This one could go padded cell or music or here - so i’ll start here.
Not too long ago i was made aware of massively varying charges for streaming (music and video), simply down to which country you reside in, same exact (well tailored landing page) content and plans.
Some extreme examples are given below.
Is it me or do we get mullered in the UK. I did contact the providers and was given some spiel about poorer countries, economics, waffle, waffle, but for me if you can charge £3 (equiv) for one country, then you are just screwing over the higher paying countries.
I am fairly comfortable with the price differences between services in the UK and those in ‘poorer countries’.
What I feel less comfortable about is the discrepancy in price between these same services in the UK, EU and the US - an example of this being Tidal which is £19.99 in the UK and I believe 19.99 Euros in the EU and $19.99 in the US.
Thankfully, if we crash out of the EU without a deal, then our £19.99 is likely to become a great deal as the price of pound sterling plummets.
Probably, yes, as long as they also accept your payment if they think it’s from a UK bank account. The VPN can mask your location on your home network too.
I am sure £3 in the Phillipines goes a long way. This pricing is no different to anything else though. Look at electronics always pound to dollar equivalent. US prices never have sales tax included so it will be more than the price your quoting.
Well I believe I get Netflix UHD (and other than Netflix serials there is not much in UHD) for about £3 a month with Sky… my issue with Amazon via Prime or Netflix is the choice is quite limited compared to a service like Spotify, Qobuz or Tidal.
Mind you that doesn’t explain the huge difference in country pricing… I have no idea whether that is to do with regional distribution costs.
Do the UK ISP charge usage over a certain amount of data per month?
Cox communications has begun doing this in the states. Usage rates apply for data in excess of 1TB/month upload & download combined.
I stream RP regularly and all my video media is streamed. I’ve yet to hit the 1TB threshold. We learned this only b/c my gf was going well over the 1TB threshold and she doesn’t stream very much. It turns out she was not exiting the apps she is using in Apple TV so they were continuously running even though she turned off the Apple TV. Just an fyi.
Many fixed rate ISPs service options are unlimited. Some of the very cheap options available are metered, however I suspect those using those sort of services are unlikely to be streaming media content.
It’s price sensitivity, and it’s a science. It comes down to how much a provider can charge to get to a profit level before the cost becomes off putting to the extent that the drop in revenue can’t be counteracted by a high asking price. Everybody does it. The music industry has used the Puunds/Euros/Dollars equivalency model for years, regardless of exchange rate. No reason for them to stop now. We may not begrudge the less prosperous regions the difference, but that makes no difference to the industry. They will be screwing every last iota of profit out of everyone, everywhere.
I don’t think that the prices paid for subscriptions by those in poorer nations is indicative of you and I being taken for a ride. I have no problem at all with these relative prices. None of the streaming services could survive if they charged everyone at these rates.
However, there is no excuse in my view for standardising the subscription rate at say 19.99 to those in the US, EU and UK irrespective of the value of our respective currencies.
I enquired about services in South Africa Its 120 ZAR ($9.99) per month.
The Tidal www advertising makes interesting reading "… Tidal’s South African offering is substantially cheaper than in other markets. The service costs $19.99 a month in the US, CAD19.99 in Canada, and £19.99 in the UK. This pricing puts it in line with Spotify which although not officially available locally, is used by many South Africans via VPN … "
Some countries that have lower prices also have smaller catalogues available due to licensing restrictions, so pricing may, in part, reflect this. I’m sure market forces are a bigger factor though.
