At least for movies, I’ve actually gone back to DVDs. I can find them for $1 each at the flea market or garage sales, and once I own them thats it - no subscriptions and nobody can decide to randomly remove them from my collection.
I thought the convenience of streaming was going to kill the DVD, but I’m getting tired of family favorites disappearing. So I’m back to buying DVDs as well.
If those go away too, then I suppose I can look forward to the guy behind our highschool going back into business.
I’m sure his stuff was fully licensed by the studios. There’s no way a random kid could be out-smarting all that money the studios are spending on anti-piracy measures. /s
I never got rid of any discs and have been using them more lately. We also still have a few Redbox around for cheap rentals and the library for free check out for a week. Most people I know don’t have a Bluray player anymore though.
Still better than dealing with ads. That’s my red line.
I absolutely refuse to watch programming with ads, free or paid. I won’t do it. My time is limited and I’m not every going to willingly hand over a portion of my life to advertisements.
I’m never going back. If ad-free options go away or become too expensive, I’ll simply stop watching shit. There isn’t a price at which ad-supported programming becomes attractive.
I’d love to see the Weird Al movie. I won’t, however, because Roku won’t let me pay to watch it.
There isn’t a price at which ad-supported programming becomes attractive.
Even free isn’t good enough for ads. Ads are horrendous. They don’t even try to make them good anymore. It’s just “but our shit, dummies!”. Remember the milk commercials? That was probably the height of advertising. It’s all been shit since then.
No, it’s not. Turns out Lemmy.world does not like sea at all. In fact, they blocked “info kiosks” at ports near sea, so you have no idea about what is going on in the sea.
Remember when all those articles about ‘cord cutting’ was a thing. How streaming ushered in a new age.
So what’s this going to be called? Are people going to switch back to the cable? Are TiVo stocks about to go skyrocket? Or is pirating about to see an all time surge? Since storage has never been cheaper, VPNs are mainstream (you can’t watch YouTube without hearing about it), the number of applications to help facilitate it has never been more user friendly and plentiful, and internet speeds have only increased…
I mean, I know what a bunch of people here will do, but I mean the general public at large. Because it’s hard not to notice those price increases, especially if you have more than one service. Because their price increases (based on percent) is far out pacing the pay increase people are getting. I already cancelled my Netflix (due to policy changes even though they didn’t affect me, price increases, and their response to the writers strike).
Maybe there will be a way to bundle all these streaming services into one package and sell it to consumers at a discount? We can call it Cable2k? Sable? Stream-able? CableAI? Cable-blockchain?
Most people are sharing where possible or canceling after signing up for a few months. The content is also jumping from platform to platform which makes it difficult to find. Some will “rent” a digital movie or buy a season of a show because piracy is not super simple. Others will simply skip it because Hollywood has been putting out crap anyway so why bother.
We keep YoutubeTV as a cable replacement because of sports. Everything else we watch on that platform is available elsewhere now including those Bravo shows ladies like.
For sure it id, do you think they are stupid too lose easy money?
First of all, subscribing in more than streaming service, it was never a wise option. Second, is the content worth of watching ? Third, you watch 1 or 2 seasons only to learn it got cancelled, most of the series dont last long. Forth, you never get to watch what you want, because they don’t have all the series and movies. You have to find another streaming service that offers what you want.
I don’t have any subscriptions, and I want to keep it that way.
Last I checked (which admittedly was the better part of a decade ago), Comcast claimed the first basic set-top box was “free,” but gave you a couple bucks of refund each month if you demanded a CableCard instead.
Usually you get 1 set top box included in your plan and a limit on how many devices can stream via the cable app at once (cable is all streaming now in most places, and even many small cable companies have Android and iOS apps to stream for their subscribers). You cannot usually watch cable directly with even a very new TV and coax alone, because its just video streaming over Cable Internet now. Then you pay a rental fee per box for any extra TVs, or if you need to stream to more than the included limit of 3-5 you have to upgrade your plan/package.
I pay for YouTubeTV, and to be honest it’s basically Cable, expect it’s over the internet, I don’t need a set top box, and I can watch it on my TV/Phone/Laptop, whatever.
So when I hear people say “cable”, I really think YouTubeT, Live Hulu, or other similar services…
However, media execs acknowledged that the prices being charged by streaming services were unsustainable, and that a “crash” would follow – where companies would be forced to increase prices or go out of business.
They won’t go out of business… they just won’t double revenue year over year. God forbid your business doesn’t grow. We need endless growth! Unlimited growth, even in a finite world.
