Why we decided to make TNT archives subscriber only...

OK. Here's the scoop. I asked Vinny to make TNT archives subscriber only. It's not something we were regularly archiving anyway and there's still the JTV version of the archive that is perfectly viewable over at Justin.tv. The reason I asked for it was because the views on last weeks test version were low enough that we realized there's a pretty small audience that actually wants these things archived here on Giant Bomb. That's OK, we dig small audiences... but as a 2-hour feature it's both expensive for us to host, time-consuming to actually encode and is quite frankly impossible for us to monetize in any way in an archived format. 
 
From there it really came down to 2 options. Stop doing it (why spend so much time on something that most people won't watch) or do it as a perk for the dudes that are supporting us. Seemed like a pretty easy call. Mostly I get bummed that JTV doesn't allow many countries outside the US to even view archives of our content, so it would suck to just yank the cord on our International audience without an alternative.
 
Again, following our up front policy of not taking things away this is an added feature to the site, not something we were doing regularly (outside of the first week or so, I'm pretty sure last week was our only time we'e done this). The live version of TNT will never become paid only. We will continue to make active efforts at Whiskey Media to provide new features every few months to the people that keep us from having to shill the normal gaming website way with horrible advertising and farmed top-10 lists for page-views. It's just a better model. We can spend more time making you happy rather than make you annoyed.
 
We'll also be announcing some pretty bananas ideas next week for our subscribers and now that we're getting close to six months in we will start doing some live town-hall type Q&As where we can have a more active dialog about the direction of the Whiskey Media sites and the features you want to see as part of what you're paying for. Some of these we're planning to have open invites to actual come in and chat with us. Generally I'd like to have a bit more warning to you guys on features like this, but we just kind of ran with this one. Seemed like a pretty simple thing to do.
 
As usual, I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them.

How do you feel about X19 offering an easy alternative that essentially bypasses your new feature :P?

Sounds like a good call which I support, despite being a non-member.

Fine by me but I guess it would be...

Seems like a reasonable alternative to simply not hosting them on the site at all. Excited to hear about the future!

I am super excited that I can watch the TNT videos here since I work on Thursdays and miss it live. Thanks Dave.

Thanks Dave, and Vinny. I appreciate it. 
 
Edit: oh snap me and dave almost tied for posts >_>

Hey, I just wanna say that I really appreciate you guys archiving it here. I hate using the JTV player and I can't watch it live since I have a Thursday night lab every week, so this is great! Keep up the good work, guys!

I'm confused, why make something with a low view count sub only... wouldn't it make more sense to make something sub only if people actually wanted to watch it? Seems weird to me =\ help me understand dave!

I hope I'll be able to make it to the meeting, if I get this job in Petaluma :D  
 
If not I can just be a creeper outside Whiskey Media offices

As a subscriber I almost never get to watch shows live due to when I work so I appreciate when they are archived.  I Still can't find this weeks screening room though :(

" How do you feel about X19 offering an easy alternative that essentially bypasses your new feature :P? "

i don't know i'd think the low numbers on last week's are due to it being 1) the first week you ever archived it on the site, and 2) (even speaking as someone who actively plays and enjoys sc2) fucking starcraft AGAIN. 
 
anyways, hopefully i can become a real boy soon so i won't have to worry about stuff like this.

i'm a member so don't care

This is cool, it will be nice to watch some older TNT's here.  I really like the way you guys are handling the site its really cool, I will be a subscriber for life !

" I'm confused, why make something with a low view count sub only... wouldn't it make more sense to make something sub only if people actually wanted to watch it? Seems weird to me =\ help me understand dave! "

Sounds good to me.

I usually watch them by means of justin.tv anyway so this suits me fine. Very considerate of you bomb squad :)

Sounds fair. I wouldn't watch it anyway, so either way I'm covered.

Hey dude it's cool. I support you guys for the awesome content, if this means I get one more perk for being a subscriber, so be it. I appreciate it being archived here and not having to go over to Justin.tv. Stay sweet.

" As a subscriber I almost never get to watch shows live due to when I work so I appreciate when they are archived."

" @Jeffsekai said:

" I'm confused, why make something with a low view count sub only... wouldn't it make more sense to make something sub only if people actually wanted to watch it? Seems weird to me =\ help me understand dave! "

If we were trying to be a scumbag company sure. If that were the case you'd see paywalls on quicklooks and not content that is already provided free in parellel from two other sources (the live feed and the JTV archive). "

TNT being archived and posted here is much appreciated.

Thank you for archiving them. I am unable to watch them live and love being able to download them for a later time.

