PlayOn: What's the right play?

[Grasshopper]

Right now I, like many of you, use PlayOn to stream online content with Sage. But as you probably know, PlayOn is moving to a tiered model, and they're trying to sell me a Premium subscription. There are two options here: Your first year for $5 and then $20/yr after that, or a lifetime subscription for $40. So the question of which way to go boils down to this: What do y'all think the chances are that by 2 years from now, Sage will be streaming online content without PlayOn?

[GKusnick]

I went with the lifetime sub for $40. That's in the same ballpark as two movie tickets and a pizza, so even if I get only a couple of years of use out of it, it still seems like a reasonable deal. And this way it's done; I won't have to keep re-justifying it to myself every year.

[cncb]

I am kind of going back and forth on this but my feelings are that I can subscribe for 3 years for nearly the same cost as a "lifetime" subscription and probably will be using something else by then.

[wado1971]

For me, it's obvious Playon is working hard to improve the service and consistently add new sources - So $40 it is.

[JetreL]

$40 model for me too, I am still feeling a bit jilted that they are extorting the additional money from me but its much less than a years worth of cable subscription.

[ChaOConnor]

$40 was an easy choice for me, I think PlayOn is a great product and worth the money.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by JetreL

$40 model for me too, I am still feeling a bit jilted that they are extorting the additional money from me but its much less than a years worth of cable subscription.

Yeah, it's funny how we lose perspective... you can easily pay more than $40, PER MONTH, to get a low-end cable tier and not even get all the content that PlayOn offers, and people still continue to pay that.... yet we wonder whether it's worth paying $40 one time, to get this content for as long as PlayOn exists. I guess it's the difference between the one-time, manually-done payment, vs. the "automatically withdrawn from the bank account bill pay" that "you don't see so it isn't there".

[MitchSchaft]

I went for the $40 lifetime as well. I cancelled cable this week and they just now turned it off .

The only problem I have now is SageMC in Sage7. PlayOn doesnt show up because it's sitting in a submenu in the regular Sage7 interface. So we just have to wait for him to add a PlayOn properties menu for SageMC. I dont know if/when that'll happen, though. I wish I could build one myself.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by JetreL

I am still feeling a bit jilted that they are extorting the additional money from me...

How is it extortion? You're not obliged to upgrade; you're free to keep your old Basic license at no additional charge and continue to receive all the old Basic content you used to get. The Premium service is all new content that they didn't (and couldn't) offer under the old licensing model.

[graywolf]

I guess the $40 lifetime is just for those that had Play-On before?

If that isn't true, then I don't see where that is offered.

[MitchSchaft]

Yeah, we all got an email on it.

[Naylia]

I suspect they had a large number of people buy right before the deadline, and now those people (like me) are not upgrading to Premium at the rate they had expected.

[mbowling]

I decided to stick with the free service, which has everything I need. I don't see any added value when I compare the free content with the current paid content. And, I'm such a tightwad, I can make a penny scream.

[trini0]

Where do you see this lifetime offer??
I just purchased my subscription last month. ($40 first yr/$20 thereafter)
Would rather just paid the $40...

[Naylia]

$40 upgrade to Premium for life is for "founding members". The offer is good until Sept 30 so there is time to see what summer holds. Also they mention an iPhone app for Premium members coming soon. That'd get me to upgrade! Compared to Hulu Plus's 9.99/month.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by trini0

Where do you see this lifetime offer??
I just purchased my subscription last month.

As mentioned previously, the offer was made by email to purchasers of the original PlayOn product (now known as PlayOn Basic). May 20 was the cutoff for getting in on that deal.

[freewheeling]

I just assumed the $40 was for the software, like a one-time price. I didn't even know about the annual subscription thing. Guess it's too late now even if I wanted to do that instead. But this kind of distribution system for entertainment has legs. It might be a good idea to invest in something like PlayOn. It's going to change not only the way that entertainment is delivered, but also the kind of entertainment that's available to niche markets... like over-40 males...

finally!

[sic0048]

I finally got my email offer this evening. I thought I was being shafted!

I doubt I will upgrade. I rarely use Playon now, and the premium service doesn't really offer a lot more.

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

How is it extortion? You're not obliged to upgrade; you're free to keep your old Basic license at no additional charge and continue to receive all the old Basic content you used to get. The Premium service is all new content that they didn't (and couldn't) offer under the old licensing model.

I don't know about you but I certainly streamed the daily show off comedy central using the older version before they mentioned going to the new pricing plan. Typically when I buy software and it has a lifetime licensee I would expect to get free upgrades for the life of the product. (Winzip, Winamp, Malwarebytes, DVDFab, just to name a few) I don't see how it's my fault their pricing plan was not sustainable.

This probably isn't the forum to argue this topic I was just adding my opinion, you are right they are not forcing me to upgrade. I tend to spend a good deal of money on this hobby and don't have a problem supporting developers of software I use. I have donated to Comskip on several occasions as well as show analyzer. It is only $40 but I still feel like it was a bait and switch as well as a bit underhanded and that's my opinion.

[Bikeman]

I agree with JetreL, we just spent ~$30 on a lifetime sub ~5 months ago. 2 months later, they changed it to a lifetime _Basic_ version, Now they want another $40 for another lifetime version.

What's to stop them next year from offering a lifetime Silver version @ $40, then following year a lifetime Gold sub @ $40 and then a lifetime Platinum version the next year for $40 again.

Dunno, I feel a little stiffed too.

Jeff