I know its been a PR nightmare for HUDL. I'm sure they weren't expecting the social media firestorm from coaches that they got. The price increase is not the issue to me, its the limited data.
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” -Vince Lombardi
A few months ago an old coach of mine came across some VHS tapes of teams that he coached (and I played on) way back in the day. Most had degraded terribly and only a couple were viewable. As I watched them I was struck by a couple things - how much more violent it was, how much more athletic today's kids are and how terrible the video quality was.
The video was just awful - we didn't even use a tripod, the camera was held by a nerdy kid with allergies who kept sneezing because of the freshly cut grass. So multiple times each game during a play the camera would rise slowly and then sharply drop. And at the time we thought having that VHS tape to watch was absolutely gold. Today it would be useless, unwatchable. I'm with silkyice, I don't like the price but it is the gold standard compared to what was.
To be honest, if their primary market were NFL teams, I'd be totally fine with it. Bilk some billionaires out of a few extra bucks, they can afford it. But their primary market is high schools, which are...not known for having stacks of ducats just lying around. I know, I know, everybody is going to get all uppity about "oh so they can't sell their product" or "entitled to the sweat of their brow" or whatever, but it's just kind of {censored} to make a decision solely because you can extract money from the education system.
how do you know the reason they're doing it? I highly doubt it's just to F cash strapped programs over. Like any business, they are most likely analyzing their overhead costs and adjusting accordingly. If they were going to do it just to screw people, they'd have done it a long time ago.
Sure, it is impossible to "know" why any company does anything. But it is pretty easy to infer what is going on. In the post above, I lay out what their costs are for storage. This is a known number - their CTO is all over the internet talking about how they use AWS and which services they use, and AWS's pricing is transparent. If anything, that estimate is on the low side, as they probably have a special deal given how big a client they are.
If they were simply trying to cover overhead, they could have introduced ala cart pricing for storage. Even at double their costs, that is still only about $50 a year per 100GB of data. But no, they instead chose to put hard limits on storage and want you to "upgrade" to a higher tier that costs between $800 and $1,600 more per year but only costs them a few dollars more in storage.
So, are they trying to "F cash strapped programs"? That is a value judgement. But it is absolutely the effect of their policies to grab as much cash as they think the (presently inelastic) market will bear. And the reason they are doing it now is because they think they can - they have run all the major competitors out of the market, and they believe they have a sticky enough product that most customers don't want to go through the hassle and risk of changing. And they are probably right, at least in the short term.
how do you know the reason they're doing it? I highly doubt it's just to F cash strapped programs over. Like any business, they are most likely analyzing their overhead costs and adjusting accordingly. If they were going to do it just to screw people, they'd have done it a long time ago.
Sure, it is impossible to "know" why any company does anything. But it is pretty easy to infer what is going on. In the post above, I lay out what their costs are for storage. This is a known number - their CTO is all over the internet talking about how they use AWS and which services they use, and AWS's pricing is transparent. If anything, that estimate is on the low side, as they probably have a special deal given how big a client they are.
If they were simply trying to cover overhead, they could have introduced ala cart pricing for storage. Even at double their costs, that is still only about $50 a year per 100GB of data. But no, they instead chose to put hard limits on storage and want you to "upgrade" to a higher tier that costs between $800 and $1,600 more per year but only costs them a few dollars more in storage.
So, are they trying to "F cash strapped programs"? That is a value judgement. But it is absolutely the effect of their policies to grab as much cash as they think the (presently inelastic) market will bear. And the reason they are doing it now is because they think they can - they have run all the major competitors out of the market, and they believe they have a sticky enough product that most customers don't want to go through the hassle and risk of changing. And they are probably right, at least in the short term.
Hudl doesn't owe me anything except to provide the service that I paid for. They owe it to their shareholders to make as much money for them as they can. They are not putting a gun to my head, forcing me to buy their product. I am an unabashed capitalist, I say more power to them. If I don't like it I can shoot it with a digital camera and do my own film time from a thumb drive or a DVD. It's not impossible it's just a pain in the balls. We did it with a middle school program about 12 years ago. The product wasn't as good and it was more time consuming but it was free.