That’s what kills me about capitalism. Everything has to be about growth. Nothing can ever be “good enough” or “sustainable”, it must always be improving at a dramatic rate to make those shareholders happy.
The economy is still in a slump and companies are still laying off people left and right, but at least the money they’re taking away from the incomes of dedicated workers are helping shareholders profit.
That article is full of it. I was paying $120-150/month for cable on top of Internet. YoutubeTV is still only $75. I don’t even bother with YoutubeTV anymore. That was way too much money per month and despite 100+ channels, there was almost nothing worth while to watch. I’m not paying $75/month for Saturday Night Live a few times per year and MSNBC on in the background while I work.
I have Netflix and Disney+. When the kids are gone I will also get rid of those. Netflix is a joke now. It takes me so much time scrolling to find a show that I even want to watch, that I usually fall asleep before that can happen. Disney+ filled their service with horrid crap from Star Wars, Marvel, and other formerly beloved intellectual property that they have sullied and ruined.
Bottom line. The Streaming services are just as bad or worse than cable was and is. The quality of the shows is mostly so low that there is nothing worth paying $75, $20, $15, or even $5 per month for. I will happily pay zero because that is what streaming and cable shows are worth, for the most part, right now.
If anyone would please just make some quality shows I would happily pay a reasonable price for it. There has been maybe one show this entire year that thought was good and that was Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Guess what? It isn’t worth paying Paramount+ for a whole year just for one show. Sorry, but they all need to get their act together. Peak TV is long gone. It is Peak Crap TV now.
Yeah not to mention that is is so easy to cancel and resubscribe to binge watch a show only when you need the service. I will probably get Max when House of the Dragon comes back out, but just for the last month that it is available.
The thing is that I’m not interested in paying for a different service for every single show. Star Trek used to be on Netflix until Paramount got greedy and decided to spin up their own shitty service. You used to be able to get almost everything with 1-2 subscriptions. We used to pirate until Netflix and Amazon made good enough products that people decided they were worth the money.
These media companies fought tooth and nail against streaming, but Netflix made it possible. Netflix proved the business model. Now everyone wants to pull their content and put up their own shitty service with barely functional controls. They fought against progress until progress proved profitable, and now they want the whole pie. Fuck them. We’re going back to piracy.
I dislike Apple so I probably won’t ever watch Severance there.
I watched the Expanse.
I watched DS9 and Seinfeld when they originally aired.
Totally agree with the whole service per 1 good show thing. It is exhausting to figure out what service to get to watch a specific show. I play Star Citizen for entertainment mostly now and I probably watch Youtube 10x more than any other streaming site. I like certain podcasts, news, camping/bushcraft, tech reviews, movie reviews, and Dungeons & Dragons play streams.
I’m not sure I agree that Netflix showed that it was a viable business model. HBO was the real success with a subscription model. Its just that they weren’t streaming and just on cable. I wish Netflix were HBO from 10 years ago. Heck. I wish HBO was HBO from 10 years ago now. The purchase by Discovery has screwed them up even worse than they were before. Netflix is heavily in debt and has no useful content to show for it. They only care about new subscribers and don’t care about the existing ones. They seem to cancel every show that might have potential after a 8-10 episode season. It was already really difficult to even find a good show on Netflix, and then when you do, it is all but certain they will cancel it if it was good.
There is a reckoning coming. People don’t have the extra income to pay for useless crap.
I’ve been a backer for 10 years and have spend $275 dollars. I’d call that good entertainment value for my dollar. No one needs to spend more than $45 dollars to enjoy almost every aspect of the game. In fact you can spend zero dollars and just play during the free fly events which happen at least 4 weeks per year.
I don’t know what you think Star Citizen costs, but I’d say a onetime payment of between $45-110 dollars for a starter package for thousands of hours of game play is pretty good.
The price for a star citizen starter package is $45-100 to 4.5x is a huge exaggeration. I have spent less money on Star Citizen than about 4 months of YouTube TV and have gotten way more hours of entertainment out of it than the crap they serve up on cable. I find it quite playable at the moment. Unfinished? Overdue? Absolutely. I guess we all entertain ourselves in different ways. I’ll take Star Citizen with my org mates over “Dangerous Naked Island Housewives Flipping Houses” shows every time.
Who the hell mentioned reality TV whatsoever? Do you really think that’s all that’s on television? Brother, we’re in the golden age of scripted dramas and have been for 15 years. You seem very obtuse and to be debating in bad faith.
Start by reading about the torrent network. That’s the easiest and most popular method now. If you want to get more technical then you can look into newsgroups, but it’s a lot to ingest. For torrents 1337… Idk if I can link here, but there’s the leetspeak numbers for leet, then an x, then a dot then a tw. Feel free to ask if you need more information.
