Netflix
The increasing demand for content has made video-on-demand extremely competitive, fuelling the rush to secure sought-after titles. Not only new material, but old favourites are on offer. Many subscribers are hungry for these well-known shows, either because they missed them the first time around or they simply want to watch them again.
Streaming media was initially for films but soon grew to include popular TV series.All this is now possible due to converging technologies:data speeds, bandwidth costs, and devices have come a long way since the early video-on-demand days.
Business partnerships with filmmakers, studios and distributors ensure that more and more original content is on offer. Who knows what the future holds?
Competition
More video streaming video services are entering the market with surprising regularity. One needs only think of Amazon, Disney Plus, Hulu, iTunes, YouTube, and Google Chromecast as some examples. These are now household names, and there will doubtless be more in the future. What differentiates them, apart from price, is sure to be the content they have on offer.
The Battle for Content
As more people have access to the internet, the demand for content of all kinds has increased. One indicator of this is the proliferation, popularity, and influence of social media sites. Along with this, the demand for home entertainment of all types has increased to the point where it's not only new content that's in demand. Indeed, we've seen several old favourites on offer lately.
This has no doubt contributed to the increase in binge-watching, which may not be the negative behaviour it's made out to be, as it can also be a good reason for a group of friends to gather and enjoy a series together.
Now Netflix has Seinfeld streaming rights for the next five years starting 1 October 2021.Thirty years after opening, Seinfeld still ranks third on Rolling Stone's list of most popular sitcoms. Fondly known as the sitcom about nothing; there will be many fans looking forward to the reruns of their favourite episodes.
Will There Be New Seinfeld Episodes?
It's doubtful, which some fans may regard as a lost opportunity. If there were, we could picture Jerry trying to teach the others, particularly Kramer, about how to set up and get to grips with Alexa, or showing him the myriad ways in which online casinos can be played. Imagine the hilarious results when they drop by top-quality online casinos in Canada - you just know 'something' is going to happen.
The good news is that Netflix has secured rights to all 180 existing episodes. Fans may also notice an improvement in the video quality. Netflix will stream all the episodes in 4K, meaning that the picture resolution will be much better, with 2160x 3840 pixels, adding to your enjoyment as this is even better than HD.
What Are Exclusive Rights?
Exclusive rights are a complex issue of copyrights and patents.
The general definition is that exclusive rights accrue to the creator of a work, but they can be sold or assigned to another party, which is the case for Netflix's rights to Seinfeld.The license agreement will stipulate that the licensee has exclusive rights to a product or piece of content for a specified period and in a specific geographical area. The creator agrees not to issue the same or similar rights to a competitor during this time.
What complicates things further is that the laws are different in different countries. Not only that but the availability of certain content is also influenced by how much demand the rights holder believes there is for specific content in different countries. This leads to territorial licensing, where you may find something available from a company like Netflix in one country but not in another.
As you can imagine, this brings with it a whole new level of complexities and complications to the situation.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that video on demand is extremely popular and likely to become more so as the providers battle for exclusive licenses to the best or most profitable content. As the technology improves further, the demand for these services will likely increase even more, with consumers using more than one streaming service.
The situation with Seinfield is not the first time, nor will it be the last time we see a battle of rights on licensed products. However, hopefully, lessons will be learned from the situation so that the process can be shorter while resolving the predicament so that all parties are satisfied.