Since I am at work when you do TNT and can't watch it live, I am incredibly happy having this alternative to the (rather shit quality) Justin.TV. And, since it's coming straight into my iTunes library, I now have to option to archive it myself. 
 
Bravo.

Even as a nonsubscriber (for now) I think this is a perfectly reasonable approach. It's cool to see more content added to the member stuff without really taking something away from others that was already there.
 
I frequently miss TNT because of obligations and just generally hate JTV as it is, so this sort of thing motivates me to want to scrounge together to get a sub again soon even faster (as if Happy Hours weren't motivation enough!) Even thought I can't quite spare for it atm, I really look forward to seeing what other ideas you guys have for subscribers. Thanks for all the hard work, Snide!

Maybe the reason why there wasn't many people watching is because there wasn't much of an announcement saying you are archiving it. 

I usually always miss TNT's and Whiskey Media Happy Hour. I am just happy I can get them to watch after the fact. I've only watched the dead space 2 TNT and the Starcraft 2 TNT, and was always really bummed that I missed all the other TNT's. I also like downloading them so I can have them on my second monitor playing through VLC, and can still play Counter Strike Source and download other shit without lag. 

" @Jeffsekai said:

" I'm confused, why make something with a low view count sub only... wouldn't it make more sense to make something sub only if people actually wanted to watch it? Seems weird to me =\ help me understand dave! "

If we were trying to be a scumbag company sure. If that were the case you'd see paywalls on quicklooks and not content that is already provided free in parellel from two other sources (the live feed and the JTV archive). "

Glad to see you guys offering this as an option. It may just be me, but the archives of this stuff on J.TV's website always loaded REALLY slow, so I much appreciate it being hosted here instead. I rarely get the chance to watch TNT live (I work Thursday nights), so this is good.

I like the archived version for HD goodness.

I always consume every piece of Whiskey Media content regardless of the level of interest to me simply because I like having stuff on in the background while I'm working on things. Hearing Ryan make some dumb joke every once and a while is enough for me. TNTs are fantastic regardless of the game being played because it's two hours of content where I don't have to constantly go back and load something else up. Plus most of the time it's not really that compelling to watch somebody else play a game but the Whiskey Media brand of humor never seems to get old. Justin.tv always seems to find ways to make watching stuff difficult and the quality is pretty solid but not nearly as good as Whiskey Media content.  
 
So in short, I love this idea. :P 
 
I really appreciate the staff always looking out for it's members especially those of us who are subscribers. It's one of the many things that makes Whiskey Media so great. Thanks for all of the hard work!

Im okay with it, but one week doesn't seem like a fair sample.

Sounds reasonable enough. I'm more interested in these alleged "Town Hall" shenanigans. Will they be open to members only? What are the chances of someone getting tased?

 there's still the JTV version of the archive that is perfectly viewable over at Justin.tv.

I like it! Just another great perk that comes with supporting Whiskey.

As someone who just upgraded to a paid subscription a few days ago, I can honestly say that watching TNT on Justin.tv is completely fine. I have yet to watch a TNT live (as it's either late on the east coast or I'm busy) and I always go to Justin.tv to watch it. So for the people who aren't subscribed, don't worry too much. Although I suppose to does suck for those who are outside of the US and can't do that. Just try and catch it live, I guess.
 
In addition, I like to watch parts of it and leave it paused for a while and come back to it later. If I did that on the Whiskey Media player, it would reset the time back to 0 and I would have to find where I left off. Justin.tv doesn't do that.
 
Just thought I'd give people some insight on someone who hasn't been a subscriber for very long (only a few days). The link to the Giant Bomb Justin is here:
 
http://www.justin.tv/giantbomb
 
Just look to see when it was posted to figure out which TNT it is.

Oh well

Thanks for the update Dave, the great content in Happy Hour the past couple of weeks has easily covered the cost of memberships...........

I just don't understand. The Justin TV archive is garbage, and I am never here to watch the TNTs live. I thought that you guys putting up the archives last week was fucking awesome, but as much as I love Vinny and Will I didn't want to watch because I saw a bit of it live and was frustrated by their lack of Starcraft knowledge (not their fault). But that doesn't mean I wouldn't watch others if you continued to put them up. I'm fine with you guys not letting me watch Happy Hour, but making the TNT archive subscriber-only just seems like some kind of joke. If no one's watching it, how is it a good incentive for someone to become a member?

" @Jeffsekai said:

" I'm confused, why make something with a low view count sub only... wouldn't it make more sense to make something sub only if people actually wanted to watch it? Seems weird to me =\ help me understand dave! "

If we were trying to be a scumbag company sure. If that were the case you'd see paywalls on quicklooks and not content that is already provided free in parellel from two other sources (the live feed and the JTV archive). "