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The TV streaming apps broke their promises, and now they’re jacking up prices

For a moment, it seemed like the streaming apps were the things that could save us from the hegemony of cable TV—a system where you had to pay for a ton of stuff you didn’t want to watch so you could see the handful of things you were actually interested in.

Archived version: archive.ph/K4EIh

csolisr ,

If companies are so adamant in both raising prices to the point of unaffordability, and making alternate routes to enjoy their art illegal, then what we should collectively do is to just go without them, maybe use that free time and money for something more useful than art.

baronvonj ,
@baronvonj@lemmy.world avatar

According to CNN article, in a recent earnings call Bob Iger indicated that ad-supported streaming is a better revenue stream for them than ad-free subscriptions. So they’re apparently raising prices on ad-free subscriptions to get people to drop down to ad-supported.

neptune ,

Smh

baronvonj ,
@baronvonj@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah.

shirro , (edited )

Some people can’t stand advertising and will turn off rather than sit through it. I have been ad blocking and ad skipping for 20 years. I am not going to change my habits. The alternative is piracy. I don’t want to go back to piracy. It is a superior product in many ways but it isn’t sustainable and I want a fair share of my subscriptions to fund creative jobs (not that that is happening). There are a lot of shows I can’t stream or buy digitally here that are only available via the black market which is crazy in 2023 when streaming was supposed to fix this. We have companies taking shows off their services to claim tax writeoffs now at a time when the market is fragmented and overpriced.

The super rich and powerful think we are livestock to lead to slaughter and often they aren’t wrong. The sensible thing is for consumers is to walk away (same for X, Facebook, Reddit and all the other time wasters) and let the whole thing burn down and hope that whatever replaces it learns from the mistakes and greed. Unfortunately I don’t think enough will to make a difference.

flop_leash_973 ,

Yep. When it comes to dealing with these types of things, if it is something that can be lived without, the only winning play is to take your ball and go home.

If you’re not willing to go without watching tv, movies, playing new games, etc then these companies already own you.

Personally, I won’t go back to pirating their content. That implies what they make has more value to me than it actually does. If they make it nearly impossible to legally consume their product or service then I will take that as a sign they don’t really want to sell it and move on.

If the masses want to see change, then they should do likewise. Even if it doesn’t change the world, there is real power for a persons mental well being in always being willing to walk away.

Techmaster ,

I say we bring back running down the sidewalk with a stick in your neighbor’s fence.

veloxy , (edited )

Streaming was great when Netflix launched, convenient and affordable - I remember being excited when Netflix finally launched in my country. Was only a matter of time before all would turn to shit with every tv network/producer launching their own streaming services and fragmenting all that content.

BobKerman3999 ,

Yeah Netflix worked because you had everything there and no strings attached.

Now Netflix is shit, hbo is meh, Disney plus is more expensive than sky etc etc

Fuck’em

veloxy ,

Yeah, well I already got my boat in the water since the account sharing announcement from Netflix. I’m sure many more will do the same in the coming months.

Jivebunny ,
@Jivebunny@lemmy.world avatar

I guess I never stopped. Still have subs though, but might cancel that somewhere in the future.

veloxy ,

I still have Netflix, but only because they still haven’t bothered me about account sharing. The moment they do, It’s going away.

ZekeSulastin ,

Didn’t their subscriber count go up fairly dramatically after the restrictions started?

Redredme ,

Hbo will be cancelled the moment they rebrand it to max and add all that bullshit content in my country.

No dance of dragons can prevent that.

Atm there are only 2 streaming services which still hold real value: prime video and Netflix. Disney+ just doesn’t cut it. We get 3 worthwhile serious a year. Hbo doesn’t cut it. We got 3 worthwhile series this last year (last of us, dance of dragons and the white lotus) and they removed Westworld and raised by wolves.

In my country we also have sky/showtime about which I’m on the fence. The star trek catalog is incomplete, some series are nice but there still are technical difficulties. If/when they raise the price I will cancel that in a heartbeat too.

Appletv has quality content just not enough to justify a year long subscription.

CoderKat ,

D+ is amazing in Canada (and likely most of the world outside of the US). We have most Hulu content.

