Bluejax.net

Hmmm, eigentlich hatte ich vor, diese Woche die Videoplattform Stage6.com vorzustellen. Diese wurde mir kürzlich erst empfohlen und hat mir aufgrund der enorm guten Qualität der dort veröffentlichen Videos ziemlich gut gefallen.

Irgendwie anders…

Wie nun heute Medienrauschen mit Bezug auf golem.de vermeldet, schließt nun allerdings DivX, der Betreiber von Stage6, seine Videoplattform ab dem 28. Februar 2006. Dabei wurde in den vergangenen Monaten durchaus versucht, die Videoplattform weiter auszubauen und damit dauerhaft im Internet zu etablieren.

Gerade durch die Möglichkeit, auf Stage6 unzählige Folgen verschiedener erfolgreicher Fernseh-Serien wie Desperate Housewives, Dr. House, Lost, Heroes, Simpsons, Nip Tuck, Prison Break, Stromberg und unzähligen anderen TV-Formaten anzuschauen, konnte sich Stage6 enorm von den vielen anderen Videoportalen im Internet abheben.

Misserfolg durch Erfolg?!

Bei Stage6 kann man die Enttäuschung der Nutzer durchaus nachvollziehen und versucht zu erklären, wie es zu der Entscheidung, Stage6 zu schließen kam (siehe unten). Demnach war es nicht der Misserfolg, der DivX zu diesem Schritt veranlasst hatte, sondern ganz im Gegenteil: Das „Experiment“ Stage6 wurde scheinbar „zu“ erfolgreich und damit letztlich zu ressourcenlastig für DivX.

Was DivX bei Stage6 dazu sagt

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet.
[…]
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.
[…]
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.
[…]
Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

(Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc.)
Quelle: Stage6.com

Schade!

bluejax
Il, den 25. Februar 2008

Quellen und Links:
http://www.streetlightstv.de/blog/high-quality-experiment-am-ende-divx-schliesst-stage6com/
http://www.stage6.com/
http://www.medienrauschen.de/archiv/aus-fuer-videohoster-stage6/
http://www.golem.de/0802/57937.html
http://www.golem.de/trackback/57937
http://www.divx.com
http://www.stage6.com/German-Video-Channel/videos/group:31971