As many of you know – and as was announced at the annual
Shareholder’s Meeting in February – the launch date for the consumer outreach
campaign for VODWIZ was set for August 30th. That was this past Saturday. But we didn’t make this date. Fortunately, it was a self-imposed date and
known only to HHSE shareholders; also fortunately,
we were able to reschedule our consumer ads and internet campaigns without
financial penalty.
But before the “naysayers” do a delightful chicken dance,
let’s discuss why VODwiz did not go live this past weekend, so that the market
has a better understand the scope of this venture. We will attempt to be brief as the technical
details are voluminous. Yes, believe it or not, this is the "brief" explanation. What we are building is a HUGE revenue portal and a major consumer brand, so even a brief summary is rather lengthy.
WHAT IS VODWIZ?
Unlike “Netflix” or “Hulu” which are “subscription-based” streaming services, VODwiz is structured (primarily) as a pay-per-transaction
service (which is closer to the I-Tunes
and Amazon.com model). The
subscription services – while wildly popular with consumers – are still very content
challenged. For example, two links are
attached to the bottom of this blog which highlight the limitations of SVOD services
in providing a wide range of content.
For movie consumers that have already seen the top blockbusters at the
theatres, Netflix is a poor entertainment choice for anything other than
binge viewing of TV Series marathons. VODwiz
believes that there are THOUSANDS of movies that are NOT AVAILABLE on Netflix
and Hulu, that consumers would want to see if they were easily found and
affordably accessed. Many indie and alternative titles are available on I-Tunes
and Amazon, but thousands are not; and those that are currently available tend
to be priced prohibitively for “impulse” viewing.
The goal of VODwiz is to be a primary destination on the internet
(or via IPTV viewing) for consumers “looking for something else.” Accordingly, our program supplier partners
are not the major studios (at this time),
but are the major independent distributors, covering a wide range of
programming from Asian and anime to urban and horror. Please note that within this first year of launch, VODwiz does
expect to add programming from a few major studio libraries as well.
Typical pricing models from VODwiz range from $.99 per movie to $3.99 for premium
content (major studio titles may be
priced higher); additionally, a large number of VODwiz titles will also be
available under a “monthly subscription”
service, which the company plans to introduce in January.
Over the past few months, HHSE staffers have been working on
a wide range of projects in support of the VODwiz launch, including:
·
Solicitation of Studio Partners (we now have twelve major indie partner
studios!);
·
Clearance of titles for streaming (avoidance of exclusivity conflicts and
E&O representations);
·
Assembly of properly formatted masters;
·
Assembly or creation of properly formatted “metadata”
for database access;
·
Creation of consumer publicity, advertising and
social media ads and strategies;
Despite a Herculean effort by management and staff – we were
not at a point last week to reliably initiate a successful consumer launch on August 30. HHSE Management takes responsibility for missing
our self-imposed deadline. Unfortunately,
there’s no easy reference book on “how to
launch a $20-million dollar internet streaming channel.” If this were an easy task to do, others would likely be trying.
Every item on our above check list (except
the first step of “soliciting studio partners”) has proven to be
exponentially more difficult and time consuming than would be suggested by the
mere mathematics of taking one-movie to market and multiplying that amount of time
by the 6,000+ titles currently on offer to VODwiz. Clearly, the assembly of MASTERS and the
clearance for non-exclusivity conflicts and rights approvals of third-party
suppliers has proven to be our greatest time challenge.
HHSE and VODwiz are now properly staffed and fully engaged
in the on-boarding process. We want to
launch to consumers this month (September),
but will only do so if a suitable number of higher-profile titles are fully
cleared and on-boarded. With all due
respect to “Future Shock” – (for
instance, with no disrespect intended for the program’s creators, HHSE CEO Eric
Parkinson and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” director Matt Reeves) – we don’t think that B-titles
of that level are likely to drive a ton of repeat site visits to VODwiz. We prefer to launch the site with a showcase
of 20
recent theatrical releases as the home page titles, with the
thousands of indie and specialty titles being the filler-catalog. It’s the proverbial “one-chance to make a first impression” that we are preserving.
When the concept of VODwiz was first presented to
Shareholders, the company forecasted that the site could have 2,500
titles. We now realize that the site
could easily (eventually) have more than 10,000 titles for streaming (we have one supplier studio partner with
2,700 titles themselves!). Will
being the world’s largest repository of films available on-line for streaming be a good
thing for HHSE? Management thinks it’s profound,
and will be the tail that wags the dog in revenues, stature and consumer
awareness.
So as we go into a new week for Hannover House and VODwiz,
let’s all take a deep breath, and get back to the task. No one can tell you “the date” that NETFLIX
or HULU began streaming content, because when
they started their services is irrelevant.
But assuredly, if there’s a streaming glitch or delivery issue, their
customers go NUTS and demand technical perfection. We did not want to launch VODwiz this past
Saturday because we were not ready for a variety of reasons. Launching the service properly is more
important to us than meeting a self-imposed, unannounced deadline.
Some shareholders have communicated to HHSE management that
the delay in launching VODwiz may be a terrific opportunity for longs. A small group of highly vocal “sky-is-falling”
naysayers have pledged to attempt to drive-down the HHSE share price because company
management stood-up to their extortionist threats. Our investigations have shown them to have
limited financial resources, but unlimited egos and claims. To falsely “paint” the HHSE stock price down below its value,
they have oftentimes sold shares to themselves in tiny amounts (12-to-501 shares) well below prevailing bids. These same chat-board posters have been
promising for years that HHSE is never going to make it to the next quarter,
and “ooooh, if only you knew what we knew” baloney in order to try to encourage
legitimate longs to bail on the stock.
It would not take much buying pressure to make the little puppies squeal
and run, so we’re told. In any event, the
naysayers will likely delight in HHSE Management making the decision to delay
the launch until VODwiz is fully ready, instead of launching to meet a self-imposed target date. So you can expect some of the stock chat boards to
light-up with absurdities from the court-jesters. For the convenience of legitimate
shareholders, a list of known posters of baloney and poo-poo was prepared by BashTrack and
is linked below. One sage trader told
HHSE management that good rule of thumb
to maximize profits is to do the exact opposite of what these known manipulators
are promoting on the boards.
THIS COMING WEEK, we should finally be cleared (through our insurance underwriter) to announce key supplier studio partners for VODwiz. As each supplier is announced, we will include 20 to 30 of their more popular titles in the news releases; however, the full-scale of the VODwiz title listings will be deferred until the site is fully up-loaded for consumer access.
LASTLY – Fred Shefte and Eric Parkinson want to THANK our
HHSE / VODwiz staff for the tremendous effort that has been expended over the
past few weeks (and the many hours of overtime waived!), to get VODwiz elements
together for the on-boarding process.
Kudos to: Daniel Ackerman, Regina
Hurst, Mitsi McGee, James Mc Lean, Caitlin McKenzie, Katherine Mills and Tom
Sims. ALL OF YOU ARE TOP SHELF!
WILL VODwiz BE A $20-MM DIVISION? The math says that this is a very obtainable
number… now it will be up to consumer response to determine.
(Netflix – stories re: limited product availabilities):
(Naysayer’s Central, posters to ignore):