# STARZ Considering Going Direct To Consumer Via Web Without Pay TV Tie-In



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> Add Starz CEO Chris Albrecht to the list of premium channel chiefs who are seriously thinking about using the Internet to offer his programming directly to consumers - including those who don't buy the pay TV bundle. "It's not about a la carte," he told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor confab in NYC. "It's about adapting the technology and our businesses to what's happening demographically" where 15% of millennials don't subscribe to pay TV. The issue isn't so much whether they'll be so-called cord-nevers: Since most subscribe to broadband, "the question is whether they'll be video nevers."


http://deadline.com/2014/09/starz-chris-albrecht-premium-channels-internet-833138/

Article also mentions HBO and Showtime may do the same thing.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Conveniently doesn't say anything about pricing models... and considering you need high-speed internet to do any decent TV watching, it's still going to be expensive.

Those who say "yeah, but I already pay for broadband"... think of U-Verse. U-Verse is one connection to your home and if you get Internet and TV from AT&T you share that bandwidth however you use it... so watch a couple of different channels and either your computer downloads are dog slow OR your picture quality goes to crap.

So... take your high-speed Internet connection today and start using it to also watch and record TV from a few different channels like you use your DVR with Dish, DirecTV, or Cable today... and see how you really like that going forward.

I can't imagine anyone who enjoys their high-speed Internet access will love what happens to those speeds once they start sucking it down with their cord-cut TV watching on a regular basis.


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## mwdxer (Oct 30, 2013)

I have the Roku and here I have high speed around 60-65 and Epix streams and it looks great.


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## coolman302003 (Jun 2, 2008)

mwdxer said:


> I have the Roku and here I have high speed around 60-65 and *Epix streams and it looks great*.


I get EPIX streaming catalog included with my internet subscription (my provider is one of very few that bundles EPIX with internet only). I just don't get the linear EPIX channels of course.

I've tried out EPIX on Roku and I think the channel is in need of an update [still at version 1.0 :nono2: ], I seem to get quite a bit of judder, dropped frames, jerky video playback compared to the others such as Netflix, YouTube, Crackle, HBOGO, Amazon, etc. I've noticed this with Showtime Anytime a bit but I think they have fixed it for the most part in a recent update.

However, the EPIX app on Xbox 360 doesn't exhibit the video playback issues that I've noticed on the Roku. From what I can remember since it launched back in 2011, from day one it has been smooth video playback.

Maybe it's just me but if the video playback isn't smooth it bothers me, I'm used to the smooth as silk playback of linear feeds via D* I guess...


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Conveniently doesn't say anything about pricing models...


Not mentioned on the Verizon one either: http://www.dbstalk.com/topic/214139-verizon-iptv-likely-to-be-near-true-ala-carte/

Guess they haven't gotten that far yet.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2009)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Conveniently doesn't say anything about pricing models... and considering you need high-speed internet to do any decent TV watching, it's still going to be expensive.
> 
> Those who say "yeah, but I already pay for broadband"... think of U-Verse. U-Verse is one connection to your home and if you get Internet and TV from AT&T you share that bandwidth however you use it... so watch a couple of different channels and either your computer downloads are dog slow OR your picture quality goes to crap.
> 
> ...


No different than Netflix and Amazon on Demand, of which the OTT crowd already have taken into consideration.


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