Australian Football Association of North America

Sunday afternoon and not one match is yet up for "full" viewing. Lots of  Gamewraps (7), but that's not what I'm really after.

So, I sent another polite inquiry, but since they didn't bother to answer my one from last week I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting on a response.

Overall, the service works great and the quality is good, but they obviously need to work on their full match upload speed.

Given that this service is new I'm not going to start frothing at the mouth quite yet. However, a little communication would be nice. Why is it some companies just don't seem to get that  "Good communication is good business?"

It looks more and more like the new site is just a new wrapper for the same un-DRMed Windows Media content.

Something that hadn't occurred to me when I posted earlier (yes, that was me - forgot my password) is that BigPond/Telstra still have to provide service to their "local" Australian customers, which they do as one of the "perks" of having one's internet connection through them.  Thus - no matter what they do for international fans - they're going to have to provide for that market. Obviously, they've sunk a fair amount of money into their current capture, encode and serve setup and are understandably loath to scrap it. The thing is - and I admit I'm no expert on this - my understanding of how Windows Media DRM works would indicate that actually encrypting every stream that goes out would vastly increase the demands on their servers. That's presumably why they've never actually used WM DRM on their streams - unlike some of the "all you can listen to for a monthly fee" music services here in the USA like Rhapsody or Napster.

Since they're already creating the Windows Media streams for the local market - it would appear that they're doing what they've done in the past, trying to put a fancier lock on the front door - the way one accesses the content - while not locking the content itself, or even locking the back door. At least as of Round 15, all the games I tried were available from the same sorts of stream URLs I've been used to from the previous subscription system. It also explains why Mac users are still being left out in the cold.

This leaves the question as to why they didn't do what they're trying to make it LOOK like they're doing - switch over entirely to Flash video. Again, I don't have knowledge in depth on the latest features of Flash - but none of the Flash video I've ever seen has been encrypted/DRMed - and in most cases, like with YouTube, one can just copy a video out of one's browser cache, rename it to (whatever).flv and it'll play in a variety of programs that can handle the format. That would make it easier for people to illegally copy their video, not harder.

What I find interesting is that now Amazon.com is offering DRM-free MP3s of major label music; iTunes has some music available as DRM-free "Plus" tracks, and other online music vendors are moving in a similar direction. Given the issues with streaming video halfway 'round the world - if the AFL/BigPond would just realize that trusting their users is a good business move and make all the content they're desperately trying to "protect" available to paying users as unencumbered direct downloads I suspect they'd reap a HUGE reward in fan goodwill and loyalty. They could have a more sophisticated backend that would prevent downloads by anyone not signed in to the system as a paid-up user - and the downloads should be playable on Macs via Flip4Mac. Illegal distribution of the games would likely wane - especially if they got over themselves and offered the same package to Australians who don't use BigPond as their ISP on the same terms as they do to overseas fans.

And while I'm ranting on ... with that kind of setup, they could possibly allow people to buy games a la carte, the way people buy individual songs from Amazon or iTMS. They could even allow people to try out a certain amount of content for FREE - which would help in recruiting new fans of the game.

Of course, this all assumes a sensible approach and wanting the best for the game in the long term - so obviously I'm living in a dreamworld.

GeorgeM

What a continued balls up by the AFL. I know we only make up somewhere between 5 - 10% of the PC market, but still - we're growing.

On so many levels the decision not to support macs is idiotic. A few points:

1. Different sport, but MLB.com is mac friendly
2. Setanta Broadband (which I have not used and shows AFL) is mac friendly
3. Does the AFL not know about torrents?
4. There are ways to record DRM protected files using a windows pc, if you are inclined to do the research

I just have to shrug my shoulders..

NYT