The perks of watching TV online

“When was the last time you finished watching an episode of any TV on free-to-air?” asked Razmig, and in the same breath he asked me to pronounce his first name, “Mr. Hovaghimian” which if I did, he would probably buy me ice cream.

But no, nobody watches TV any more.

In a traditional sense, the scheduled stuff get lost in a VOD or Internet. With the Youtube generation, who pays for content anymore? Even the Singapore government recognized this and removed the long standing Radio and TV License that probably wiped off $132million of their yearly income.

My friend Razmig rushed his fingers across his laptop, and materializing before me was another business prospect.

Notwithstanding the gazillions of failed business experiments he tried in Stanford, this one was impressive, and bore the potential to surpass his only other successful idea – the EMBRACE movement

This is not another “save the world” idea like EMBRACE, but one that is interesting and that brings meaning to watching TV, online of course.

It contained full episodes of Korean dramas, full length Indonesian movies, short entertainment news without the embellishment of pirate sites, over promises of porn sites; had no commercials on the homepage, and it’s fully social.

Somebody pays for the content. It’s not you, but if you like you can join their “Subbers” community to do your little bit to translate and subtitle the content with many like-minded people, to as many languages as the universe can understand.

It’s harvesting the power of collective knowledge to allow as many people in the world to understand as many people through a beautiful language of TV and Film.

It’s recreating the technological tower of Babel without the evil intent to take over the concept of God.

“It’s beautiful,” and if that is all I can say to my friend, it is with deep awe and respect.

Now, an Egyptian movie can and will be enjoyed and understood by millions of people all over the world for free, and maybe through this we can end all wars and strife.

I want to believe that this is Razmig’s intent. Something so good could not have come from a selfish motive.

If you don’t believe me, check out Viki.com. Today, it's a $26million dollar 2 year-old business incepted in the Singapore backyard.

And Razmig Ho-va-gim-ian-san, can I have my ice cream now, or do I have to press pause on my favourite Japanese anime and get it myself from your freezer?

And OK I have to admit, this is your best “save the world” idea by far.

References:

https://www.mda.gov.sg/NewsAndEvents/PressRelease/2011/Pages/20110218.aspx

https://www.motochan.com/2011/10/21/viki-raises-us20m-gives-singapore-tech-scene-something-to-shout-about/

https://sgentrepreneurs.com/news-stop/2011/09/22/viki-signs-deals-with-bbc-and-netflix-reaches-new-milestones/

https://bootcamp.jfdi.asia/razmig-hovaghimian/ 

Wieszcz