If you think your ISP will hasle you, then yes, but it’s not mandatory. Do use a peer blocker to block common anti-torrent groups (RIAA, MPAA, FBI, etc) so they can’t log you seeding. Most torrent clients have Blocklist features built right into them now. You used to have to configure firmware level blockers like Protowall, but it’s super simple now. Some of the clients even have lists for you to choose from to populate the Blocklist. I recommend the Transmission client since it’s simple, while still being full-featured.
Do you have an old computer laying around? Convert it into a server and throw unRAID on that bitch. No sense in buying a seed box if you’ve got spare hardware laying around. I can send you more in-depth guides if you’d like.
Now everyone wants to pull their content and put up their own shitty service with barely functional controls. They fought against progress until progress proved profitable, and now they want the whole pie.
I’m pretty sure they were happy with the cable arrangement - you wanted one channel but you had to pay for everyone because it was bundled together. Now they all have to compete to get paid. They’re forced into the streaming business because streaming is killing cable and they don’t want to let the streaming service hold the money.
If they price reasonably it would still be acceptable.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
At least for movies, I’ve actually gone back to DVDs. I can find them for $1 each at the flea market or garage sales, and once I own them thats it - no subscriptions and nobody can decide to randomly remove them from my collection.
Yeah.
I thought the convenience of streaming was going to kill the DVD, but I’m getting tired of family favorites disappearing. So I’m back to buying DVDs as well.
If those go away too, then I suppose I can look forward to the guy behind our highschool going back into business.
I’m sure his stuff was fully licensed by the studios. There’s no way a random kid could be out-smarting all that money the studios are spending on anti-piracy measures. /s
I never got rid of any discs and have been using them more lately. We also still have a few Redbox around for cheap rentals and the library for free check out for a week. Most people I know don’t have a Bluray player anymore though.
unless you’re from Australia, maybe other places soon
Still better than dealing with ads. That’s my red line.
I absolutely refuse to watch programming with ads, free or paid. I won’t do it. My time is limited and I’m not every going to willingly hand over a portion of my life to advertisements.
I’m never going back. If ad-free options go away or become too expensive, I’ll simply stop watching shit. There isn’t a price at which ad-supported programming becomes attractive.
I’d love to see the Weird Al movie. I won’t, however, because Roku won’t let me pay to watch it.
So watch it pirated. They get $0 either way.
Ha! Weird Al is bad ass.
I fucking love Al.
Even free isn’t good enough for ads. Ads are horrendous. They don’t even try to make them good anymore. It’s just “but our shit, dummies!”. Remember the milk commercials? That was probably the height of advertising. It’s all been shit since then.
the sea is still here my friend.
No, it’s not. Turns out Lemmy.world does not like sea at all. In fact, they blocked “info kiosks” at ports near sea, so you have no idea about what is going on in the sea.
Who cares? Lemmy’s contribution to the pirate scene is immeasurably small.
yeah but with cable you pay to watch ads.
We have the basic Peacock plan and still watch ads 😔
And soon your you will pay streaming services to watch ads, it’s just a matter of time.
Several of the platforms are already introducing non-skipable ads.
ahoy mateys
Remember when all those articles about ‘cord cutting’ was a thing. How streaming ushered in a new age.
So what’s this going to be called? Are people going to switch back to the cable? Are TiVo stocks about to go skyrocket? Or is pirating about to see an all time surge? Since storage has never been cheaper, VPNs are mainstream (you can’t watch YouTube without hearing about it), the number of applications to help facilitate it has never been more user friendly and plentiful, and internet speeds have only increased…
I mean, I know what a bunch of people here will do, but I mean the general public at large. Because it’s hard not to notice those price increases, especially if you have more than one service. Because their price increases (based on percent) is far out pacing the pay increase people are getting. I already cancelled my Netflix (due to policy changes even though they didn’t affect me, price increases, and their response to the writers strike).
Maybe there will be a way to bundle all these streaming services into one package and sell it to consumers at a discount? We can call it Cable2k? Sable? Stream-able? CableAI? Cable-blockchain?
Cord mending.
Most people are sharing where possible or canceling after signing up for a few months. The content is also jumping from platform to platform which makes it difficult to find. Some will “rent” a digital movie or buy a season of a show because piracy is not super simple. Others will simply skip it because Hollywood has been putting out crap anyway so why bother.
We keep YoutubeTV as a cable replacement because of sports. Everything else we watch on that platform is available elsewhere now including those Bravo shows ladies like.
All I know is that I’m paying more for all my streaming services + internet than I ever was for internet+cable. Like, double.
