CoogTV, a product of the Student Video Network, is now offering free movies on-demand faster than Netflix and Redbox can update its selection.
“It’s awesome to be able to have another platform that offers our content,” SVN President Blake Cochran said.
“We have a regular channel that can get to anybody on campus, now we’re offering on demand (too)…being able to have another place for our students to get that exclusivity and watch our content before everyone else is cool.”
The change was made a week before the spring semester.
Although its reach is limited to students connected to the University’s wired or wireless network, it will allow students to have access to recently released movies and original content produced by SVN.
Cochran hopes offering these films on one site will stimulate student’s curiosity in SVN’s content and raise viewership.
“The way we were offering it (before) wasn’t very efficient for the students,” Cochran said. “We integrated it to our new website and labeled it with our new brand.”
“(We) used it as a way of advertising what we have to offer in the productions that our students make while at the same time asking (students) what they want to watch and giving them something to entertain them and keep them coming back to our content as well.”
The idea was brought to the table last year, Activities Coordinator and SVN adviser Paul Schneider said. Prior to this semester, SVN had a streaming platform rather than an on-demand platform. With the help of their provider, Resident Live Cinema, they were able to put the idea into action and make the on-demand feature look and feel like Netflix.
“We toyed with it last year, but didn’t get behind it,” Schneider said. “We thought it would go away (and) it wouldn’t be of value to the students because the IT department was rolling out the philo system.”
With HBO Go and the new philo system’s poor viewship and quality, SVN decided to move forward with the idea of CoogTV OnDemand.
“A lot of the students never adopted the idea of watching (TV) because they lived in this Netflix on-demand viewership anyway,” Schneider said. “So, when we saw the viewership of philo and saw it was kind of poor frankly, what it offered, students were not utilizing (it).”
“We felt this would be a good way to save students not only their $8 a month, but provide them with something that they would enjoy.”
SVN updates its site and OnDemand access with new original content biweekly while the numbers of movies vary month to month depending on polls. Students can access a poll on CoogTV’s site every month and vote on what movies they would like to see the following month.
Engineering technology senior Harold Garcia, a Netflix enthusiast and frequent movie-goer, sees the advantage of the feature using Internet for movie-lovers but a disadvantage of students using local wireless Internet.
“(It) sounds like a great idea but what worries me is how the internet speed will be affected by so many students streaming movies,” Garcia said. “We already have a problem in multiple buildings with speeds and connection. It (may) affect those who actually need to complete homework.”
Although the integration of this feature is new to CoogTV’s website, it has already shown positive results. With the site open for less than two weeks, Cochran said SVN has had over 500 hits.
“So, when we saw the viewership of philo and saw it was kind of poor frankly, what it offered, students were not utilizing (it).”
Quite frankly, no matter what the medium was before philo, students on campus don’t utilize TV that is provided in very large numbers.