Stage6 closing for ever on Thursday

[Curt]

you'll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

... I'm writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you'll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I'd like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision. (...)

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it's really as simple as that.

Now, why didn't we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That's a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high-quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren't providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high-quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn't continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high-quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won't (and can't, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.

So that's where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high-quality video to a wide audience, and we'll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format.

It's been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

 

[Curt]

You may want to capture a copy of the '9-11 Eyewitness', 679 MB, 105 minutes. No, it is not suitable for compression because then you won't be able to see the first person who jumped.... 


http://www.stage6.co...tage_and_AV_Analysis)

[Curt]

Maybe only a few of you, if any, were using Stage6, but I will miss it a lot. Yesterday was THE last day, so I downloaded 370 music video files... (22GB - sometimes it really is a good thing to have a fast Internet connection!), and I am looking forward to watch and listen to all this fine music. Of course Stage6 was also housing some crappy videos, but in general the good thing about Stage6 was that you would find much higher quality videos than you would at uTube etcetera. Maybe Stage6 was not The King -...- but: Stage6 has left the building.

[app103]

They are still up, through today. I am there now downloading old classics and documentaries while I still can.

next on the list: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

[Curt]

I visited them 6 hours ago and was not able to download anything from my favourite tags. But it is good to know that at least some videos can be safed. 

[tinjaw]

Has anybody contacted the folks at The Internet Archive to see if they are interested it getting the content from Stage6?

[Renegade]

Man... This sucks...

Not sure about everyone else, but I live in South Korea, and getting content is almost impossible.

I'd be more than happy to pay for it, but none of the studios are interested in letting me buy their stuff. Stage6 was great because I could at least get things that would not otherwise be available to me.

I don't download from Stage6, but I certainly love having TV shows available.

I suppose this is a "burn rate" issue with the money running out and the studios not giving in to the new business models that are available to them.

Just how hard is this question:

I WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY. PLEASE TAKE IT! HOW CAN I GIVE YOU MY MONEY?

Complete ****ing retards!

At least we still have Veoh...

Maybe someday someone will wake up and smell the money. I hate farting around and would much rather just buy TV shows or movies online than mess around and waste time.

Stage6 has such great quality too. Not very stable software, but the quality rocked when it didn't crash.

[Lashiec]

I never used Stage6, so what benefits did they offer over getting content using BitTorrent clients? (Apart from having shows that are impossible to get in BitTorrent due to the lack of seeders)

[Curt]

You may sign this petition to make them keep Stage6:

    To:  Stage6

    This petition is designated as the official online petition for those of us who want to keep Stage 6 running. We, the people who have signed this petition use Stage 6 and are very disappointed with the decision of closing the site, and we would like to keep the site open. This petition shows I support Stage 6 and do not wish for it to be taken down.

    Sincerely,

    The Undersigned


View Current Signatures
 

So far: 21,456 Signatures Total - including mine.

[tinjaw]

That petition is completely worthless. It is just 25K people begging for Stage 6 to keep bleeding money and time so they can get More Free Stuff. They would be much better coming up with a single sustainable business plan than a million worthless signatures.

[Renegade]

Part of the attraction is that you don't need to download from Stage6 (or Veoh, etc.). You just click play. Simple.

+100 for tinjaw.

The petition means nothing practically. If it gains media attention, it may have some very tiny miniscule small influence on the studios to actually open up to new business models.

My suspicion is that a lot of these video sites got into the business expecting ad revenue to actually mean something (which I think is rather naive) and that it would tie them over until the studios caved into a new distribution models and embraced the Internet. That isn't happening in any really meaningful way.

There are LOTS of ways to monetize things, but the status quo is safer than trying out unproven business models. The dot com bubble burst in 2000 showed that the ad revenue model and the "eye-balls" model isn't fully developed or stable yet. That is a real concern for the content producers that have to pay for the production of the shows. How do they get sponsors? How do they sell? How do they distribute? The current movie theatre and cable TV model is proven and works.

What they don't really understand is that piracy isn't the big concern that they think it is. i.e. If you can expand your market by 10x, but you lose 50% of that market to piracy, you've still increased your revenues by 5x. Maximizing revenue per unit isn't always the best solution, and isn't the best way to increase revenues for a lot of things. (It works for high-end products where there is a limited audience, but not for mass market products.)

It's too bad that Stage6 is closing. But hey, it's been a fun ride while it lasted.