PlayOn Premium is Coming

PlayOn Premium is coming! We will release PlayOn Premium on July 15th, 2010. It will include: Comedy Central (including South Park), NHL, TV.com, MTV.com, VH1.com, and more. It will be sold as an annual subscription -- $39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter. Your subscription will entitle you to all new content services over the course of the year (and we plan to release a lot), as well as functionality improvements (including a greatly enhanced and integrated Plugin experience, Gold version of the Wii, and much more). We will also be releasing iPhone support for PlayOn Premium which may carry a small additional fee.

Starting on May 20, 2010, we will no longer sell PlayOn as a lifetime license for a single fee. We will start selling PlayOn as a subscription ($39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter) on May 20, 2010. Customers who purchase PlayOn on or after May 20,2010 will automatically receive PlayOn Premium upon its launch on July 15th, 2010.

We will continue to honor the lifetime licenses for those that purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010 (which we are now calling PlayOn Basic). Your PlayOn Basic will continue to work with the existing non-beta content (Hulu, Netflix, CBS.com, ESPN.com, CNN.com, YouTube, MyMedia and Plugins) as well as Amazon VOD, MLB.tv, and Pandora. After July 15th, 2010, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report will no longer be supported in PlayOn Basic as these are being launched out of beta as part of the full Comedy Central integration in PlayOn Premium. PlayOn Base will continue to receive new features and development support, but no new content will be added into the core (though you can always add more plugins).

To thank our loyal customers, if you purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010, we will be offering a founding member discount for PlayOn Premium. You may upgrade to PlayOn Premium for only $4.99 for the first year ($19.99/year thereafter). Once you purchase the upgrade, you will receive a new license key which will unlock the new PlayOn Premium content. You may also cancel your subscription at any time, and go back to PlayOn Basic (be sure to save your original license key). We are sure you will enjoy the new content and features so much, you will never want to go back.

Between now and July 15th, 2010, you will see a number of content services in PlayOn listed as “Premium Preview” – this is to give you a sneak preview of some of the content that you will have access to as a Premium subscriber. Please note that this content will no longer be accessible after July 15th 2010. We hope you enjoy these previews and encourage you to upgrade on July 15th.

Why are we doing this? The annual subscription fee will fund continued development and support. We want to ensure that we can always give the latest and greatest content and service to our entire user base. The on-going subscription fee will allow that. Give it a shot – we think you’ll like what you see.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us at support@playon.tv

Money Moves

Money Magazine is kind of a big deal and recently wrote "100 best money moves you can make."  It's their annual guide to the best stocks, credit cards, career moves, retirement strategies and much more. Sounds kind of boring, but it's not so give it a read. Who doesn't like saving money? The ideas are fresh, based off current trends and pop culture. Here are some of my favorite money moves:

5. Best buy-and-hold blogger

The Study of Piracy

 
Recently the Government Accountability Office spent a year studying how piracy and illegal counterfeiting affects the United States. The GAO has said that data used to quantify piracy is not reliable. In addition they said, "Estimates of economic losses resulting from counterfeiting cannot be substantiated due to the absence of underlying studies. Each method (of measuring) has limitations, and most experts observed that it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the economy-wide impacts." The GAO continued by saying, "Some experts we interviewed and literature we reviewed identified potential positive economic effects of counterfeiting and piracy." The GAO admits that piracy is running rampant and that it could be harmful, but cannot accurately estimate a dollar amount.

On another note, the head of the International Actors’ Federation said, “To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp. We all want to be a bit like Johnny Depp. But we’re talking about a criminal act. We’re talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do.” Okay I cannot help myself from laughing at this quote, we all do want to be a bit like Johnny Depp, but I do not see the clear association between the two.

As for a general pulse, it seems like people fall everywhere regarding views on piracy. There are 3 major groups: "the it's morally wrong group," "the I hate large corporations over charging and I am going to teach them a lesson group" and "the I understand both sides group." Most people can agree that piracy is running rampant and that it does not seem like it is going to slow down anytime soon.

My Wish List

There are so many TV options out there that it seems like everyone wants to upgrade their TV to the "newest" technology. I'll admit it, I used to think this was petty, but not anymore. Within a week I have convinced myself that my "old" tv (really less than a year old) is worthless and ugly. Here is the beauty that I really want/need. I figure that with all the money I am saving from not paying for cable, I owe it to myself.

I blame this all on my coworkers, by the way. They are going to the Hannspree store in San Francisco this Saturday and I had never heard of Hannspree; so naturally I googled it. That's when I fell in love. I have temporarily wiped everything else off of my wish list and have actually dreamed about this TV once since I discovered it....sad I know.

