Streaming B5 - Legally - USA

[Springer]

My only problem with this is that I really dislike Amazon.

I would ask why you dislike Amazon, but I don't want to know because I love Amazon and I don't want that to change. I am a big Blu-Ray and DVD collector and that is a great place to buy Blu-Rays and DVDs. What I buy is a niche market and Amazon isn't the only place I shop, but they are one of the few places that carry what I would be looking for. One might try to argue that the reason I have to turn to them is because they put the stores I could have gone to for what I want out of business, but that isn't true. Basically the only physical stores that carry what I look for are Best Buy or Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble has always been ridiculous about their media prices and Best Buy can't keep their shelves stocked with obscure movies only a handful of people might be looking for. And I do shop at Best Buy a lot, but I usually have to go to their website to find what I want or just buy the most mainstream stuff I am looking for in their stores.

I also stream a lot of music through Amazon as well. I mean seriously, if you buy a CD through them they are usually able to give you a digital version. I say usually because I did buy some of the B5 soundtrack CDs there and digital copies isn't an option with them. Anyway, I love Amazon for media buys, but that is pretty much all I do there. I can't remember the last thing I bought from Amazon that wasn't a Blu-Ray or DVD.

BUT THE NUMBER ONE REASON I LOVE AMAZON IS BECAUSE I CAN STREAM BABYLON 5 THERE. :thumbsup:

For the customer, Amazon are great - low prices and wide selection, especially if you are purveyor of niche products that can be hard to find. But those cheap prices can come at a cost. For example, suppose you're a novelist - not someone like Stephen King or JK Rowling, but someone less well known. The money you earn off your book is a percentage of the sale price of each copy of that book. So when Amazon come along and knock big amounts off the RRP, undercutting brick and mortar stores and forcing them to lower prices, it just harms the author's earnings, and the publisher's earnings. And of course they're able to reduce prices so much because they don't have the overheads of brick and mortar stores, they can use the discounts as loss leaders and so on. It's harming the book industry. I'm not sure what the effect is for music and films, as they have their own issues with piracy.

Oh, and Amazon find every loophole they can to avoid paying tax. In Europe in 2016 they paid £15 million in tax on gross earnings of over £20 billion.

All that said, I've used Amazon plenty of times, so I'm a hypocrite. And if subscribing to Amazon Prime will help convince Amazon to take up JMS' offer of uprezzing the film negatives to HD, I'll be sending them my money.

Is B5 only going to be on Amazon Prime in the USA, or worldwide?

 

[Jan]

Is B5 only going to be on Amazon Prime in the USA, or worldwide?

Unknown so far. We would love for it to be global but I've been encouraging people to contact their region's Amazon and request it. Also the movies and Crusade which haven't been mentioned yet.

 

[Looney]

My only problem with this is that I really dislike Amazon.

I would ask why you dislike Amazon, but I don't want to know because I love Amazon and I don't want that to change. I am a big Blu-Ray and DVD collector and that is a great place to buy Blu-Rays and DVDs. What I buy is a niche market and Amazon isn't the only place I shop, but they are one of the few places that carry what I would be looking for. One might try to argue that the reason I have to turn to them is because they put the stores I could have gone to for what I want out of business, but that isn't true. Basically the only physical stores that carry what I look for are Best Buy or Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble has always been ridiculous about their media prices and Best Buy can't keep their shelves stocked with obscure movies only a handful of people might be looking for. And I do shop at Best Buy a lot, but I usually have to go to their website to find what I want or just buy the most mainstream stuff I am looking for in their stores.

I also stream a lot of music through Amazon as well. I mean seriously, if you buy a CD through them they are usually able to give you a digital version. I say usually because I did buy some of the B5 soundtrack CDs there and digital copies isn't an option with them. Anyway, I love Amazon for media buys, but that is pretty much all I do there. I can't remember the last thing I bought from Amazon that wasn't a Blu-Ray or DVD.

BUT THE NUMBER ONE REASON I LOVE AMAZON IS BECAUSE I CAN STREAM BABYLON 5 THERE. :thumbsup:

For the customer, Amazon are great - low prices and wide selection, especially if you are purveyor of niche products that can be hard to find. But those cheap prices can come at a cost. For example, suppose you're a novelist - not someone like Stephen King or JK Rowling, but someone less well known. The money you earn off your book is a percentage of the sale price of each copy of that book. So when Amazon come along and knock big amounts off the RRP, undercutting brick and mortar stores and forcing them to lower prices, it just harms the author's earnings, and the publisher's earnings. And of course they're able to reduce prices so much because they don't have the overheads of brick and mortar stores, they can use the discounts as loss leaders and so on. It's harming the book industry. I'm not sure what the effect is for music and films, as they have their own issues with piracy.

Oh, and Amazon find every loophole they can to avoid paying tax. In Europe in 2016 they paid £15 million in tax on gross earnings of over £20 billion.

