Comment Neelie (Kroes)

Making speeches talk

Comment Neelie
[...] And for suppliers of content, a chance to target what consumers are demanding – and give them a very attractive alternative to illegal material.
Jan Boon
Problem with on-demand providers that are currently on the market, is that at the moment a lot of them have region restrictions imposed on them, due to licensing restrictions and so on. The only reason I have to resort getting my stuff elsewhere, is exactly because of this issue. So, they are basically shooting themselves in the foot. In my opinion, region restrictions for on-demand providers on a global network should not be allowed to happen, and should be made illegal somehow if possible. A common example is when a series is licensed by one French DVD media publisher for distribution in French speaking Europe, on a per country basis, which ends up including the Dutch speaking part of Belgium; then an online on-demand publisher gets streaming rights for the US plus all the areas worldwide that aren't covered yet by another publisher. What happens is that in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium you cannot get the English language stream, and that you are forced to wait for the French release, which may be completely against the consumer choice, and is against the free market.
Jan Boon, 24/01/2012 13:55