Of course, Facebook is attempting to at least somewhat do this as well by opening its data stream outside of its walls.
Those cable packages already include an increasing breakout of diverse services that allow for streaming outside of the over-the-top experience, like HBO Go and ESPN, and this offers another streaming service on-the-go for users.
In other words, most creators seem to be happy for the option to have access to another revenue stream outside of advertising or sponsorships, which is how they monetize their YouTube videos today.
The stupidity of the RIAA continues to have little bounds, particularly when a decision like this forces a US company to stop streaming outside of the United States, and yet American owned companies based in the United Kingdom (like Last.fm) are free to stream music anywhere.
For example, the mechanical royalties due from streams, downloads (outside of the U.S. &Latin America) and physical sales aren't collected by PROs.
It's simply the most complete internet media streaming platform available outside of a computer.
Access to a selection of e-books could also help Walmart later on flesh out its own Amazon Prime competitor – something that seems even more likely, given reports that Walmart is now working on its own streaming video service (outside of Vudu) that could become a part of some such program.
I also found when testing both that Justin.tv was more reliable for streaming quality from outside of the United States, and at times Ustream.tv was unusable for me, even on a 14mb down, 1mb up ADSL2 connection; you wouldn't experience this in the US however.
Just recently Rhapsody launched Napster in 15 European countries and, given the dearth of real streaming solutions outside of core Western countries the move makes perfect sense.
(Indeed, Amazon got an early jump on this Sunday, confirming that it will launch a standalone video streaming service, outside of its Prime membership, to compete more squarely against Netflix).
