How far will the advertising on the Home page go?

[aperry]

Ok, I've been using the Boxee Box for a month and while I'm not crazy about the random movies that appear on the Home page, I also don't mind them. Heck, some of them have been really cool.

Last night I power the thing on to see what looks like an ad for the Wall Street Journal and another one for tax advice. Admittedly I didn't watch them (as I have no interest in them), so maybe I'm wrong about them being ads.

I was really disappointed to see this and it occurred to me that these slots could become typical ads with no other "fun" value and we have no control over it (AFAIK?). That would feel something like a "bait and switch" to me. Buy the box, enjoy it for a few months, then suffer as D-Link decides that it's time to start generating more ad revenue, resulting in commercials filling each of the slots on your home screen. I really don't want this in my living room, especially since this thing already costs more than most media streamers.

Am I off base here?

[haveringcottage]

suffer as D-Link decides that it's time to start generating more ad revenue

totally incorrect. D-link has NOTHING to do with the software (firmware) on the device, or the advertising within it.

D-link is making their money from the hardware. Boxee Inc is making money from sales and ads within the software.

I'm sure there will be improvements to the homepage in due course.

See:

http://www.boxee.tv/jobs/front-end-u...loper-skinner/

[aperry]

totally incorrect. D-link has NOTHING to do with the software (firmware) on the device, or the advertising within it.

D-link is making their money from the hardware. Boxee Inc is making money from sales and ads within the software.

I'm sure there will be improvements to the homepage in due course.

See:

http://www.boxee.tv/jobs/front-end-u...loper-skinner/

Thanks for the clarification. Of course, it doesn't really matter. Substitute "Boxee Inc" for "D-Link" in that sentence and I suppose it becomes "totally correct". More importantly, the concern is still just as relevant.

I'm not sure a job opening for a UI person means anything here. For this to alleviate my concern, Boxee Inc would have to be willing to let us hide their advertising, which is doubtful IMO.

[iRoNBiLL]

Thanks for the clarification. Of course, it doesn't really matter. Substitute "Boxee Inc" for "D-Link" in that sentence and I suppose it becomes "totally correct". More importantly, the concern is still just as relevant.

I'm not sure a job opening for a UI person means anything here. For this to alleviate my concern, Boxee Inc would have to be willing to let us hide their advertising, which is doubtful IMO.

I see where you are coming from but I have to politely disagree.

Suggestive marketing is only a benefit when it's non intrusive and is simply suggestive of something you may want to watch, not knowing if you own the movie or not... not knowing if you like movies about taxes or not, but simply suggesting "Hey, here's a good movie you might want to watch". Hell, if it's in your collection of local storage movies, you may just watch it because it reminded you of how good that movie was and reignite your interest in watching it again.

As long as they don't popup with full page adds or some flash error makes a Verizon ad flicker on my screen on and off until I have a seizure, it's simply suggestive and ok in my book, I'm I'm pretty anal when it comes to "intrusive ads".

iRoNBiLL

[Rhoq]

Suggestive marketing is only a benefit when it's non intrusive and is simply suggestive of something you may want to watch, not knowing if you own the movie or not... not knowing if you like movies about taxes or not, but simply suggesting "Hey, here's a good movie you might want to watch". Hell, if it's in your collection of local storage movies, you may just watch it because it reminded you of how good that movie was and reignite your interest in watching it again.

It's really no different than what Sony does with the PlayStation Network on the PS3 or what Microsoft does with XBox Live on the XBox 360. Most people seem to be alright with that.

[darcilicious]

No idea but I'd like to think that Boxee makes more money from their take of premium content rental/purchases than they would from straight-out ads.

[aperry]

I guess my problem is that these two items (Wall Street Journal and taxes) don't see suggestive at all, and I see no promise that these slots are even meant to be suggestive. Unlike other content that I have seen in those slots, these two appeared as totally uninteresting commercials with no relationship to my media collection or watching habits. I won't go too far in judging them since I didn't actually watch them, but I'll do that tonight and report back.

However it occurred to me that they could fill these slots with whatever they want. Further, I would imagine they could bring in more revenue if they were less concerned with what value this content brings to the user (interesting movie discoveries, etc), and more concerned with what value this brings to the advertiser (ads for products). So I'm sure the temptation is already there, and I'll be pretty pissed in a few months if these slots which occupy a huge part of my screen real estate become nothing more than product advertisements.

[aperry]

No idea but I'd like to think that Boxee makes more money from their take of premium content rental/purchases than they would from straight-out ads.

I would like to think that too, but I have no idea if it's true. One of the videos that I particularly enjoyed (which was in one of the home screen slots) is called "A Tiny Day In Jackson Hole", which I think was from Vimeo. It is hard for me to imagine that Boxee was making much money on a small independent video like that. But I'd hate to see items like that give way to traditional ads.

[darcilicious]

It's not at all clear to me that Boxee makes any money off of any Vimeo videos... did you pay to view it?

[aperry]

It's not at all clear to me that Boxee makes any money off of any Vimeo videos... did you pay to view it?

No no, I definitely did not pay for it and perhaps they don't make any money on those videos.

But I suppose that would back up my concern. Wouldn't Boxee Inc be tempted to replace "fun" content like Vimeo, with "profitable" content like ads for the WSJ? And wouldn't that be annoying?

I know, this is all speculative and theoretical. But I'd be aggravated to see this happen, primarily because I feel like this device is already priced at a premium and I shouldn't have to deal with product ads.