You said it yourself - it will work for them in the short term but they are slitting their own throats in the long term.
They owe it to their shareholders to make as much money for them as they can.
...
You said it yourself - it will work for them in the short term but they are slitting their own throats in the long term.
I mean...aren't these two statements contradictory? What they're doing now is for a short term boost in earnings at a substantial long-term loss. That's the problem with moves like these. They're trying to make $100 today at the expense of $1000 in a decade.
how do you know the reason they're doing it? I highly doubt it's just to F cash strapped programs over. Like any business, they are most likely analyzing their overhead costs and adjusting accordingly. If they were going to do it just to screw people, they'd have done it a long time ago.
Sure, it is impossible to "know" why any company does anything. But it is pretty easy to infer what is going on. In the post above, I lay out what their costs are for storage. This is a known number - their CTO is all over the internet talking about how they use AWS and which services they use, and AWS's pricing is transparent. If anything, that estimate is on the low side, as they probably have a special deal given how big a client they are.
If they were simply trying to cover overhead, they could have introduced ala cart pricing for storage. Even at double their costs, that is still only about $50 a year per 100GB of data. But no, they instead chose to put hard limits on storage and want you to "upgrade" to a higher tier that costs between $800 and $1,600 more per year but only costs them a few dollars more in storage.
So, are they trying to "F cash strapped programs"? That is a value judgement. But it is absolutely the effect of their policies to grab as much cash as they think the (presently inelastic) market will bear. And the reason they are doing it now is because they think they can - they have run all the major competitors out of the market, and they believe they have a sticky enough product that most customers don't want to go through the hassle and risk of changing. And they are probably right, at least in the short term.
This is true.
But there are a lot of things to consider that go into their costs.
For instance, they bought up many of the companies that were their competition. That costs money. That costs cash that could be spent in other places like development, upgrades, paying investors, etc. That was not a good short term business decision. But it is a great long term one that pays dividends later. Like now.
Sure, it is impossible to "know" why any company does anything. But it is pretty easy to infer what is going on. In the post above, I lay out what their costs are for storage. This is a known number - their CTO is all over the internet talking about how they use AWS and which services they use, and AWS's pricing is transparent. If anything, that estimate is on the low side, as they probably have a special deal given how big a client they are.
If they were simply trying to cover overhead, they could have introduced ala cart pricing for storage. Even at double their costs, that is still only about $50 a year per 100GB of data. But no, they instead chose to put hard limits on storage and want you to "upgrade" to a higher tier that costs between $800 and $1,600 more per year but only costs them a few dollars more in storage.
So, are they trying to "F cash strapped programs"? That is a value judgement. But it is absolutely the effect of their policies to grab as much cash as they think the (presently inelastic) market will bear. And the reason they are doing it now is because they think they can - they have run all the major competitors out of the market, and they believe they have a sticky enough product that most customers don't want to go through the hassle and risk of changing. And they are probably right, at least in the short term.
Hudl doesn't owe me anything except to provide the service that I paid for. They owe it to their shareholders to make as much money for them as they can. They are not putting a gun to my head, forcing me to buy their product. I am an unabashed capitalist, I say more power to them. If I don't like it I can shoot it with a digital camera and do my own film time from a thumb drive or a DVD. It's not impossible it's just a pain in the balls. We did it with a middle school program about 12 years ago. The product wasn't as good and it was more time consuming but it was free.
You said it yourself - it will work for them in the short term but they are slitting their own throats in the long term.
Agreed, no one is putting a gun to anyone's head. But they are doing a major bait and switch on us. For years while they were building market share, they assured everyone that game film would be free. That was a major selling point. Now that they don't have to worry about market share so much, so that promise/assurance whatever you want to call it, is broken.
