i don't mean to be antagonistic as this is tildes and not reddit but how so? I either had a different experience with cable or different expectations of streaming services but my only 2 problems...
i don't mean to be antagonistic as this is tildes and not reddit but how so?
I either had a different experience with cable or different expectations of streaming services but my only 2 problems with cable was
if you want a specific channel, you are stuck with a whole bundle and have to pay for that whole bundle and
you are stuck with that bundle for like 2-3 years
every time streaming services raise their prices people complain about how we "are back to cable" and I am just like, "you know you can get a subscription for a month, watch your show and then cancel? that in no ways was possible on cable"
now granted, this is news about a bundle but unless they also plan to prevent you from signing up for just disney+ or hulu or max, I don't see a cause for concern. and if the bundle is not forced with a 2-3 year contract then it's still not as bad as cable.
Yeah the biggest problems with cable in my eyes were getting stuck with an ocean freighter’s worth of channels I never watched to have access to the handful I did along with the inflexibility and...
Yeah the biggest problems with cable in my eyes were getting stuck with an ocean freighter’s worth of channels I never watched to have access to the handful I did along with the inflexibility and ads of broadcast TV (though I fixed this with a TiVo back in the day).
I won’t argue that the services are overpriced, but they’re much more flexible than cable/satellite are, and these days the quality of the video offered by most services is better than what you’d get over cable too which makes the price sting a little less. I’d say my chief complaint with streaming is bad apps in the cases of a few services.
Be grateful you don't live in Canada (assuming you don't). one of our major ISPs (Bell) has a deal with HBO so only Bell's streaming service (crave) is allowed to have HBO content north of the...
I’d say my chief complaint with streaming is bad apps in the cases of a few services.
Be grateful you don't live in Canada (assuming you don't). one of our major ISPs (Bell) has a deal with HBO so only Bell's streaming service (crave) is allowed to have HBO content north of the border. It's both the most expensive streaming service up here and also the one with the worst UX/UI and buggy af.
I am going through the process of getting an american credit card to get Max in part cause last year Bell and HBo signed a new contract and I broke a little inside (I thought Warner Bros would want to have their service up here rather than going through a middleman, but then again Zaslav wasn't around when I was predicting that).
But the one thing that makes me nervous about "cable being back" is the ad-free and lower tier ad plans. Granted we are not there yet but they keep hiking those prices higher so that they can artificially claim "growth"....
What, you don't like search only being in English and Cantonese? Who needs French! Bell is a good example of what Apple does but poorly. They don't care if Crave is good or priced attractively....
also the one with the worst UX/UI and buggy af.
What, you don't like search only being in English and Cantonese? Who needs French!
Bell is a good example of what Apple does but poorly. They don't care if Crave is good or priced attractively. They just want it to lock you into their ecosystem so it's harder to switch to a cheaper provider and HBO content helps with that.
The lack of French? French is only mandated in certain contexts (and almost entirely around federal government or regulation contexts), it's not universal. French language services and offerings...
The lack of French? French is only mandated in certain contexts (and almost entirely around federal government or regulation contexts), it's not universal. French language services and offerings are very much far behind English here.
In addition to the other commenter, the app can be switched between french and English. When on English, if you go to search you only have the two language options I mentioned. Switching the...
In addition to the other commenter, the app can be switched between french and English. When on English, if you go to search you only have the two language options I mentioned. Switching the language basically resets the app making you have to favourite things again, etc. Plenty of people use both languages, so it's the least elegant solution I have seen.
They don't need search to be in French they just need French content on the service. So they are loaded up with cheap Quebécois trash television and french language art house films to meet the quota
They don't need search to be in French they just need French content on the service. So they are loaded up with cheap Quebécois trash television and french language art house films to meet the quota
I've found myself back on the seas after Crave originally secured that deal with HBO (and also the BBC), especially since they were only offering 720p/stereo at best for a much higher cost than...
I've found myself back on the seas after Crave originally secured that deal with HBO (and also the BBC), especially since they were only offering 720p/stereo at best for a much higher cost than HBO Max delivering 1080p/surround sound in the US. And not for any reason other than to counteract the vindictiveness and predatory nature of that deal.
HBO and the BBC clearly don't care about making sure Canadians can access their content in a reasonable quality for a reasonable price. I would have definitely considered an HBO Max subscription or a BBC view license if it was directly offered but they chose to let Canadians be exploited by a greedy telecom instead. Maybe it's vindictive but simply ignoring it and avoiding their content doesn't feel like a strong enough response when I am actually interested in their content, so instead I'll show that the seas are still open, convenient, and offer better quality without making me feel exploited.
