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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

SlopppyEngineer ,

Sounds like a good time to cancel a subscription and finish the ol’ Steam library

shirro ,

I am going to need more gaming PCs to keep the family engaged in the post streaming world. Not sure how I am going to do it. Even finding space for them is going to be a challenge.

qbus ,

Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of steam deck

googlesnarfen ,

Capitalism turns everything into shit. Not promises, only profit.

littlecolt ,

Yar har har matey.

demonsword ,
@demonsword@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve never threw away my jolly roger, it’s just safely hidden away

feckless ,

🎶Yar Har, fiddle-de-dee🎶

miketunes_ ,

www.togetherprice.com - great site to share subscription prices, I’ve been using it for years.

Kosta554 ,
@Kosta554@feddit.nl avatar

Good to know 👍🏻

ThirdNerd ,
@ThirdNerd@lemmy.world avatar

Currently paying for YouTube ad-free, Netflix ad-free, and Hulu ad-free.

YouTube’s algorithm seems intent on making me look elsewhere for content, as it suggests the same twenty things over and over again, despite the fact that I’ve watched half of them already and ignored the other half for months now. We only keep it because spouse wants it for YouTube music. Me? I’ve wandered off to piped and peertube, mostly.

The Netflix app locks up and crashes the Roku at least once every movie. It used to do this just now and again, but recently it’s so bad I don’t even load it anymore and spouse is THIS CLOSE to being talked into just cancelling it.

Hulu…? Well, it’s ok. I wish it still had a lot of the older stuff, as a lot of the newer stuff is just stupid and/or revolting. Because of the above, we’d probably keep this one and dump the others, based on price and what (mostly spouse) finds useful to watch.

I’m actually checking out other things. Like Hoopla through the local library, eBooks, real books (the local library is free). Spouse and I have also learned to play several different card games, and sometimes we actually interact with each other instead of alpha-wave mind-bending into the electronic hallucination machine on the other side of the living room. We’re also exploring more outdoor activities, like hiking, birding, nature walks, team sports, and so on.

Sometimes, a “bad” thing is just the right thing that needs to happen.

ClassyDave ,

We’ve all got to find balance in our lives! Sounds like you’re doing that! Wish more people would take this approach, if the streaming eco system no longer suits us we can simply choose to not participate, we don’t NEED the entertainment they provide. That’s the only way the product will improve, if we just continue paying for it what incentive do they have to improve the service?

salient_one , (edited )
@salient_one@lemmy.villa-straylight.social avatar

despite the fact that I’ve watched half of them already and ignored the other half for months now

What’s up with that anyway? You don’t have to have a fancy algorithm to not show me the things I’ve watched already!

Also congrats on finding new hobbies. Sometimes we forget that there’s life outside of screens. Or perhaps not many have the energy for anything beyond staring at the black mirror.

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.

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.

uriel238 ,
@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

So piracy is a check on the abuses of the media market?

Interesting!

tok3n ,
@tok3n@lemmy.world avatar

The only reason I have Netflix is because I get it through T-Mobile as a last resort. Fuck the state of streaming content. Raise the pirate flag boys!

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?

CapnAssHolo ,

I’ll plunder yer coffer, ye mutinous, squiffy gob! … Hoist the Jolly Roger!

Nekobambam ,

Over the past few months, I’ve canceled my subscriptions to Audible, Disney+, Netflix, and appleTV. I still have Amazon Prime since it’s an annual subscription, but that’s it. It’s been a surprise to realize how much pressure I was feeling to consume all this content and how freeing it felt to just get rid of it all. I have a lot of audiobooks I haven’t gotten around to listening, and books I haven’t read yet. I can still watch stuff on Amazon and ahem other places if I want. But really, there has to be more to life than just endlessly binging tv shows.

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.

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