I just got back from Best Buy; I talked to the sales guy for about 90 minutes.
He said that Best Buy has no control over the pricing, it's per manufacturer on what the retail prices of the 4K sets will be. That being said, they ARE a retail chain, and it'd be foolish of them to not have some sort of "Black Friday" sale like EVERY OTHER STORE IN THE U.S. What he said is typical of Black Friday is that existing sets do not go down in price, but manufacturers like to put out slightly smaller sets with slightly less features and push them with a more attractive price point to "trick" the public into thinking they're getting some kind of deal.
Of all the sets I looked at today, the only 4K set that really featured Ultraflix was a Samsung one and the advertising was very subtle to the point that it was almost subliminal. I could see their colorful logo standing out from the purple of M-Go, the red of Netflix, and the green of Amazon Prime. Not only that, but if you think about the way people think, naming their service "Ultraflix" is a total play off of "Netflix" (there's already an association of what THAT TYPE OF SERVICE is, and ULTRA just sounds like a better version of it) so they've got that naming convention going for them.
Most people don't realize that with a set-top 4K player, you can't get 4K unless you're using HDMI 2.0 cables rated 18GBps or higher. The damned MONSTER BLACK PLATINUM cables are $100+ apiece and they're rated for 27GBps!
He also said that 4K was something people over the last 2 years typically used to pass by and say "wow that is one EXPENSIVE tv!" and just move along. They're becoming more mainstream, but manufacturers are still carrying 1080p tvs because they are significantly cheaper than 4K and people still buy them. The important thing is that 4K technology is becoming cheaper to produce, and thus cheaper to sell. They are gradually phasing out 1080p, so in time it will become the defacto standard which guarantees the demand for 4K content.
Do you remember Blockbuster? I do, but young people today do not. Redbox came along & crushed them because they offered the same movies for 1/5 the price with no overhead like employees, electric bills, leasing fees, bringing the savings to you, the customer. All you need is DVD shrink or a couple of hours and you don't need to be paying for all that "prestige" that Blockbuster had to offer. Netflix used to actually MAIL DVDs to you (I'm not sure if they still do, but who needs that suspense any more?) but nowadays they're all about streaming. There's no late fees, no gas money, no scratched discs or god forbid REWINDING, it's all streamed for instant access and your convenience at an affordable price per month. People want this, and if Ultraflix would switch over to a per-month service, then you can watch all you want in that month without a set-top box or hard drive like some of these 4K services require, which, like Blockbuster, is more overhead for you that you have to pay for.
In reference to the price points of buying a brand-new $1,700 4K tv and what the financial implications of that are; it's a moot point in our modern "put EVERYTHING on my credit card" society. It is this "buy it now, pay for it later" mindset that is bad for the consumer and good for us, the NTEK shareholders. Nowadays it is commonplace for the credit card company, the merchant, and the consumer to allow for $100 down on a $1,700 tv with monthly payments on it that will far outlast the life of the TV! This is how it is these days. People want everything NOW.
When I asked him about UltraFlix in-store promotional cards, he checked his system and talked to his manager and they hadn't heard anything about it. He said that in March this year, they ran a free one-year Netflix promotion with any new TV and that practice is typical for the new model-year TVs that come out between February and June, so he wouldn't be surprised if that Ultraflix promotion shows up in 2016. We've got to give this time to grow and hold; with the Paramount deal, the list is growing, and just like Hulu, Ultraflix is going to become a commonplace household name in time.
He said that Best Buy has no control over the pricing, it's per manufacturer on what the retail prices of the 4K sets will be. That being said, they ARE a retail chain, and it'd be foolish of them to not have some sort of "Black Friday" sale like EVERY OTHER STORE IN THE U.S. What he said is typical of Black Friday is that existing sets do not go down in price, but manufacturers like to put out slightly smaller sets with slightly less features and push them with a more attractive price point to "trick" the public into thinking they're getting some kind of deal.
Of all the sets I looked at today, the only 4K set that really featured Ultraflix was a Samsung one and the advertising was very subtle to the point that it was almost subliminal. I could see their colorful logo standing out from the purple of M-Go, the red of Netflix, and the green of Amazon Prime. Not only that, but if you think about the way people think, naming their service "Ultraflix" is a total play off of "Netflix" (there's already an association of what THAT TYPE OF SERVICE is, and ULTRA just sounds like a better version of it) so they've got that naming convention going for them.
Most people don't realize that with a set-top 4K player, you can't get 4K unless you're using HDMI 2.0 cables rated 18GBps or higher. The damned MONSTER BLACK PLATINUM cables are $100+ apiece and they're rated for 27GBps!
He also said that 4K was something people over the last 2 years typically used to pass by and say "wow that is one EXPENSIVE tv!" and just move along. They're becoming more mainstream, but manufacturers are still carrying 1080p tvs because they are significantly cheaper than 4K and people still buy them. The important thing is that 4K technology is becoming cheaper to produce, and thus cheaper to sell. They are gradually phasing out 1080p, so in time it will become the defacto standard which guarantees the demand for 4K content.
Do you remember Blockbuster? I do, but young people today do not. Redbox came along & crushed them because they offered the same movies for 1/5 the price with no overhead like employees, electric bills, leasing fees, bringing the savings to you, the customer. All you need is DVD shrink or a couple of hours and you don't need to be paying for all that "prestige" that Blockbuster had to offer. Netflix used to actually MAIL DVDs to you (I'm not sure if they still do, but who needs that suspense any more?) but nowadays they're all about streaming. There's no late fees, no gas money, no scratched discs or god forbid REWINDING, it's all streamed for instant access and your convenience at an affordable price per month. People want this, and if Ultraflix would switch over to a per-month service, then you can watch all you want in that month without a set-top box or hard drive like some of these 4K services require, which, like Blockbuster, is more overhead for you that you have to pay for.
In reference to the price points of buying a brand-new $1,700 4K tv and what the financial implications of that are; it's a moot point in our modern "put EVERYTHING on my credit card" society. It is this "buy it now, pay for it later" mindset that is bad for the consumer and good for us, the NTEK shareholders. Nowadays it is commonplace for the credit card company, the merchant, and the consumer to allow for $100 down on a $1,700 tv with monthly payments on it that will far outlast the life of the TV! This is how it is these days. People want everything NOW.
When I asked him about UltraFlix in-store promotional cards, he checked his system and talked to his manager and they hadn't heard anything about it. He said that in March this year, they ran a free one-year Netflix promotion with any new TV and that practice is typical for the new model-year TVs that come out between February and June, so he wouldn't be surprised if that Ultraflix promotion shows up in 2016. We've got to give this time to grow and hold; with the Paramount deal, the list is growing, and just like Hulu, Ultraflix is going to become a commonplace household name in time.
