Pricing Suggestions

Channels DVR Server
#1

I currently use MythTV for my DVR and pay for a yearly subscription to Schedules Direct ($25/year). Prior to MythTV, I used El Gato’s EyeTV and paid $20/year for the TV Guide data.

I’m more than happy to pay for Channels DVR and my gut is telling me something like $50 upfront + $2.99/month for guide data would be reasonable. Or are you thinking a higher monthly ongoing cost? Personally I like the higher upfront cost and lower monthly cost (there has to be a monthly cost to cover the guide day).

Am I in the ballpark of what you guys are thinking?

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#2

I would be curious too. If I have to provide all the hardware and buy, upfront the channels software, I can see spending a ton on just the guide. I think a yearly fee of $25 - $40 would be about what I could understand. I do get that these guys are in it to make money and they should be compensated for what they are doing so we’ll see!

#3

In order to keep user costs lower, you might want to have a separate guide data cost model outside of tvOS, hence not subject to the “Apple Tax”.

Depending on your final determination of guide provider the charge could be handled between the provider and user, a la Schedules Direct.

#4

Hate to say it, but I’m really not down with paying on a subscription. I’d consider a one off fee, with maybe an annual to cover extended guide data.

#5

I’m paying silicon dust $60 for essentially nothing for a year. :grinning:

I’m OK with paying $100/year (that’s just less than $10 each month) for an actually working product.

@Joe_Hewes subscription model is the only way to go. Software needs maintanence and maintenance costs time and money.

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#6

I currently use TVHeadend, there is a TVOS app in beta at the moment…

TVHeadend is free both up front and for monthly guide data so I’m afraid to say that if there was any monthly cost involved in Channels DVR I’d stay with TVHeadend…

With that in mind could Channels not just use TVHeadend rather than building your own.?

Rich…

#7

Any more than a 2-3 bucks a month would be too much IMO.

When I can get a full set of cable channels with cloud DVR included through Sony for $30 – I can’t see paying $8 - $10 just for guide data and a DVR interface. The cost of services such as Hulu and Netflix (both of which offer a ton of streaming content for around $10) serve as other good examples that back this up.

#8

In the UK it’s hard to say. We’re a lot more reliant on free OTA TV. Cable/Satilite doesn’t really rule the average home here.

It’s worth investigating if grid guide data is free in the UK as TV Player seems to manage it, and quite a few others. If it is free then a very minimal fee could be applied for the DVR side of things. Maybe put the cost of the Channels app up slightly to cover the first year of use. Then after 12months charge a £3 ($5) fee per month to allow continued use of the DVR facility. Or you could price it like TabloTV and do a yearly fee or one off lifetime fee. I can’t see anyone here paying more than £3-£4 a month.

#9

It all depends how much guide data costs. I pay around £15 a year for EyeTv now and don’t blink.

For the software I feel a £80-100 or so one off charge is not unreasonable given the features promised (and I am sure delivered)

For the guide I would think the maximum would be about £5 a month as any more becomes a visually significant number per year

It is true that in the UK we get pretty decent OTA TV for free (I recommend watching “The Night Manager”-it was immense) and the people using your DVR are avoiding the other options of Sky and Virgin a Media for a reason… Generally price, ethics or a lack of interest in soccer. The concepts of Sky Q is quite convincing.

sky Q website

I think this is your competitor here. It’s expensive (£44-56 a month minimum) but I am sure many households will have it in the coming years.

Virgin Media (cable) offer a TiVo service too.

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#10

I know Australia is not on the initial support list but i use to pay $7/month for icetv.com.au EPG support on WMC which i was very happy doing. So if you need accurate guide data in Oz then icetv is not a bad starting point

#11

Agreed, The Night Manager was epic. Yeh when you go £5 or higher your in the Netflix/NowTV area. I have both of these directly next to the Channels app. Basically this project is allowing me to build my own Sky Q system (watch on multiple devices around the home, pick up where I left off etc) for a fraction of the price and the NowTV app give me most of the Sky channels.
My friends love what I’ve put together. and no doubt once the project is finished I’ll be convincing them to cut the cord and fill their Sport addiction with Kodi and the Beast. Just waiting for a Kodi Beta to make my ATV4 complete :wink:

#12

An idea, could do multiple apps offering different subscriptions. Or offer the current app for a £5 one off fee to buy from the App Store, then have subscription unlocks in the same app, £2 a month unlocks the EPG, then an extra £3 a month unlocks the DVR, or £4 a month unlocks both. People could then tailor their subscription, or continue using the subscription free version. Might get more using it, then being tempted to upgrade to unlock more features. It’ll also allow newcomers to stagger their hardware purchases as buying an ATV4 and a HDHR Connect is a high end purchase. Then having to buy a NAS right away on top of that might put people off a bit.

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#13

I would say that 5 Euros ($5,7 or £4) is the maximum for a monthly subscription. Around 3 Euros ($3,4 or £2,4) per month would be most welcome.

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#14

I would anticipate most users in the future will assume when they buy the app, they will receive basic guide data. Seems necessary for the app to function. In addition, I would anticipate most users are looking to get away from monthly fees from cable providers or other for a DVR solution.

The Plex model might be a great fit here. They initially had an iOS app for $5 and a $5/month plex pass or $75 one-time fee, which continues to offer a ton of functionality that goes well beyond just the app.

I would believe pricing for channels DVR could be done so in the same regard. We all have paid up to $25 already for the live tv app. To gain access to ALL features, a small monthly fee or one time fee would be fit. Although I will say, for $5.00/month their one time amount, plex gives you a ton of features. That said, I might recommend scaling into this as the popularity and traction takes hold for channels or you start to get better feel of what your product is evolving into.

My hope is that this is a great compliment to software such as plex rather than replacing it; and is priced accordingly.

#15

It really depends on how much DVR use. since I use Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/iTunes, my need of OTA DVR is limited. I just wanted it because “why not”, but I don’t know if I can justify guide data. if I had cable, I would jump in no sweat.

I would expect that the typical user doesn’t want to go get their own subscription, it should be as easy as possible to turnkey, with the subscription built-in. Tax or not.

#16

I’d be willing to pay something similar to whatever HDHomeRun were charging for early beta access, and then probably no more than $40-50 per year for the guide data.

Since getting the AppleTV I’ve cut the cord, subscribed to Hulu and Netflix, using Channels to fill the live-TV gap - wary of too many subscriptions, more than happy to pay annually too.

#17

Wow, what a lot money for guide data, here in NL it comes free with the cable company. Funny but online you also can get it for free.

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#18

As I understand it, guide data is not the same as metadata. The larger sums of money being mentioned are for TV metadata, which you cannot get free. The key differences are that in the free guide data you typically get start and end times, title and maybe a little description. In the full metadata you get a whole bunch of extra structured data fields that are critical to a DVR including e.g. whether the show is part of a series, how many shows are in that series, whether it is a repeat etc, as well as plenty more value-added data such as show / series artwork, data on actors/crew etc. A good DVR can make use of all that data and indeed needs some of it in order to function effectively.

#19

I was under the impression that if you use a cable card (HDHOMERUN Prime) the guide information comes from the cable company through the cable card. Is the charge to accommodate a guide for those not using a cable card? Can someone explain how the guide info actually works?
Thanks

#20

AFAIK guide data is pushed by the cable co, but has nothing to do with cable card. You would need a cable co STB to get/view their guide data.