Shocking no one the unlimited growth mindset fucks something up.
The most retarded thing about streaming, is that it costs so much more in bandwidth and energy and hardware, like it’s not even funny.
When you broadcast, everybody watch the same thing at the same time, so the infrastructure COPIES information directly in their network.
When you stream, EVERY USER REQUIRES SERVERS TO SEND DATA OF A HD OR 4K VIDEO FILE.
THIS MEANS THAT A NETFLIX SERVER MUST MULTIPLY ITS BANDWIDTH BY THE NUMBER OF USERS. IN HIGH DEFINITION.
WHY AM I YELLING?
Oh nothing, it’s because the world is burning.
Ahoy there, high seas mateys!
Do what you want cause a pirate is free!
For sure it id, do you think they are stupid too lose easy money? First of all, subscribing in more than streaming service, it was never a wise option. Second, is the content worth of watching ? Third, you watch 1 or 2 seasons only to learn it got cancelled, most of the series dont last long. Forth, you never get to watch what you want, because they don’t have all the series and movies. You have to find another streaming service that offers what you want.
I don’t have any subscriptions, and I want to keep it that way.
With cable do you still lease set top boxes? Or do they give those away for free now? Couldn’t tell if that was factored into the cost.
Last I checked (which admittedly was the better part of a decade ago), Comcast claimed the first basic set-top box was “free,” but gave you a couple bucks of refund each month if you demanded a CableCard instead.
In other words, it’s not free and they’re liars.
Usually you get 1 set top box included in your plan and a limit on how many devices can stream via the cable app at once (cable is all streaming now in most places, and even many small cable companies have Android and iOS apps to stream for their subscribers). You cannot usually watch cable directly with even a very new TV and coax alone, because its just video streaming over Cable Internet now. Then you pay a rental fee per box for any extra TVs, or if you need to stream to more than the included limit of 3-5 you have to upgrade your plan/package.
I pay for YouTubeTV, and to be honest it’s basically Cable, expect it’s over the internet, I don’t need a set top box, and I can watch it on my TV/Phone/Laptop, whatever.
So when I hear people say “cable”, I really think YouTubeT, Live Hulu, or other similar services…
Other thing I see is that people fall on the trap that they NEED to watch what everyone is watching.
Just don’t. Rotate if you need to.
I pay Netflix one month per year, most other services even less.
YouTube Premium is the only I pay full year. It’s my TV now.
Back to the high seas it is.
I’m not paying for 5 streaming services to watch 1 show on each. So now I’m paying for no streaming services.
Convenience as a reasonable price was the deal. It it neither convenient nor reasonably priced any more.
Cable TV all over again. Region locked DVD all over again.
Yup. They never learn.
deleted by creator
Absolutely nobody believes you.
They won’t go out of business… they just won’t double revenue year over year. God forbid your business doesn’t grow. We need endless growth! Unlimited growth, even in a finite world.
That’s what kills me about capitalism. Everything has to be about growth. Nothing can ever be “good enough” or “sustainable”, it must always be improving at a dramatic rate to make those shareholders happy.
The economy is still in a slump and companies are still laying off people left and right, but at least the money they’re taking away from the incomes of dedicated workers are helping shareholders profit.
That article is full of it. I was paying $120-150/month for cable on top of Internet. YoutubeTV is still only $75. I don’t even bother with YoutubeTV anymore. That was way too much money per month and despite 100+ channels, there was almost nothing worth while to watch. I’m not paying $75/month for Saturday Night Live a few times per year and MSNBC on in the background while I work.
I have Netflix and Disney+. When the kids are gone I will also get rid of those. Netflix is a joke now. It takes me so much time scrolling to find a show that I even want to watch, that I usually fall asleep before that can happen. Disney+ filled their service with horrid crap from Star Wars, Marvel, and other formerly beloved intellectual property that they have sullied and ruined.
Bottom line. The Streaming services are just as bad or worse than cable was and is. The quality of the shows is mostly so low that there is nothing worth paying $75, $20, $15, or even $5 per month for. I will happily pay zero because that is what streaming and cable shows are worth, for the most part, right now.
If anyone would please just make some quality shows I would happily pay a reasonable price for it. There has been maybe one show this entire year that thought was good and that was Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Guess what? It isn’t worth paying Paramount+ for a whole year just for one show. Sorry, but they all need to get their act together. Peak TV is long gone. It is Peak Crap TV now.
I have 5 different streaming packages and pay less than I did for cable/satellite while having a vastly superior experience.
It’s not even remotely comparable.
