When the ideas run dry for infinite growth, everything old is new again.
That article was worthless… basically streaming is expensive and not as awesome as it once was. There you go whole article
It’s still way more awesome than cable ever was. Sure you can have all the services all at once and pay as much as a cable bill, or you can rotate your subscriptions and pay way less.
I’m not sure about that. Popular shows get canceled, unfinished. Huge price hikes, and you can’t jump to another provider to watch the shows at a new rate or call and threaten to cancel to get a new rate. Sure, there are a few good series, but it’s still mostly crap. Sure, you can watch some older movies on demand, but plenty aren’t available, are available on some other service, and/or require you to pay a rental fee if you can find it. Prices keep climbing, ads are constantly a threat, and they place more restrictions on how many devices you’re allowed to watch on.
They are doing everything they can to re-insert the worst aspects of cable.
Few good series 🧐?
I probably couldn’t list all the absolute master pieces I’ve watched since streaming became a thing. This is some serious rose tinted glasses for the cable Era.
I like reruns of Stargate and law and order as much as the next guy but cable was absolute shit when it came to compelling series.
I hope it’s just the literal flood of content we get hit with every some odd months that is warping your perception. You know, rather than the 4 month long weekly episode drops we use to have to suffer through so they could jack up prices on what ever ad they wanted to run in prime time.
That’s not even mentioning the vast graveyards of pilots for series that where DOA based solely on air time.
The real difference is you can watch what you want to watch on demand instead of being limited to their selection of shows on their schedule.
Also, you can sign up for a month, watch a series, then cancel and sign up to some other service. Pay for several services and sure, it’s expensive. But one or two? Still a hell of a lot cheaper than Cable ever was.
The fact most content is crap is irrelevant - there’s more good content available than any reasonable person has time to watch.
I sure soon they will introduce contracts making sign up for 6 to 1 year up front to prevent just that.
@teamevil, the hero we need, not the hero we deserve.
What we wanted: a-la-carte channels.
What we got: seven expensive streaming services and they all still somehow have ESPN bullshit.
What we actually need: [email protected]
Yes, but no. Cable didn’t used to let you watch all seasons of a specific show on any given day and time of your choosing.
I’m old enough to remember when cable didn’t have ads. I was really young, maybe 5ish, but even then it was confusing to me when they started adding commercials. That was for bad TV with the antenna. Then it was only HBO that didn’t have ads, but we couldn’t afford that until I was much older.
EDIT: I guess my memories of being 5 years old aren’t very accurate.
Basic cable has always had commercials along with the over the air channels. Premium channels didn’t.
You’re right. I guess I was remembering premium channels and some niche channels that were cable-only. Most channels available on early cable were just piping non-local broadcast channels down a cable.
On the up-side, I can cancel subscriptions whenever I want and only subscribe to one or two at a time when they have something I want to watch. I could never do that with cable.
That said, pricing is getting way out of control. I will not tolerate ads and we’re getting to the point where purchasing content makes more financial sense than subscribing to things that load you up with caveats unless you pay premiums.
I fear the change from monthly to annual only subscriptions is on the horizon
I hear you’re tired of monthly payments. How about…
They’re going to complicate unsubscribing next.
It takes like 3 steps to cancel an audible account on Amazon.
Is that more or less than it takes to sign up?
Lessons from movies that streaming services didn’t learn:
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
With the current state of streaming services mess, I think I would have signed up for disc rental by mail. Access to nearly 100% of media at highest quality for around 10 to 15 bucks a month seems like pretty good deal right about now. Sadly Netflix killed that part of their business so I can’t even go back to that.
It’s not like netflix is the only one that can offer that kind of service. You’ve still got gamefly, 3D Bluray Rental, cafedvd, redbox (if you’re fine with going to a kiosk), your public library, and probably others if you care to search for them.
It’ll be cable when they start making you contact customer retention in order to cancel.
Dvd’s are still free at the library if you don’t want to pirate.
My hot take, in the digital age, all direct marketing should be opt-in with the platform. Opt-in for industries with the ability to ban specific advertisers.
And just like the good ol days, pirating is back in fashion.
The convenience you required is now mandatory.
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Do you mean Rizon? What about it?
MUuuhhaaaaa. I worked for a cable company for a little over a decade. I remember commenting when people everywhere were talking about its death that streaming would soon be just like cable. They called me a fool. MUuuhhaaaaa!