The one streaming service a month method has served me well for years. Though I'm someone that doesn't care about watching things right when they come out. It also makes the price increases less...
The one streaming service a month method has served me well for years. Though I'm someone that doesn't care about watching things right when they come out. It also makes the price increases less of an issue and the few extra dollars a month for ad free not a big deal. Sign up, immediately cancel, then when the month is up decide if you want to continue it move on to another service. It's a bit more effort, but it's well worth it and cheaper in the long run.
People need something to complain about because they were genuinely spoiled from the days when you could get 90% of streamable media from Netflix and Hulu. When streaming started the biggest...
People need something to complain about because they were genuinely spoiled from the days when you could get 90% of streamable media from Netflix and Hulu. When streaming started the biggest argument against cable was "I want to be able to buy the channels I want" and now that they literally have that exact option they're just pissed they can't get every piece of consumable media commerical free for $8.99 per month.
Yes and no. The real problem with cable is that the cable companies are middle men. Their service to customers is dictated by how the media conglomerates sold channel bundles to their cable...
Yes and no.
The real problem with cable is that the cable companies are middle men. Their service to customers is dictated by how the media conglomerates sold channel bundles to their cable company.
Streaming just eliminated the middle men. We're getting the bundle deals that they would have tried to force on cable companies. In that sense it is like cable.
Slight disagreement there. streaming eliminated one of the middle-men, not all of them; as I consider both the TV stations and your cable provider to be middlemen. unless you are able to stream...
Streaming just eliminated the middle men. We're getting the bundle deals that they would have tried to force on cable companies. In that sense it is like cable.
Slight disagreement there. streaming eliminated one of the middle-men, not all of them; as I consider both the TV stations and your cable provider to be middlemen.
It would only be cable if you were forced to buy these three services together with no option to buy them separately. I'm getting kind of tired of the "streaming is just cable now" meme.
It would only be cable if you were forced to buy these three services together with no option to buy them separately.
I'm getting kind of tired of the "streaming is just cable now" meme.
I could definitely see these companies moving that way, to bundled services only. But I suppose until that happens, if it happens, it's not worth mentioning.
I could definitely see these companies moving that way, to bundled services only. But I suppose until that happens, if it happens, it's not worth mentioning.
I don't really see how they would benefit. Cable bundles are a thing because all the cable channels share a common distributor, the cable company, who has an effective monopoly in whatever region...
I don't really see how they would benefit.
Cable bundles are a thing because all the cable channels share a common distributor, the cable company, who has an effective monopoly in whatever region they operate.
If someone like Netflix became the sole distributor for streaming content, then I could see that happening. I think that the people rooting for Netflix to just get everything are the people asking for a return to cable, because such a market would mean $100/mo Netflix with no consumer choice, just like cable.
It's like the enshitification of the word enshitification. Streaming is just cable now has become a meme of itself, to the point you could set your watch to how long someone will reply "back to...
It's like the enshitification of the word enshitification. Streaming is just cable now has become a meme of itself, to the point you could set your watch to how long someone will reply "back to pirating for me"
Is anyone else nearly done with this medium? I watch so little TV these days. I might watch 1 season of 5 shows over the course of a year. Very little catches my attention and of the ones that do...
Is anyone else nearly done with this medium? I watch so little TV these days. I might watch 1 season of 5 shows over the course of a year. Very little catches my attention and of the ones that do I will drop many of them after one episode (or less). I watch more Twitch than TV - and far more YouTube than that. There are so many amazingly talented and passionate YouTubers out there making 10-90 minute videos at a nice regular pace. Outside of fiction it has surpassed television entirely in my opinion.
I would say most people I’ve encountered now-a-days don’t watch much of anything, they seem pretty content scrolling through their phones. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs right now honestly.
I would say most people I’ve encountered now-a-days don’t watch much of anything, they seem pretty content scrolling through their phones. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs right now honestly.
There's some great tv. The problem for me is that it's scattered over so many services. Apple TV+ has lots of great original content, and they buy some good shows too. Amazon tv has some good...
There's some great tv. The problem for me is that it's scattered over so many services. Apple TV+ has lots of great original content, and they buy some good shows too. Amazon tv has some good content. I'm not so fussed about Netflix, but Love Death and Robots is particularly good (especially seasons 2 and 3). Peacock has had some good content. HBO or Max has great content.
I'm not subscribing to all of these, so I pirate the things i want to watch.
They need to work out an a la carte pricing model that isn't ridiculous.
Most of the things I pay for subscriptions to watch are sci-fi (Paramount for Star Trek, Apple TV+ for For All Mankind, etc) and anime (Crunchyroll but these days several others). There’s...
