It makes sense from the point of view of a giant corporation. If people are paying despite of recent price increases and declining quality, why not try to increase profits even further?
Succumb? They're going to be at the forefront of creating it, reducing their expenses and therefore increasing their profits.
If you're saying that people will just watch other variants of video slop posted on youtube or other free sites instead of paying for some sort of curated entertainment service, history indicates otherwise.
People expecting that the content companies were going to just accept lower revenue forever and not eventually get back to cable pricing were fooling themselves
In fact, the content companies are planning on making more money than they did under cable because since they're selling direct to the consumer, there's no DirecTV/Comcast/Charter middleman taking a slice anymore
Of course they'll sell through those intermediaries and take a cut but it will be much less than the cable companies were getting before, and will just go into the marketing cost bucket
Then they're just eventually going to lose out to things like short-form content and services like live streaming that younger generations are moving towards.
I wouldn't be surprised if they end up basically exactly like cable, where the only people who hang around end up being the older generations in the decade to come.
We are worse than cable pricing at this point from what I can see.
It's absurd that piracy is the _best_ user experience. 1 app, 1 place for your content, no licensing deals to worry about, no outrage pulling old episodes, local streaming, the list goes on.
You literally cannot pay (legally) for a better experience, and that makes me sad.
It's funny because everyone predicted this would happen back when Netflix had everything and was $5. "Eventually other companies are going to make their own apps, put in ads, increase prices and we'll be back to $80 a month"
On the other hand, we're back to cable pricing except everything is on demand and there's no need to match any channel timetable when you want to watch a show. So it's not all bad.
In a way I feel today's environment is less conducive to pirating than it used to be. So many fewer people have any kind of "always on" computer these days, they're using phones and tablets instead. Not to mention locked down App Stores, etc.
We've had DVRs since 1999 so scheduling hasn't been an issue for a long time. And the commercials with a real TV DVR are skippable, unlike with streaming.
Same company that also announced that their supposedly "ad-free" plans will now be allowed to include ads and promotional content before and after content.
These streaming services learned nothing from cable are just pushing people back to pirating
Surprisingly, increasing user hostility is a filter of users' tech savviness and IQ. I doubt most HN dwellers will tolerate price increases or ads or anything like that. They can pirate shit, and they can block ads. They're better off compared to the rest of the population who is not tech-savvy enough or smart enough to bypass these user-hostilities. These companies basically extract revenue out of people who are relatively poor.
If you live in the DMV, you can get a free DC library card. You then get free access to Kanopy - a good streaming service with no ads. That could scratch the streaming itch without having to pay for these expensive services.
Several times I got a free or discounted Disney+ subscription. Every time I watch a few shows on it, then let it go once those promotions ended. It's just not worth the money no matter the price tier, even at older prices (that considering in my country it's already cheaper than in the US), and even less so with any kind of ad thrown with it.
I didn’t realize Disney+ had twice as many subscribers as Hulu. Hulu has been around a lot longer than Disney+. Goes to show the value of the content mix.
Not what everyone wants to hear, but I think there’s more headroom for price increases than the HN crowd likes to admit. Compared to how much people spent on cable or satellite TV, these prices feel like peanuts.
Disney has a wide-ranging, vast library of content. All the classic Disney stuff, Disney Channel movies, Marvel, Star Wars... Not saying it's worth it, but it's a wide appeal. I can only thing of 5-10 great Hulu shows; I don't really know what to watch on there.
Eh. Kodi, Torrserver, and Jacktook, Jacktor if you rather stream torrents and not have to deal with storage. Fairly easy to keep track of your shows and view on demand within Kodi.
What's a reasonable setup for sailing the seas safely?
It's not only the price hikes and the atomization/fragmentation of content, what made me cut the wire was that I couldn't get high quality in my computer unless I used X browser for Y service.
That's how you double profits, indeed.
At some point the customer base is going to shrink, especially when the AI slop hits the market, right?
And you still get what you pay for in your subscription - ads you can't skip. ;-)
It makes sense from the point of view of a giant corporation. If people are paying despite of recent price increases and declining quality, why not try to increase profits even further?
It's going to be interesting to see how these beast succumb to AI created movies and shows.
Succumb? They're going to be at the forefront of creating it, reducing their expenses and therefore increasing their profits.
If you're saying that people will just watch other variants of video slop posted on youtube or other free sites instead of paying for some sort of curated entertainment service, history indicates otherwise.
LOL do they not realize they push more and more towards piracy?
