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Amid plans to ramp up its streaming service, Quickflix is considering a different payment option for TV series.
(Credit: Quickflix)
DVD rental and video-streaming service Quickflix made some tough decisions last year, sacking a third of its staff and seeking investments as cash reserves ran low.
This year, it wants to push the streaming part of its business model even harder, with chief executive Stephen Langsford telling the Australian Financial Review that it wanted to renegotiate its content deals with studios and invest further in its streaming service.
Speaking with CNET, Langsford clarified that the investment would not be based around hardware. “We’ve made substantial investment in infrastructure already,” he said. “We now have a streaming service on all smart TV platforms that we consider important. We’re even working with free-view set-top boxes in New Zealand that could reach another half a million people”.
Quickflix is also finalising a Windows 8 app that Langsford thinks will be “pretty exciting for consumers”.
The plan for Quickflix is, ultimately, to attract more and more streaming customers by offering a wider array of quality programs in a timely fashion.
According to Langsford, Quickflix is “focused on the user experience and the customer interface, as well as securing the right content — the great TV series that the highly competitive market in the US is creating”.
“We still love the DVD rental service — it’s still a going concern, and we see it growing for us even though in general, the DVD rental and sales market might see a decline. DVD is an important part of mix, but it’s increasingly supplemented by streaming.”
One strategy for streaming customers may be a “season pass” — a one-off payment that gives a user access to a full season of a TV show as the episodes become available.
“We think [a season pass] would be an exciting proposition in the marketplace. There’s is fantastic TV out there with Hollywood-level budgets, and given the episodic nature of TV, we think a payment model like this would prove popular with consumers.”