Most of the things I pay for subscriptions to watch are sci-fi (Paramount for Star Trek, Apple TV+ for For All Mankind, etc) and anime (Crunchyroll but these days several others).
There’s definitely good stuff to be had on YouTube but it’s not really the kind of material I’d watch to relax.
I have lost almost all interest in streaming series. Every service constantly puts out new series and the majority is just so mediocre and the good stuff tends to get stretched out declining in...
I have lost almost all interest in streaming series. Every service constantly puts out new series and the majority is just so mediocre and the good stuff tends to get stretched out declining in quality after a few good seasons. The Handmaids Tale and Billions come to mind here. And the straight to streaming movies are not much better. The only thing I happily pay for now is Criterion Channel, which excels in having actual curated recommended content instead of just filling their catalogue up and letting a horrible "recommendation" algorithm do the rest.
I concur. Occasionally something I'm really excited about will come along, and I will blow through it (which I generally prefer). Then I will be back to nothing much. But most of the content is...
I concur. Occasionally something I'm really excited about will come along, and I will blow through it (which I generally prefer). Then I will be back to nothing much. But most of the content is just ... ho hum. We went through a phase where we watched cooking and home improvement reality shows, but once I realized how staged most of them are, I couldn't really enjoy them anymore. Even things I want to like seem to peter out after a few episodes or a season.
I used to understand the offer: Disney = kid friendly, family friendly, mix of high quality film, and then some decent enough to watch sequels, and some tv shows that were hot garbage. HBO = home...
I used to understand the offer:
Disney = kid friendly, family friendly, mix of high quality film, and then some decent enough to watch sequels, and some tv shows that were hot garbage.
HBO = home of great tv for adults
Hulu = I've never understood Hulu.
Now Disney is family friendly, mixed with adult only, and it's got to the point where they're paying money on adverts to teach people how to set age restrictions. And that, to me, is the point where they should have said "what on Earth are we doing to our carefully cultivated brand?" Having a place that's safe for children is important to many adults. Sure, you should monitor what they're watching, and off-loading the monitoring to Disney (with their particular culture and values) is problematic. But still, it's weird.
The entire Max thing is also baffling to me. Maybe it makes sense in tv land.
Hulu actually has some great content. They have some surprisingly good low-budget movies you can’t get anywhere else. They’re also the place to go for FX’s original programming, which is pretty...
Hulu actually has some great content. They have some surprisingly good low-budget movies you can’t get anywhere else. They’re also the place to go for FX’s original programming, which is pretty good if not perhaps a tad niche at times (their Shogun adaptation is prestige TV; it’s a pretty good watch). They’re also where Disney puts the Anime they buy to die, which is kind of crazy because they consistently have the best shows of the season they were originally released in. I don’t think there’s anyone who I wouldn’t recommend Summertime Rendering to.
This is interesting as Max and Netflix can already be paired together for $10 through Verizon. Avenues may have opened up through their sports talks, or WBD may be more willing to play ball as...
This is interesting as Max and Netflix can already be paired together for $10 through Verizon. Avenues may have opened up through their sports talks, or WBD may be more willing to play ball as they have the big debt albatross around their neck and are looking to sell anyway. I know that a potential Paramount+Peacock bundle fell through, so maybe there is still cash to be had, or everything will change again once the great consolidation crunch really takes off.
The consolidation of streaming services will continue because individually these services just aren't profitable enough for these companies. And "profitable enough" means never profitable enough....
The consolidation of streaming services will continue because individually these services just aren't profitable enough for these companies. And "profitable enough" means never profitable enough. The balkanization of streaming is anathema to having it all. The comparison to cable is apt because streaming services host loads of content you would never consider watching and ads are being injected more and more. It's a mess navigating streaming services, just like it's a mess navigating cable.
I don't even care anymore. I've been an unabashed media pirate for decades now, but I've only just begun sharing my bounty with friends and family. It's not my fault people are struggling financially, but if I can help those close to me in a small way, I'm going to do it. If you want to watch a show or movie, text me and you'll have it on your television. I'm sick of being nickel and dimed when, even though I make pretty decent money, I can't afford to buy a house comfortably. I'm sick of this corporate mindset of growth at all costs. I'm going to do what I can in my own life to make it the most comfortable I can, because living any other way is masochistic.
And we're back to cable.
i don't mean to be antagonistic as this is tildes and not reddit but how so?
I either had a different experience with cable or different expectations of streaming services but my only 2 problems with cable was
every time streaming services raise their prices people complain about how we "are back to cable" and I am just like, "you know you can get a subscription for a month, watch your show and then cancel? that in no ways was possible on cable"
now granted, this is news about a bundle but unless they also plan to prevent you from signing up for just disney+ or hulu or max, I don't see a cause for concern. and if the bundle is not forced with a 2-3 year contract then it's still not as bad as cable.
