Aha an another service who thinks the world only exists of USA & Canada. Such a shame. Dramafever kept saying the same thing from the very beginning to the very end. In the end it never happened…
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I am referencing it because
ninjas keeps talking about niche anime markets being cheaper but shudder does horror which is also niche also has exclusives and originals BUT is still cheaper then viki
I don’t know how the price is calculated. Probably a mix of popularity and calculations.
From which price, will it be correct for someone else?
I don’t know if we can compare, even if it’s in the streaming area. I really don’t know.
Each company is different: for Disney, they have their parks, their production of movies, etc. and now Disney+. They have other sources of revenue in the entertainment sector and have more leverage? Even if they lose a little somewhere at the beginning, they can rise the price later.
Amazon, too.
For Viki, what other services do they provide?
I don’t know Shudder or HiDive, do they only have this activity? Are they new in the market?
In my country, we have our internet provider who sells us a phone line, internet and a box with free channels included. Among these free solutions, there are anime channels. But I don’t have free channels with subbed dramas in English or in my language 24h/24.
Where can you watch other dramas for a North American and for what price? Do they have about the same amount of shows or the same variety?
I ask because I don’t know how it is in North America. We have 3 solutions I think in my country to watch dramas legally (Viki, Netflix and dramapassion).
The prices are:
- viki: ~4,50€ and ~8,80€ (+ bank fees because we pay in USD from free to 3%).
- netflix (diversity, but less dramas if you only buy this for dramas): 7,99€, 11,99€ and 15,99€.
- dramapassion: 9,99€ and 14,99€.
Currently, among all these 3 that let us watch dramas in my country, viki and netflix are the cheapest.
For anime, we have in my country:
- crunchyroll: 4,99 €
- wakanim: 5 €
- amazon prime (diversity, but less animes): 5,99€
- adn: 6,99 € and 14,99 €
- netflix (diversity, but less dramas if you only buy this for dramas): 7,99€, 11,99€ and 15,99€
For animes, if we compare with Viki price only (not the content), Viki is either the cheapest with Crunchy (4,50 and 5€), either in the upper channels (adn, viki, Netflix). I think the difference is the exclusivity thing, the other competitors they have, the availability on TV or not, and the taste of population. In France, we have fans, all ages, but how many people are ready to pay for animes and how much? Do we have the same amount of subscriptions to animes than dramas? Can we charge about the same?
What about Canada?
For the price fixing, I agree that we will never find people who will agree.
For a product, there will be consumers who will find that the price is expensive for various reasons. They won’t pay or they will still pay.
And some others who will find it correct and pay.
It could be subjective for us consumers to find the “fair price” we’re ready to pay (not the same revenue, not the same price for the same product here or there).
It’s more into finding the price that a consumer would pay.
If people are willing to pay for this price…
But it’s a really interesting topic, when I buy tomatoes, I buy them for a price. It’s not the same price everywhere and there will be a price limit where I won’t buy them (for tomatoes!), except if I can’t find them elsewhere, I can’t find a substitute, I really need them and I have the money.
I don’t know how they fix the price though.
In my situation, when there is something pricey for me, I won’t buy it or buy it when they have sales. I’ve never thought of telling the companies to lower the price… if they don’t do enough sales, they will know that either the price is too high for their target, either their product is not interesting.
But for ex, Apple, I find this is pricey, I don’t expect them to lower the price for me or consumers and people are ready to pay. Do they find it pricey too or is it the fair price for them?
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What!? They want a minimum of $3.99 a month for one genre? Wait, so does that mean there are more plans to pay more for less? They’re having a laugh aren’t they? I think it should be $1 a month since it’s only one genre and you can see horror films on any ol’ streaming services.
(sarcasm)
Shudder is a new service I presume as I’ve only just heard of them a month ago from their YT ad campaign.
A service launched by AMC, that big corporation that owns all those cinema chains, a business model decimated by Mr Wuhan and even before that the year on year falling cinema attendance.
So they too are desperate to take a slice of the growing streaming market.
I’m in no position to comment on their corporate strategies for Shudder, nor am I aware of what the possible market size for horror genre only streaming is, but given the newness of Shudder they would have to peg sub pricing at an attractively low price in order to build a sizeable subscribers base, possible at a loss initially in order to achieve that goal. (I think Netflix ran at a loss for the first three yrs growing their business)
AMC would already have a good working relation with Hollywood given the nature of their business is to distribute their content so would have plenty of agreements for films already hashed out and readily adjusted for steaming services.
