Netflix, once a pioneer of ad-free viewing that offered a break from traditional TV norms, is now contemplating launching free ad-supported versions of its service in markets like Europe and Asia, Bloomberg reported.

The plans to offer a free ad-supported tier, albeit in select markets, suggests that pivot towards monetizing user data, in other words — making users and not the extensive library of award-winning shows a product, might be well in the pipeline.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Told people this years ago when pewdie pie became a millionaire selling ads. Like that was the time to wake up and hate every single one of these content creators for selling out and making the internet the hellscape this is. But no we Revere and emulate these people.

      • efstajas@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        This is a bit unnecessarily tough on independent content creators… what exactly do you expect them to do? Make no money from their content? How would they be able to make a living?

          • efstajas@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Sure, Patreon is great, but Patreon alone is not enough for most creators to make a living, considering how hard it is to get people to commit to monthly subscriptions.

            • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              But why do they need to make a living creating content.

              We should go back to hobbyist sharing videos of their hobby and interest for the love of it instead of a guy trying to make money by jumping into trendy hobbies and creating bland generic content until the algorithm picks them.

              It would reduce so much noise online and the stuff we would be left with would be people who have the best content. It would eliminate the drama and toxic crap for views.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Patreon alone is not enough for most creators to make a living

              I’ve seen a number of content creators argue otherwise. From the “Hello from the Magic Tavern” sketch comedy group to the “Scenes from the Multiverse” Cartoonist to the various musicians cranking out indie tunes on Bandcamp, the refrain I consistently here is that direct patronage offers significantly better returns than ad-supported payments on bigger media platforms.

              Indie creators generally have an easier time of securing monthly subscriptions because they’re more boutique and have closer connections to the audience. And you don’t need an enormous audience to bring in a reliable income. While YouTubers need to get into the hundreds of thousands of subscribers to see any kind of productive ROI, Patreon artists can justify the expense of their work on an audience in the hundreds. They can go entirely indie with an audience in the thousands.

              Most creators can’t afford to go fully indie, but the margins are so much better relative to the audience size with direct payments. Even just $2/viewer/episode pays vastly more than what a streaming service offers.

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Would you put blame on doctors for contributing to the opioid?

          I see it the same. Every one bares responsibility. And even though a big chunk is on the pharma and media companies. There is still the pusher

          • efstajas@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Would you put blame on doctors for contributing to the opioid?

            I’m gonna assume by “contributing to the opioid” you mean over-prescribing pain medication for the commission? If so, that comparison is so far-fetched that it’s completely meaningless. You’re really going to compare that with independent creators having skippable ad reads that have to be clearly marked as such on content you get for free?

            • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Mind explains what is far fetched about it?

              There was an opioid crisis where drug makers sold pills to the public that the public did not need and they used doctors to sell them.

              There is an advertising epidemic where industry is working to push ads into every space we listen, look or experience and they are using content creators to justify it

              Both have a large well funded industry. Both require an interface between public and the industry to sell their product. Both push products to people who don’t need them by using these interfaces to bullshit, lie and leverage their authority to sell the product. And in one case we blame the interface in the other we say " they aren’t responsible they are just making money" so why?

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Too fucking many. But replace him with any of them. Speed, H2, Moist, donkey something. We use to have to walk uphill both ways in the snow to see content.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Like that was the time to wake up and hate every single one of these content creators for selling out

        And then what? Stop consuming their content?

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Sure, or accept that you participating in that industry will always lead to this stuff.

          What do people want here. In what world do you think you can separate the two things. Monetizing content through ads and marketing and a world where ads and marketing are not capitalized on.

          We all had to stop this decades ago when it was a tiny little part of the internet. You can’t kill it once its tendrils are in every corner its grown into Fafnir

          You all have to get better at listening to the crazy ranting of random strangers with hair triggers and obsess over things you don’t care about. Otherwise the future is bleek

          What’s even crazier is kids today will never realize the freedom that the first few decades of the internet was when the topic of information scarcity was supposed to end.

          We were all so against the idea that capitalist and opportunistic people could artificially create scarcity to make us all pay more. They did it through monopolies on industry’s that choked out smaller competitors. The internet was a new frontier that was supposed to reject that. We could digitally copy and share everything. Hero’s shot up and built all kinds of amazing tools and things. Then it got popular and we recreated the same scarcity issues within decades. Everything trapped behind walls and monetized. Instead of open courseware at Berkeley we favored monthly subscriptions to udemy.

          This is the average 6 year olds dream right now. A life where they can emulate a NASCAR fender and live that twitch life just like their heroes Pewdie and Moist and whatever else. Those kids grow up with that mentality and end up shaping a new generation pulling away from what all this could have been.

      • bblkargonaut@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Im the one that was paying for Netflix for my family, but the password crack down motivated me to learn how to build a server and go full arrs. They had a good thing going, but now that $26 a month will be used to buy hdds.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        What I fears is that its a matter of time before entertainment industry figures out a way to stop those services. I’ve even begun to see discussions that open source may be struggling to remain relevant. Whose taking over for the power houses from early days. So much talent out there. But I really worry the community will shrink over time because we all raiser a generation on the concept of monetization rather than open collaboration. I look out on the internet and the loudest voices are artists and content creators. Both groups who push the fuck you pay me mentality that I believe was not what we all had originally on the internet and it makes me so worried to think how that will only grow if there is no push back.

  • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I just wish they could bundle all the subscriptions into packages or bundles and I could watch the shows at pre-determined times.

    • stellargmite@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Cool thing about this is they could assemble these bundles into parallel live streams we could simply flick between to find what we prefer to watch. If they run into a problem of people flicking away when ads run then just align the ads to run at the same time on each “channel” if I can call them that ?

    • lando55@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      They could bundle in my idea of having a telephone in your house, not a cell phone more like a land phone

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “Free ad-supported” makes you no different than a hundred other garbage-tier streaming services.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If they aren’t going to charge for access otherwise then I don’t think being ad supported is such a bad thing. Much more honest than subscription pricing and ads in my opinion.

  • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    My Plex share doesn’t care lol

    The way the industry is pulling the screws tighter and tighter is just ugly to watch, and it’s hard not to be caught out.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I won’t support any streaming service that has a sub+ad tier. Ads with no sub or sub no ads, anything else is incredibly greedy and the same as cable TV.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Doesn’t this already exist or did I imagine it?

    I thought they introduced it years ago

    Edit: oh I read again, this time it’s free

  • roofuskit@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Obviously the majority of content is not going to be available. It will essentially b a Tubi clone or what Netflix streaming was when they first launched it.

  • yggstyle@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I look forward to when someone releases a box to record the screen or shows you want to watch on Netflix just in case the rights gets pulled before you get the chance to watch it. Added benefit is they can make it skip ads too. Gotta have a catchy name… like… NeVO for Netflix Video On(demand)