It is very much a soft kind of fraud on their customers. Not illegal, but definitely not ethical.
I don't think it's fair to call it fraud. It's just {censored}, monopolistic behavior. Everybody wants to talk about "blah blah blah capitalism", but this isn't "free market" economics. It's a monopoly giving their customers the shaft.
I don't think it's fair to call it fraud. It's just {censored}, monopolistic behavior. Everybody wants to talk about "blah blah blah capitalism", but this isn't "free market" economics. It's a monopoly giving their customers the shaft.
Regulation is a monopoly. How do you want to get screwed.
I mean, I voted in the election. I didn't vote for HUDL. Democracy isn't perfect, but it's definitely better than not having a choice at all.
(I'm aware I don't have to pay HUDL, but the demand for video services is relatively inelastic because I have to be able to trade)
Post by TheOlBallCoach on Apr 9, 2019 10:48:36 GMT -6
If so many coaches weren’t being unethical and storing all their film/clinics/drills under the game film section then Hudl never would’ve had to do this.
People found a loophole and exploited the rules. Now Hudl has to make up for you storing 200GB worth of stuff under game film and it counting as 0GB to your plan of 50GB.
Cloud storage is cheap but imagine this x100000 coaches doing this across the nation.
People are pissed they’re changing because now they can’t take advantage of the system anymore.
I think HUDL could have saved themselves some headaches if they had instituted gradual price increases and enforced their storage policies.
I think the shock to the system has made this seem worse than it is.
Has anyone thus far cancelled HUDL service? Or does anyone definitely plan to cancel their service with HUDL? I was at a coaches roundtable this past weekend and the coaches said for football they just don't think they will get away from HUDL but multiple coaches said they had already cancelled it for basketball and baseball.
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
"The only proof he needed for the existence of God was football"
I bet you will see competitors soon since Hudl has gorged their consumers a little too much too fast.
Hudl carved out a nice niche market and totally changed how we as a profession handle film and what we can do with it. Just because they own the market place now doesn't mean they always will.
They owe it to their shareholders to make as much money for them as they can.
...
You said it yourself - it will work for them in the short term but they are slitting their own throats in the long term.
I mean...aren't these two statements contradictory? What they're doing now is for a short term boost in earnings at a substantial long-term loss. That's the problem with moves like these. They're trying to make $100 today at the expense of $1000 in a decade.
I don't think it's contradictory because I said it's short sighted. They could assure a solid, long term revenue stream by "reasonable" increases in cost - that would essentially keep anybody else out of the market. But when they come in and take a big bite out of our wallets somebody else is going to jump into the pool and now they're on shakier ground. Shareholders with a long term focus shouldn't like it.
Hudl should remember that pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.
If prices were set and the government standardized everything thirty years ago, we would still be using VHS tapes.
Sorry, but no. The government constantly regulates and standardizes things. Hell, the reason my pickup truck has a backup camera, tire pressure monitoring, and traction control isn't because of supply and demand. It's because they're required by law. And, frankly, they all make my truck a hell of a lot nicer than the one I had 10 years ago.
I don't think this is true.
You have all of those things because a company decided to add these features to make their product more desirable.
Now government officials might have mandated it later to all vehicles in the name of safety, but that only reduced consumer choice and pushed the cost on the consumer even if they didn't want/need it.
Hudl was a Godsend when it came out. Rather than spend $6k to $10k on a system that had one or two stations, you paid $800 to $3k a year to have a web based solution. Your players and coaches could watch video anywhere. You could tag video, build highlights, and create reports.
Hudl has been great as far as customer service. They grew very, very quickly, and I think struggled with the enormous scale. The only area that frustrates me is that they have not upgraded to 1080 video. Most cameras are 1080 or 4k, but the video quality is reduced when you upload. I am good with them raising their prices. I am good with them limiting storage. I get that. We have paid the same thing for a lot of years. But I would like to see them go to HD video.