I know all of that is true, but if Amazon hadn't done it someone else would have. There is always going to be someone who exploits flaws in the system. The biggest example I can think of is Walmart. Walmart started the path of destruction for brick and mortar stores long ago by figuring out how to exploit loop holes and tax law. It is a sad statement and I wish there were stores where I could find my niche item, but they are few and far between. And when I do find them their prices are always higher because they have to be to stay alive. Unfortunately Amazon my undercut them, but Amazon's prices aren't always cheap. It is usually the third party sellers that sell it cheap where as Amazon seems to sell the item at what seems like a fair market price. Example: I just purchased The Black Panther 4KUHD + Blu-Ray + Digital Copy from Amazon for $24.95. Best Buy had it listed for the the same price. (Side Note: I usually order these from Best Buy, but it was just random that I ordered it from Amazon.) This price is about $3 less than what your typical Marvel or Star Wars 4KUHD home releases start out at. My guess is that it was this price because they expect to sell millions since it was such a big movie. I checked online, Barnes and Noble $32.54, which is what they would charge in store. If I owned my own Blu-Ray and DVD Emporium I would likely have to charge $35 to $45. Now of course the price is set by the volume, so if I could order fifty thousand copies to sell in my stores my bulk rate purchase price from the manufacturer would be less so I could charge less and still cover my overhead, but the whole system is flawed and guarantees that the only way you can survive in the market is if you can buy bulk product for pennies and sell all of it for a profit. (Side Rant Over)

The reality is that any brick and mortar stores I do find that sell Blu-Rays and DVDs are almost always second hand, so I have no guarantee of finding something specific and finding it in a condition worth purchasing. I do find my niche item on the internet with sellers other than Amazon quite often, but it is always nice to know I have Amazon as a backup. Plus I have to be honest they do their job pretty well. Their customer service is spectacular 8 out of 10 times. My one big issue with them has become shipping containers. Their cheaper, cheaper, cheaper philosophy on what they put my Blu-Rays and DVDs in for shipping has really caused me to hesitate and look elsewhere for many items first. If I pay $60 for three Blu-Rays you had better send them in a box and not just tossed in a padded envelope. Well they started using padded envelopes for everything so now I second guess every purchase. I mean I sell a lot of Blu-Rays and DVDs on the internet myself, but I only used padded envelopes when I sell a single item not multiples. Plus I wrap the item in a layer of bubble wrap before putting it in the padded envelope, so there are two layers of protection. (Okay I have got to stop!!!!! I am not even defending Amazon. I am just watching myself type now.) :guffaw:

 

[Blake00]

On 17/5/2018 JMS tweeted some very interesting stuff to Amazon about getting a higher quality version of B5 out there. Although some people are questioning the technical accuracy of some of his statements.

http://jmsnews.com/forums/showthread.php?p=181321#post181321

 

[Looney]

And here is a link to the petition that has already started about those comments.

https://www.change.org/p/warner-brothers-release-babylon-5-in-high-definition-using-master-negatives

If JMS' statements are inaccurate I think it is still a good idea to sign the petition just to get the numbers up. It is always good to remind WB that there are Babylon 5 fans out there. I even "Chip"ped in a little money so it gets shared more on Change.Org. Even if the petition is really for something that doesn't exist it is a petition with B5's name on it that might get seen by someone at WB to remind them we're out here.

 

[Blake00]

And here is a link to the petition that has already started about those comments.

https://www.change.org/p/warner-brothers-release-babylon-5-in-high-definition-using-master-negatives

If JMS' statements are inaccurate I think it is still a good idea to sign the petition just to get the numbers up. It is always good to remind WB that there are Babylon 5 fans out there. I even "Chip"ped in a little money so it gets shared more on Change.Org. Even if the petition is really for something that doesn't exist it is a petition with B5's name on it that might get seen by someone at WB to remind them we're out here.

I just posted this reply to you over at gateworld but yup 100% agree with you Looney & yup I already voted yester. Little bit to much pessimism & negativity in that jmsnews thread for my liking.

 

[Looney]

Unfortunately I just checked the petition and only 13 people have signed it since I signed it yesterday. Even if the petition was not based in reality those kinds of numbers aren't going to get noticed by anyone. If we could have made more noise WB might have gotten word that we are still out here, but 518 signatures isn't going to impress anyone.

 

[Jan]

I don't think it's negativity as much as reasonable doubt that those negatives *with the effects* even exist. Asking for something that doesn't exist won't help anybody. Me, I'm encouraging everybody in non-US regions to make sure they ask for the show to stream on Prime there since we don't yet know if the streaming will be global.

 

[Looney]

Just had a chat on Amazon and here is the quote I got from Saba at Amazon.com

"I've just checked it Joseph, as far as I know it will be available globally. But I am not so sure about all the countries as it depends on the content providers permissions."

So if you are outside the U.S. and you are not able to stream Babylon 5 through Amazon then it is because Warner Brothers said you couldn't. Blame them. They should be used to it by now when it comes to all things Babylon 5.