Sure, you can throw lower sub prices out until the cows come home, had a shower and gone to bed, but they don’t really hold much weight in your proposal for Viki to restructure. Just as a bank would not give you a business loan just because you have a neat idea, you have to convince them why the idea is neat and viable with a solid business plan, to which none of us have access to the Accounts dept of Viki to run financial modelling against.
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Same here. And I don’t think it would help either. A company always needs to consider what’s profitable for them and just me not being able to afford their services is collateral damage. If nobody would subscribe, then they’ll know soon enough something needs to change, but there’s no point in just telling them to be cheaper without having all the information about their costs, money to spend, restrictions, people on the paylist, etc.
Btw, I have never heard of ■■■■■■■■■■ … is it French?
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Dramafever? No, it was American.
We have in France “Dramapassion.”
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Why do we ask Rakuten to lower the price?
Not the reported earnings. The risk modelling, financial projections, statistical analysis, budgeting etc. Running a large company takes decision making very seriously.(when is it never serious when it comes to making money.)
The CEO and higher ups get to lead the company in certain directions but also have access to massive resources to answer their ‘what if’ questions before leading everyone to glory instead of a minefield.
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Ah, yes, that’s what I meant. 
@piranna Blimey ■■■■■■■ is expensive where you are 
in the UK, £11.99 for the premium plan
in the US/Can viki pricing is a bit off i mean I wish north america only have one pass and that was the now plus pass at a slightly lower price plus is now
100 US yearly im suggesting 70-80 us yearly instead and the monthly price is raised from 8 33 to 10 to compensate not a un reasonable request at all
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It is 13 euros if I convert £11.99 from sterling to euros. Bummer!
Yeah, they raised the price of standard and premium. Before premium was at 11,99 euros, then 13,99 euros and now 15,99 €.
I don’t have premium and I don’t use enough Netflix to pay for premium.
Idk how it was before and now. What was the difference before and now for you?
Do you pay more for less content in Canada?
@piranna
if you are able to subscribe via Google play using the android app, you will pay in your local currency, thereby avoiding bank fees.
(expand the Google play tab of the article)
The UK banks a particularly nasty depending on the bank they will charge you between 10 and 12% on top of the value of the transaction for paying in dollars, hence why I subscribe to Viki via Google play
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I wonder how come via Googlestore, it is in euros and via website, it is in dollars.
Ooh, I thought the UK and the USA would have special deals with their past.
We also have banks that put a fixed commission, like 1 or 2 euros + rate, so for 4,50€ on a Vikipass, it is already 1/3 of bank commission.
There are banks where they don’t put these international operation fees though, it could also be interesting if we often pay in currencies 
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in my case viki is converted to cad and ny bank charges a internal conversion fee so see its really not so simple
@dudie your right viki is the onlu option that makes any sense I do pay for ODK as well but the service is very poor user experience wise over there and they have horrible sub title display anda very limited set of en content technology wuse and even in design and layout. Viki is king I just have issue with growing restrictions on content despite viki pass plua for me
and of course price .
Bank fees are related to bank fees politics. Any customer of a bank will have this problem when paying outside of their zone for any service, purchasing on the internet or traveling. It is anywhere.
On Viki:
Unless you use googlestore like he said or have a bank formula with no international fees.
Even for bank fees, it depends on people.
Some would find it acceptable and still pay, others will find it bothering and change bank companies. But that becomes personal judgement of the consumer.
Maybe you can send a message to Viki privately and explain them your situation.
For me, the only cases where someone would reduce the price (but, it is not a general rule): retired people, students or unemployed (because of their revenue).
I thought in Canada, you had no restrictions, unless in normal cases where no more licence or the North America licence is not available.
We will never have full access to all the channels on Viki, no matter what Viki pass plan we have.
Licences are bought for a limited period of time and for a region or regions, then they have to negotiate again when it expires. It is like that on Netflix, too. Unless they own the content like Disney, they can decide freely.
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@piranna I am aware how licencing works talking to them privitly makes even less sense then pushing for a global change
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