Yeah not to mention that is is so easy to cancel and resubscribe to binge watch a show only when you need the service. I will probably get Max when House of the Dragon comes back out, but just for the last month that it is available.
I do this every football season lol. Totally agreed!
Severance on Apple was outstanding!
The Expanse on Amazon is good.
DS9 on Paramount.
Seinfeld on Netflix.
The thing is that I’m not interested in paying for a different service for every single show. Star Trek used to be on Netflix until Paramount got greedy and decided to spin up their own shitty service. You used to be able to get almost everything with 1-2 subscriptions. We used to pirate until Netflix and Amazon made good enough products that people decided they were worth the money.
These media companies fought tooth and nail against streaming, but Netflix made it possible. Netflix proved the business model. Now everyone wants to pull their content and put up their own shitty service with barely functional controls. They fought against progress until progress proved profitable, and now they want the whole pie. Fuck them. We’re going back to piracy.
I dislike Apple so I probably won’t ever watch Severance there.
I watched the Expanse.
I watched DS9 and Seinfeld when they originally aired.
Totally agree with the whole service per 1 good show thing. It is exhausting to figure out what service to get to watch a specific show. I play Star Citizen for entertainment mostly now and I probably watch Youtube 10x more than any other streaming site. I like certain podcasts, news, camping/bushcraft, tech reviews, movie reviews, and Dungeons & Dragons play streams.
I’m not sure I agree that Netflix showed that it was a viable business model. HBO was the real success with a subscription model. Its just that they weren’t streaming and just on cable. I wish Netflix were HBO from 10 years ago. Heck. I wish HBO was HBO from 10 years ago now. The purchase by Discovery has screwed them up even worse than they were before. Netflix is heavily in debt and has no useful content to show for it. They only care about new subscribers and don’t care about the existing ones. They seem to cancel every show that might have potential after a 8-10 episode season. It was already really difficult to even find a good show on Netflix, and then when you do, it is all but certain they will cancel it if it was good.
There is a reckoning coming. People don’t have the extra income to pay for useless crap.
The irony of you complaining about streaming prices lmao
I’ve been a backer for 10 years and have spend $275 dollars. I’d call that good entertainment value for my dollar. No one needs to spend more than $45 dollars to enjoy almost every aspect of the game. In fact you can spend zero dollars and just play during the free fly events which happen at least 4 weeks per year.
I don’t know what you think Star Citizen costs, but I’d say a onetime payment of between $45-110 dollars for a starter package for thousands of hours of game play is pretty good.
Bro you can just say you don’t like movies and TV and accept that you’re the minority here instead of claiming there’s nothing good anymore lmao
The price for a star citizen starter package is $45-100 to 4.5x is a huge exaggeration. I have spent less money on Star Citizen than about 4 months of YouTube TV and have gotten way more hours of entertainment out of it than the crap they serve up on cable. I find it quite playable at the moment. Unfinished? Overdue? Absolutely. I guess we all entertain ourselves in different ways. I’ll take Star Citizen with my org mates over “Dangerous Naked Island Housewives Flipping Houses” shows every time.
Who the hell mentioned reality TV whatsoever? Do you really think that’s all that’s on television? Brother, we’re in the golden age of scripted dramas and have been for 15 years. You seem very obtuse and to be debating in bad faith.
I’m already there.
As someone who basically hasn’t since limewire… Where do I begin?
Start by reading about the torrent network. That’s the easiest and most popular method now. If you want to get more technical then you can look into newsgroups, but it’s a lot to ingest. For torrents 1337… Idk if I can link here, but there’s the leetspeak numbers for leet, then an x, then a dot then a tw. Feel free to ask if you need more information.
Thanks for sharing! Do you recommend a VPN?
If you think your ISP will hasle you, then yes, but it’s not mandatory. Do use a peer blocker to block common anti-torrent groups (RIAA, MPAA, FBI, etc) so they can’t log you seeding. Most torrent clients have Blocklist features built right into them now. You used to have to configure firmware level blockers like Protowall, but it’s super simple now. Some of the clients even have lists for you to choose from to populate the Blocklist. I recommend the Transmission client since it’s simple, while still being full-featured.
Do you have an old computer laying around? Convert it into a server and throw unRAID on that bitch. No sense in buying a seed box if you’ve got spare hardware laying around. I can send you more in-depth guides if you’d like.
I’m pretty sure they were happy with the cable arrangement - you wanted one channel but you had to pay for everyone because it was bundled together. Now they all have to compete to get paid. They’re forced into the streaming business because streaming is killing cable and they don’t want to let the streaming service hold the money. If they price reasonably it would still be acceptable.
Torrents haven’t changed either