Copernican ,

The difference back then was Netflix launched steaming was that it was free extra money for TV producers. Cable subs were strong and the TV providers were happy to take extra cash from Netflix to let them stream. Netflix income was icing on the cake. As people cut cable out, streaming is the cake. So you need to charge the price of the cake. There was never an end game where streaming would be cheaper than cable. It was a change of pipes to deliver the content, but was not intended to change the value or cost of TV.

shortwavesurfer ,

Do what i did and stop watching TV completely. I have watched maybe 10 hours of TV in the past 12 years.

_cerpin_taxt_ ,

Some of the greatest television ever made is coming out these days. Fuck that. Just build a piracy machine. Yar.

shortwavesurfer ,

Yeah, i dont find tv to be worth my time. I always heard people talking about the hottest new thing and was like “meh” i dont care.

_cerpin_taxt_ ,

Do you watch movies, or are those also a waste of time in your opinion?

shortwavesurfer ,

Very few. I can count the movies i have seen in the past decade on 1 hand.

kaitco ,

But…Ted Lasso…?!

shortwavesurfer ,

Who’s Ted Lasso? Some sort of cowboy?

kaitco ,

Hm…Kind of… 🤔

40hands ,

Cool story bro.

overzeetop ,
@overzeetop@lemmy.world avatar

I didn’t quite completely quit, but there’s lot of other things to do than watch TV.

lackthought ,
@lackthought@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

just ordered a nice OTA antenna so I can watch my local channels, anything else needed will be purchased for exactly 1 month and then cancelled

I’ve also started looking at smaller streaming services like CuriosityStream and MagellanTV cause I’m more interested in documentaries and such instead of the latest weekly tv dramas

procrastinator ,

Can recommend Nebula if you’re interested in explainer Youtube videos (they have other content, though afaik mostly explainers)

whosdadog ,

I didn’t really like Nebula. I signed up and canceled my subscription before I even finished a single video. Almost everything is available on YouTube for free (albeit with ads if you don’t have Youtube Premium) and it just didn’t feel like they had enough content to be charging $5/month.

procrastinator ,

Well for the $5/month you get:

  • Videos earlier than on Youtube for most (i think) creators (the least valuable of the 3)
  • Exclusive bonus videos (this one i like, it varies what the exclusive is, but it is usually as high quality as the rest of the creators content)
  • The creators get paid much more (even if you have Youtube Premium). The payout of Nebula is like Spotify where Nebula (the company) takes 30% of money earned and then split the rest to the content creators based on watch time.

These 3 things are what I think make Nebula worth it for me, though it’s fair if you don’t think it’s worth it to you (to each their own). Also, i don’t how long ago you signed up but for me I think there’s a good amount of content on Nebula (at least for the types of videos I watch)

WestwardWinds ,

I watch a lot of educational explainer content and I’ve thought about trying nebula. Who do you watch on there that you think makes it worth it?

AccidentalLemming , (edited )

deleted_by_author

    •
    Corkyskog ,

    Is Disney+ bleeding money or is that just fancy accounting realizing costs that increase the other parts of Disney’s revenue?

    AccidentalLemming , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    ZoopZeZoop ,

    Disney is a bit unique with their streaming, though, because their content helps foster interest in their merchandise, parks, theatre movies, etc. The more engagement with their streaming content, the more likely someone is to engage with some other part of their business. Also, if I’m watching Disney+, I’m not watch any other streaming services (at that moment). They want to be a dominant streaming service because it helps them dominate in the parts of their business.

    Netflix, Paramount+, etc. don’t really have that, at least not to the same degree. Prime is more similar, because while you’re not investing in their own merchandise as much, you might be more like to use Prime shipping or music if you have Prime for video streaming (and vice versa).

    AccidentalLemming , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    ZoopZeZoop ,

    I don’t think that producing content by itself is sustainable, but things that aren’t quite profitable enough might be enough to be profitable overall with the reach and market share.

    I could totally be wrong, but it feels like they’re fairly invested in D+, and I don’t think it’s because they want everyone to have access. After all, they had a “vault” for many years and only sold movies that were rotated out of the vault at the time.

    Corkyskog ,

    It wouldn’t be a lie, it would just be accounting. And honestly I don’t know the accounting practices around such large organizations.