If your wireless carrier had an unlimited data plan and you never changed that plan, you would still have unlimited data. They would grandfather you in, no matter what the new plans are. That plan would remain until you changed your plan to a new one offered.
Hudl has now sold you on unlimited game film for whatever your yearly price was, but is now switching that and not grandfathering anyone in. That’s a problem.
You pay a yearly “software” fee because the thought is that you see a better product each year. What part of the core Hudl football experience has improved and been updated in the last 5 years that is noteworthy? How often do they listen to customer feedback now as opposed to back when they started?
Hudl has their hands in on so many things, they’ve forgotten that their core customer base will always be high school football. Heck, there’s a lot of AD/HC who control $$$ and can make decisions for entire departments.
Now, until i can find something to replicate what Hudl does, I’m not switching, but that’s not a very good business model, because eventually someone will come a long with a similar product. Hudl was banking on that, but I don’t think they understood the pissedoffness of HS football coaches who value loyalty to the core customers who were the foundation of this business.
We're staying with Hudl as far as hosting our film but are switching over to Gamestrat for our sideline replay. They are doing a deal where they are price matching Hudl for replay.
Initially I was upset...but I cooled off and came to my senses. I definitely abused the system the past couple of years. We didn't have HUDL assist so I'd stockpile scout films. Every day I'd tag something from a game even if it was just game data so that I'd try to stay on top/ahead. Especially as the season wore on if I had a week 5-6 team, and had multiple films, if I did a little something every day it would help as opposed to trying to cram it all on weekend.
My plan is: -to go Silver this year, drop Play Tools expense for Playmaker Pro staff subscription -add HUDL assist -add on more custom breakdown columns, even though we won't use them all every single week it will allow flexibility depending on our needs and opponent -not add as much scout film until I need it, with league pool I can just add week of instead of every week -I can then send into Assist -old films will get transferred to external hard drive and then to Google Drive with data
We're looking at downgrading our subscription and then going elsewhere for our sideline system. We were all-aboard the "F*** HUDL Sideline" train after the last few years of frustration, but this has really challenged us.
What is to give light must endure burning. -- Viktor Frankl
If Hudl gave you 20 hours per season for game film- and then locked that season at the conclusion of it so no changes could be made ( no adding to it) and then gave you your 150 hours, would you be ok with that?
At 20 hours you should be able to fit your entire season worth of games in there. Even at 3 angles you could probably fit that in an hour time slot.
Then lets say its July 1- your previous season gets locked and no more film is able to be added to that year. Can still make cut ups and all of that, play lists, but no more adding to it.
Would that be a compromise people would be ok with? I'm thinking of starting some sort of petition to get coaches to sign off on and present to hudl. If we had agreement on what we wanted from them in terms of game film storage, its possible that they consider it. More possible than the current complain and bash on twitter approach that is going on. I don't have a problem with price change- and I understand their issue of storage as if you look at any basketball account I bet they are over 200 hours of storage. Same with us on football- people abused the heck out of the game storage and are now complaining about it.
We would be all for the idea of not allowing additions to a season at its conclusion. It's funny b/c the price change doesn't upset us as much as the change in storage hours.
We would be all for the idea of not allowing additions to a season at its conclusion. It's funny b/c the price change doesn't upset us as much as the change in storage hours.
I think very few are mad about price change. Most are mad about storage... And I think the biggest thing people are mad about is that old games count against storage. Its not the 150 hour limit--- its the old games counting and having to delete them, even if they aren't viewed or used often.
Is there any chance you could call them and see the cost to keep storage space? Or how much more it would cost? My internet company did the same type of thing. Called them and $10 more old deal was restored.
I don't think one person calling makes a dent... I think we need a mass movement/ request as coaches that is unified.
Is there any chance you could call them and see the cost to keep storage space? Or how much more it would cost? My internet company did the same type of thing. Called them and $10 more old deal was restored.
I don't think one person calling makes a dent... I think we need a mass movement/ request as coaches that is unified.
I could be wrong, but don't we have Hudl reps in this community?