Modern Family vs Glee

With a crazy schedule I usually don't watch sitcoms. My friends are basically my guinea pigs, they test out all the sitcoms and if they recommend a great one, then I will watch. So recently I had alot of airport time and tweeted out to my friends asking for show recommendations. Out of all the recommedations I got, I only trusted 2 friends, who recommended Glee and Modern Family. I watched both. I loved Modern Family! Glee just seemed like High School Musical made for adults, well maybe not even adults. Ughh I am still having nightmares about the predictablility and cheesiness of Glee. So I am bringing my hatred for Glee here. I do not understand the popularity of Glee; not to mention now I think my friend needs to see a psychiatrist for her Glee addiction. Modern Family vs Glee, which show do you vote for the win?

PAX Recap

PAX was a win for PlayOn. It gave us a chance to meet our customers, have some fun and spread the word. Here is what people are saying:

Zaxy

The Zaxy gamer girls joined us at our booth. They helped spread the word to existing game console owners and they were a blast to have around!

Battlemouth

Aaron Madrid, the head writer for battlemouth.com went to PAX and checked out our booth. He reviews PlayOn with a sense of humor. Seriously, I hate reading reviews, but Aaron is a master at entertaining his readers. Check it out.

Gamer Reaction

The awesome team from Gamer Reaction came to our booth and asked us some questions. Here is the interview with Chris from Gamer Reaction and David, the Chief Technology Officer for PlayOn.

So take it from these tech savvy bloggers...PlayOn rocks. Download a free 2 week trial or buy PlayOn.

One more thing, don't forget to enter our MLB contest, where you can win a Xbox 360 or PS3 with a 1 year subscription to MLB.tv, MLB 2010 and PlayOn software. Sunday April 4th is the last day to enter. It's simple to enter, download the PlayOn trial and check the box to either Tweet or Facebook update, telling your friends about PlayOn. If you are already a PlayOn user, just Re-Tweet this out "Enter the #PlayOnMLB contest to win a Xbox360/PS3, PlayOn and a year subscription to MLB.tv. Enter at http://bit.ly/aqErt5"

Where is Your Money Going?

Peter Kafka, a writer for All Things Digital, covered the pricing of cable channels within one of his latest articles. He shares a list of pricing for individual cable channels from industry analyst SNL Kagan through a research note of Barclays Capital Anthony DiClemente. If you are like me and could live without a dozen sports channels on basic cable you might be annoyed at the cost breakdown. Thankfully I cut the cable almost a year ago and therefore only feel slightly annoyed that most my friends and family are being ripped off.

The list of pricing is long. Here is a portion of the pricing, but check out the whole article to see the entire list.

PAX East

We are so excited to be here at PAX East. The PlayOn team will be there all weekend. We have a booth and will also be live tweeting from the convention with the tags #PlayOn and #PAXEast. Please come to our booth and say hi.

You can watch PlayOn and hang out with the Zaxy gamer girls.  If that is not enough to get you to swing by, then at least come enter our contest for a 46" LCD TV that we will give away at the end of the show. Not going to PAX? Well we don't want to leave you out, so enter to win a Xbox or PS3 with PlayOn, a year subsription to MLB.tv and the MLB 2010 game.

Best Recovery Ever

With March Madness in full swing basketball fans everywhere are being less productive. But how long can you really forfeit your productivity without guilt eating away at you? Well a growing number of brilliant men have planned their vasectomies around their favorite sports. According to Oregon Urology Institute vasectomies have seen an increase during March Madness the past two years. Not only did they see an increase, but now they are advertising with “Vas Madness” flyers and a radio ad. The flyers give “Top Ten Reasons to Get Your Vasectomy during Vas Madness” and here they are:

1.   Extended office hours during games
2.   Continuous ESPN coverage in our lobby
3.   FREE snacks while you wait
4.   Our office is much less crowded than a sports bar
5.   Complimentary recovery kit
6.   Doctors orders: 3 days on the couch
7.   Excuse to stay in your bath robe all day
8.   Keep Austin Weird – not overpopulated
9.   You’ll be ready for love in the post season
10.  It’s HIP to get SNIPPED

Dr. Douglas Hoff, a urologist at Oregon Urology Institute said, "I don't know if these were the guys who were on the fence and this pushed them over the edge, or if these are guys who would be doing it anyways.”

MLB Contest

We have been listening to what our fans want and many have asked for a contest. Who doesn’t want free stuff?  So to celebrate the compatibility of MLB.tv with PlayOn we have set up an awesome prize pack around Major League Baseball. To enter simply download the free trial of PlayOn and check the box to either Tweet or Facebook update telling your friends about PlayOn.  The lucky winner will get the following:

• Xbox or PS3
• PlayOn Software
• MLB 2010
• 1 year of MLB.tv

Now you can watch every Major League Baseball game using your Xbox360, PS3, or Wii. It's easy and will take you about 5 minutes to set up.