BTW here's the Disney 1937-2008 megatorrent, including lots of movies they "hold in the vault" (aka wont republish)
https: SLASH SLASH thepiratebay DOT org SLASH description.php?id=5657801
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:EF4211584F37CA70A4B1A2E47E7E833C79ABACBA&dn=Disney%20MEGA%20Collection%201937-2008&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.stealth.si%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3A451%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.bittor.pw%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fpublic.popcorn-tracker.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.dler.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fglotorrents.pw%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftorrent.gresille.org%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fp4p.arenabg.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3A1337
They don't care about pushing SOME people to piracy as long as line goes up.
Just make sure to use Tribler!
Oof. I guess sailing the high sees is back on the table.
We are back to cable pricing, but shows and movies are all over the place and now we need multiple apps to track us.
People expecting that the content companies were going to just accept lower revenue forever and not eventually get back to cable pricing were fooling themselves
In fact, the content companies are planning on making more money than they did under cable because since they're selling direct to the consumer, there's no DirecTV/Comcast/Charter middleman taking a slice anymore
Of course they'll sell through those intermediaries and take a cut but it will be much less than the cable companies were getting before, and will just go into the marketing cost bucket
Then they're just eventually going to lose out to things like short-form content and services like live streaming that younger generations are moving towards.
I wouldn't be surprised if they end up basically exactly like cable, where the only people who hang around end up being the older generations in the decade to come.
especially as shows keep tending towards up-market
We are worse than cable pricing at this point from what I can see.
It's absurd that piracy is the _best_ user experience. 1 app, 1 place for your content, no licensing deals to worry about, no outrage pulling old episodes, local streaming, the list goes on.
You literally cannot pay (legally) for a better experience, and that makes me sad.
It's funny because everyone predicted this would happen back when Netflix had everything and was $5. "Eventually other companies are going to make their own apps, put in ads, increase prices and we'll be back to $80 a month"
On the other hand, we're back to cable pricing except everything is on demand and there's no need to match any channel timetable when you want to watch a show. So it's not all bad.
In a way I feel today's environment is less conducive to pirating than it used to be. So many fewer people have any kind of "always on" computer these days, they're using phones and tablets instead. Not to mention locked down App Stores, etc.
[delayed]
Don't give them any ideas. Dynamic viewing might be next.
We've had DVRs since 1999 so scheduling hasn't been an issue for a long time. And the commercials with a real TV DVR are skippable, unlike with streaming.
Would be interesting to see a chart with the reviews of their original content relative to their reported profits, I suspect they do not align at all.
Same company that also announced that their supposedly "ad-free" plans will now be allowed to include ads and promotional content before and after content.
These streaming services learned nothing from cable are just pushing people back to pirating
Surprisingly, increasing user hostility is a filter of users' tech savviness and IQ. I doubt most HN dwellers will tolerate price increases or ads or anything like that. They can pirate shit, and they can block ads. They're better off compared to the rest of the population who is not tech-savvy enough or smart enough to bypass these user-hostilities. These companies basically extract revenue out of people who are relatively poor.
If you live in the DMV, you can get a free DC library card. You then get free access to Kanopy - a good streaming service with no ads. That could scratch the streaming itch without having to pay for these expensive services.
Lots of libraries offer Kanopy (though it seems like a lot of them have dropped it; I think it's actually pretty expensive for them to offer).
Disney+ and Hulu is probably the best value I get out of all the streaming services I subscribe to. Easily worth it for me.
Canceling my hulu
Several times I got a free or discounted Disney+ subscription. Every time I watch a few shows on it, then let it go once those promotions ended. It's just not worth the money no matter the price tier, even at older prices (that considering in my country it's already cheaper than in the US), and even less so with any kind of ad thrown with it.
I didn’t realize Disney+ had twice as many subscribers as Hulu. Hulu has been around a lot longer than Disney+. Goes to show the value of the content mix.
Not what everyone wants to hear, but I think there’s more headroom for price increases than the HN crowd likes to admit. Compared to how much people spent on cable or satellite TV, these prices feel like peanuts.
Except it quickly becomes close to cable when you start adding all the streaming services up.
Disney has a wide-ranging, vast library of content. All the classic Disney stuff, Disney Channel movies, Marvel, Star Wars... Not saying it's worth it, but it's a wide appeal. I can only thing of 5-10 great Hulu shows; I don't really know what to watch on there.
I mean they can do this to people who have you children who live on disney+, but this will make others think twice about the subscription
Plex / Sonarr / Radarr FTW.
Eh. Kodi, Torrserver, and Jacktook, Jacktor if you rather stream torrents and not have to deal with storage. Fairly easy to keep track of your shows and view on demand within Kodi.
What's a reasonable setup for sailing the seas safely?
It's not only the price hikes and the atomization/fragmentation of content, what made me cut the wire was that I couldn't get high quality in my computer unless I used X browser for Y service.
Media is so expensive now that it inspired me to take up sailing instead. It’s nice to get outside.