Yeah the biggest problems with cable in my eyes were getting stuck with an ocean freighter’s worth of channels I never watched to have access to the handful I did along with the inflexibility and ads of broadcast TV (though I fixed this with a TiVo back in the day).
I won’t argue that the services are overpriced, but they’re much more flexible than cable/satellite are, and these days the quality of the video offered by most services is better than what you’d get over cable too which makes the price sting a little less. I’d say my chief complaint with streaming is bad apps in the cases of a few services.
Be grateful you don't live in Canada (assuming you don't). one of our major ISPs (Bell) has a deal with HBO so only Bell's streaming service (crave) is allowed to have HBO content north of the border. It's both the most expensive streaming service up here and also the one with the worst UX/UI and buggy af.
I am going through the process of getting an american credit card to get Max in part cause last year Bell and HBo signed a new contract and I broke a little inside (I thought Warner Bros would want to have their service up here rather than going through a middleman, but then again Zaslav wasn't around when I was predicting that).
But the one thing that makes me nervous about "cable being back" is the ad-free and lower tier ad plans. Granted we are not there yet but they keep hiking those prices higher so that they can artificially claim "growth"....
Very similar situation in Australia with foxtel
Same here in the UK with Sky
What, you don't like search only being in English and Cantonese? Who needs French!
Bell is a good example of what Apple does but poorly. They don't care if Crave is good or priced attractively. They just want it to lock you into their ecosystem so it's harder to switch to a cheaper provider and HBO content helps with that.
wait how is that even legal in Canada? I thought the one thing y'all were good at doing was demanding bilingual everything.
The lack of French? French is only mandated in certain contexts (and almost entirely around federal government or regulation contexts), it's not universal. French language services and offerings are very much far behind English here.
In addition to the other commenter, the app can be switched between french and English. When on English, if you go to search you only have the two language options I mentioned. Switching the language basically resets the app making you have to favourite things again, etc. Plenty of people use both languages, so it's the least elegant solution I have seen.
They don't need search to be in French they just need French content on the service. So they are loaded up with cheap Quebécois trash television and french language art house films to meet the quota
I've found myself back on the seas after Crave originally secured that deal with HBO (and also the BBC), especially since they were only offering 720p/stereo at best for a much higher cost than HBO Max delivering 1080p/surround sound in the US. And not for any reason other than to counteract the vindictiveness and predatory nature of that deal.
HBO and the BBC clearly don't care about making sure Canadians can access their content in a reasonable quality for a reasonable price. I would have definitely considered an HBO Max subscription or a BBC view license if it was directly offered but they chose to let Canadians be exploited by a greedy telecom instead. Maybe it's vindictive but simply ignoring it and avoiding their content doesn't feel like a strong enough response when I am actually interested in their content, so instead I'll show that the seas are still open, convenient, and offer better quality without making me feel exploited.
The one streaming service a month method has served me well for years. Though I'm someone that doesn't care about watching things right when they come out. It also makes the price increases less of an issue and the few extra dollars a month for ad free not a big deal. Sign up, immediately cancel, then when the month is up decide if you want to continue it move on to another service. It's a bit more effort, but it's well worth it and cheaper in the long run.
People need something to complain about because they were genuinely spoiled from the days when you could get 90% of streamable media from Netflix and Hulu. When streaming started the biggest argument against cable was "I want to be able to buy the channels I want" and now that they literally have that exact option they're just pissed they can't get every piece of consumable media commerical free for $8.99 per month.
Yes and no.
The real problem with cable is that the cable companies are middle men. Their service to customers is dictated by how the media conglomerates sold channel bundles to their cable company.
Streaming just eliminated the middle men. We're getting the bundle deals that they would have tried to force on cable companies. In that sense it is like cable.
Slight disagreement there. streaming eliminated one of the middle-men, not all of them; as I consider both the TV stations and your cable provider to be middlemen.
unless you are able to stream without an ISP :-P
It would only be cable if you were forced to buy these three services together with no option to buy them separately.
I'm getting kind of tired of the "streaming is just cable now" meme.
I could definitely see these companies moving that way, to bundled services only. But I suppose until that happens, if it happens, it's not worth mentioning.
I don't really see how they would benefit.
Cable bundles are a thing because all the cable channels share a common distributor, the cable company, who has an effective monopoly in whatever region they operate.
If someone like Netflix became the sole distributor for streaming content, then I could see that happening. I think that the people rooting for Netflix to just get everything are the people asking for a return to cable, because such a market would mean $100/mo Netflix with no consumer choice, just like cable.
