The Problem:
Neither Netflix, nor YouTube, nor iTunes, nor Dish/Blockbuster, nor Hulu, nor HBO Go, nor any of the others in this space have it exactly right.
The Business
A screen. A user account. A viewer. Every piece of content ever created. A payment – either micro or mini – to stream it. A large percentage of the revenue back to the content producer.
No all-in pricing. Everything is a la carte.
Doableness
Extremely tough. You need to convince all of the major content providers that this is the future of content viewing. Then you need world-class engineering to build the site. And somehow you need to do this right under the nose of all the existing players in the space. And despite the existing players not having it exactly right, they are largely a very innovative bunch.
My Thoughts
I would say this is “web-based,” but what isn’t? As the TV and the Internet move together, there will be more of a need for this service.
The closest service is probably iTunes. But it isn’t streaming. And, from what I hear, not enough goes back to the content producer.
The future is: If you make a piece of content, you will get paid by the people who watch it, when they watch it. In the past, the content provider has gotten too much attention. Cable, satellite, video stores, etc. The content provider is the middleman. The Internet eliminates middlemen. It will do so in this case as well.
But the content producer needs a delivery mechanism. That’s where this service comes in. This might be best sold as software permitting content producers to do it all themselves.