    Basically Disney+ charges Disney studios for Disney IP. Disney studios gets $3B let’s say over x amount of time for the deal, and Disney+ spends that amount of money. Meaning Disney+ loses money, while the Disney portfolio as a whole breaks even on the trade. That’s not even to mention the value there is bringing people into the Disney ecosystem, making it more likely to visit them parks and buy more merchandise.

    I don’t think it’s fair to look at Disney+ in a vacuum to compare to other services.

    ikidd ,
    @ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

    Ah, well. There’s always piracy.

    balderdash9 ,
    @balderdash9@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m sure Google will find a way to kill that too

    CaptainEffort ,

    Fr, they’re already trying to get rid of adblockers

    postmateDumbass ,

    Time for a google free internet alternative.

    Coreidan ,

    I am happy to steal from corporations. Been doing it all my life and I will never stop. Fuck em.

    BilboBargains ,

    Things you never hear people say: I couldn’t sleep last night worrying about corporate profit margins because I stole some of it. It’s the least culpable crime in history.

    littlecolt ,

    Yar har har matey.

    BettyWhiteInHD ,
    @BettyWhiteInHD@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    dan1101 ,

    I’m on a Disney/Hulu bundle for $19.99, that isn’t bad. Hopefully that won’t change. But as soon as Ahsoka is over I plan to cancel.

    BettyWhiteInHD ,
    @BettyWhiteInHD@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    phillaholic ,

    I can’t see any removing the ad free option, they’ll just make it more expensive.

    AlexWIWA ,

    This is what happened to cable too I think. My grandpa was saying back in the day cable was what you got to avoid ads

    alquicksilver ,
    @alquicksilver@lemmy.world avatar

    The only reason I even have Hulu is because I pay for Spotify. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the price tag for me.

    Spotify, though…raised its price recently, but also gave me new features that I use, so I’m not complaining.

    BettyWhiteInHD ,
    @BettyWhiteInHD@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    alquicksilver ,
    @alquicksilver@lemmy.world avatar

    The one I know for sure is new that I use is an AI DJ feature. It plays music in sets it thinks you’ll like, then lets you know when a new set is starting and what it’ll be like; lets you start a new set manually if you don’t like the type of music being played.

    As someone who lived alone, when it came out it was nice to have a friendly voice (sounds like a young, 20-something guy), even though fake, to talk to me about my music.

    Clearly I need to do research on them, though; I’m out of the loop on their nastiness.

    sebinspace ,

    Yeah but sometimes there’s nothing better than a good foie gras

    Jaysyn ,
    @Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

    I gave them a chance. They collectively became more & more rapacious & greedy.

    Back to sailing the high seas.

    darkstar ,

    Arrr

    navi ,
    @navi@lemmy.tespia.org avatar

    You know after years and years of using it, the name Radarr makes way more sense now.

    Camzing ,

    Watch The Wire!

    plebonix ,

    if it’s not for sale on vudu i’m not watching it. the streaming companies can die off imo.

    sndrtj ,

    For me it’s back to the pirating era.

    MaxPow3r11 ,

    I hear sea shanties are making a comeback.

    phillaholic ,

    Not that it doesn’t suck, but did everyone really think the industry was going to replace a $200/month cable subscription with $30 worth of streaming? Also consider streaming taking over theatre releases too.

    LexiconBexicon ,
    @LexiconBexicon@lemmynsfw.com avatar

    Yeah idk what people were thinking. Ads have ALWAYS been around, there were ads on radio, ads on TV and now ads on streaming. Facebook’s entire revenue came from selling digital ad space, well not entirely true, 99.999999% of it was ad revenue, the rest were shareholders. YouTube is the one outlier though for some reason, they don’t seem to care about people using adblockers, no idea where they’re getting their revenue from

    Corkyskog ,

    It’s also still only like less than 60 for five different services. And more then that is a little crazy. The average cable bill is like $83 and people who didn’t have basic were paying like $200 as you said. If you wanted to buy all paid streaming services it would be ~$102 with ads, ~140 with ads. It’s still cheaper and better than cable, that’s why people haven’t stopped paying.

    June ,

    I’ve set sail on the high seas again for the first time in like 15 years.

    CreativeCider ,
    @CreativeCider@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Fun thing, the captain still knows the major trade routes

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