It's like the enshitification of the word enshitification. Streaming is just cable now has become a meme of itself, to the point you could set your watch to how long someone will reply "back to pirating for me"
Is anyone else nearly done with this medium? I watch so little TV these days. I might watch 1 season of 5 shows over the course of a year. Very little catches my attention and of the ones that do I will drop many of them after one episode (or less). I watch more Twitch than TV - and far more YouTube than that. There are so many amazingly talented and passionate YouTubers out there making 10-90 minute videos at a nice regular pace. Outside of fiction it has surpassed television entirely in my opinion.
I would say most people I’ve encountered now-a-days don’t watch much of anything, they seem pretty content scrolling through their phones. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs right now honestly.
There's some great tv. The problem for me is that it's scattered over so many services. Apple TV+ has lots of great original content, and they buy some good shows too. Amazon tv has some good content. I'm not so fussed about Netflix, but Love Death and Robots is particularly good (especially seasons 2 and 3). Peacock has had some good content. HBO or Max has great content.
I'm not subscribing to all of these, so I pirate the things i want to watch.
They need to work out an a la carte pricing model that isn't ridiculous.
Most of the things I pay for subscriptions to watch are sci-fi (Paramount for Star Trek, Apple TV+ for For All Mankind, etc) and anime (Crunchyroll but these days several others).
There’s definitely good stuff to be had on YouTube but it’s not really the kind of material I’d watch to relax.
I have lost almost all interest in streaming series. Every service constantly puts out new series and the majority is just so mediocre and the good stuff tends to get stretched out declining in quality after a few good seasons. The Handmaids Tale and Billions come to mind here. And the straight to streaming movies are not much better. The only thing I happily pay for now is Criterion Channel, which excels in having actual curated recommended content instead of just filling their catalogue up and letting a horrible "recommendation" algorithm do the rest.
I concur. Occasionally something I'm really excited about will come along, and I will blow through it (which I generally prefer). Then I will be back to nothing much. But most of the content is just ... ho hum. We went through a phase where we watched cooking and home improvement reality shows, but once I realized how staged most of them are, I couldn't really enjoy them anymore. Even things I want to like seem to peter out after a few episodes or a season.
I used to understand the offer:
Disney = kid friendly, family friendly, mix of high quality film, and then some decent enough to watch sequels, and some tv shows that were hot garbage.
HBO = home of great tv for adults
Hulu = I've never understood Hulu.
Now Disney is family friendly, mixed with adult only, and it's got to the point where they're paying money on adverts to teach people how to set age restrictions. And that, to me, is the point where they should have said "what on Earth are we doing to our carefully cultivated brand?" Having a place that's safe for children is important to many adults. Sure, you should monitor what they're watching, and off-loading the monitoring to Disney (with their particular culture and values) is problematic. But still, it's weird.
The entire Max thing is also baffling to me. Maybe it makes sense in tv land.
Hulu actually has some great content. They have some surprisingly good low-budget movies you can’t get anywhere else. They’re also the place to go for FX’s original programming, which is pretty good if not perhaps a tad niche at times (their Shogun adaptation is prestige TV; it’s a pretty good watch). They’re also where Disney puts the Anime they buy to die, which is kind of crazy because they consistently have the best shows of the season they were originally released in. I don’t think there’s anyone who I wouldn’t recommend Summertime Rendering to.
This is interesting as Max and Netflix can already be paired together for $10 through Verizon. Avenues may have opened up through their sports talks, or WBD may be more willing to play ball as they have the big debt albatross around their neck and are looking to sell anyway. I know that a potential Paramount+Peacock bundle fell through, so maybe there is still cash to be had, or everything will change again once the great consolidation crunch really takes off.
The consolidation of streaming services will continue because individually these services just aren't profitable enough for these companies. And "profitable enough" means never profitable enough. The balkanization of streaming is anathema to having it all. The comparison to cable is apt because streaming services host loads of content you would never consider watching and ads are being injected more and more. It's a mess navigating streaming services, just like it's a mess navigating cable.
I don't even care anymore. I've been an unabashed media pirate for decades now, but I've only just begun sharing my bounty with friends and family. It's not my fault people are struggling financially, but if I can help those close to me in a small way, I'm going to do it. If you want to watch a show or movie, text me and you'll have it on your television. I'm sick of being nickel and dimed when, even though I make pretty decent money, I can't afford to buy a house comfortably. I'm sick of this corporate mindset of growth at all costs. I'm going to do what I can in my own life to make it the most comfortable I can, because living any other way is masochistic.