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WarnerMedia unveils HBO Max - Launching May 2020 with 10,000 hours of premium content for $14.99/month
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- Title
- WarnerMedia Unveils HBO Max
- Published
- Oct 29 2019
- Word count
- 2382 words
this is getting out of control. it's like they looked at their dying business model, and just moved it online, instead of learning anything from customer dissatisfaction. people love Netflix when it's a 1-stop shop. when online streaming is endlessly fragmented, the lack of a cost-effective comprehensive online streaming subscription, won't the balance of preferences move to just downloading everything again? good luck.
pulled this summary from this WSJ article, what the hell is Peacock?!??
The fragmentation really has pushed me heavily towards piracy and illegal streaming again. I was content for several years paying for (but sharing) accounts on Netflix, HBO Now, and Prime while trying other options at different stages, but I can't reasonably justify subscribing to so many simultaneously when I'm also facing the same extortion with live sports streaming packages. And don't forget about Spotify, Audible, etc.
You're right. It's getting a bit out of control. My current list of streaming services is:
And I'll have to pay $9.99 per month for CBS All Access when Star Trek comes back since my wife will want to watch those shows.
That's $43.16 per month just for streaming video. Add on another $10 in Amazon/iTunes rentals for one or two movies that aren't on those services and you're over $50. And that doesn't even include the crazy expensive internet you need to even use those services in the first place.
I wouldn't be surprised if most people are in a similar situation. I think the next few years are going to see a major proliferation of these services and then they'll either die out or band together to form a bundle where you get 10 different services for $50 per month (sound familiar?).
Don't forget, almost all of these services are coming from not just companies who run cable channels but also run cable providers.
Truthfully, if I had to get rid of one of those services, Netflix would be first on the chopping block. Netflix has a wide swath of content, but 90% of it is stuff I would never be interested in. Amazon is the same, but they also offer free 2 day shipping on their site with Prime and a slew of other services.
And my seedbox costs $15/month. You could also use a VPN for <$5/month to avoid copyright notices if you don't have to worry about private tracker ratios (or can maintain one on your home upload connection). While companies can't compete with free in terms of price, they can compete on convenience, but nobody does (Netflix used to until it lost half its content).
Nothing will ever beat the ease of compiling all content--TV, movies, music, photos, home videos, audiobooks, etc.--on my server and browsing it with a single platform across all devices. I wish the solution to live sports streaming was so simple.
The thing is, I'm basically subsidizing you're (I'm assuming) illegal downloads. These services know that a certain amount of piracy will occur and bake that into their operating cost.
I also feel very strongly that people should get paid for their work. I work in video production, so I know firsthand that it takes an enormous amount of people and effort to make a show or movie.
Those people (and the companies that make them) deserve to be compensated.
You're right. But they can compete on legality.
I rarely pirate anything because I don't have time to watch the stuff I have legally, much less illegally. But piracy is on the rise again, and will only get worse as the streaming market fragments more and more. If things like popcorn time pop up again (I have no idea if that is still a thing or not, but I remember my friends using it - they didn't even know what a bittorrent client was, but now they could easily watch stuff illegally without navigating public trackers), people will abandon their subscriptions.
Something I hope people will start to realize more and more is just how quick and simple it is to cancel these services and only sign up when you actually want to watch something. Unlike traditional TV, it's not an onerous process to cancel or reactivate. These companies try very hard to make sure it's easy to sign up, so it only takes about a minute to turn one of them back on.
I think a lot of people mostly keep them active out of habit or apathy, but we really don't need to stay subscribed when not actively watching anything. I've told a few people that I cancelled my Netflix subscription and would just resubscribe when I wanted to watch something, and they seemed a little surprised, like it was a possibility they hadn't even thought about.
It's still more annoying than having everything on the same service, but cycling through having different ones active is easy.
It's true, but services Netflix are striving to make sure that they have new content that people want to see constantly to keep people subscribed.
Peacock is NBC's streaming service, the name comes from their logo.
This was a good post on Axios yesterday talking about how crazy all the goals for these streaming services are, and how consumers won't be willing to pay for all of them: Chasing huge subscriber goals, streamers give it away for free