . . . which will add up to a vast sum of pennies.

Maybe crowdfund the 1st month of Drive and go from there.

[Hungrymc]

i think it's quite a brave call. The CH brand has been really helped by the YouTube content. I understand Chris needs to find ways to create more income but I'm really not sure subscription viewing is the way (the vast majority of people expect online content to be free). Are there direct advertising and sponsorship options? i guess this requires some very smart marketing.

Worst case scenario would be that in the long term it damages Chirs's value as a written word journalist (which I assume is his main income)due to less people being inclined to follow him.

I sincerely hope this isn't the case and that there is good take up of the paid subscription service.

[mrdemon]

won't be paying £2.50 a month, I'am out.

EVO is £4.50 a month and offers much more plus a full MAG every month and tons of vids.

£2.50 for a few vids of cars tail out is way to expensive imo.

plus no doubt the vids will still have adverts on them and infront of them also.


atm there are 1,146,595 subscribed x that by £2.50 and than by 12 it's daft money

make it £0.25p a month more people will sign up and you play the numbers game 1000000 users x £0.25p x 12 is still £3,000,000 PA

Edited by mrdemon on Wednesday 30th July 16:00

[Oddball RS]

I genuinely hope it works out for you Chris, if not you can always find something else to do.