With 24/7 Programming, the Future of TV Looks a Lot Like Its Past (protocol.com) 62
Plex is bringing back the cable grid. The popular media center app added 80 live TV channels Thursday, complete with a programming guide that will look very familiar to anyone who has ever subscribed to pay TV, albeit with a few key differences: Plex's new live TV service is free to use, and it doesn't feature popular cable channels like CNN, TBS or Lifetime. From a report: Instead, its lineup includes channels like Reuters TV, Toon Goggles and the Bob Ross Channel. This type of ad-supported linear programming is growing in popularity across the industry; with consumers forced to tighten their belts, it could further contribute to cord cutting and fasten the shift from cable bundles to online video -- a future that may, at least to consumers, look very much like the best of TV's past. Plex has long positioned itself as an app for cord cutters, with free on-demand video and DVR functionality for broadcast TV networks. With its 80 new live TV channels, the company wants to offer its customers an experience that's closer to the lean-back viewing known from traditional pay TV. The Los Gatos-based startup has plans to add another 50 to 100 channels in the coming months.
Executives freely admitted in a conversation with Protocol that their take on live TV doesn't provide a 1:1 replacement for individual cable channels, but they argued that it's a good-enough experience. "It becomes a dirt-cheap way to replace cable," said co-founder and Chief Product Officer Scott Olechowski. One of the companies supplying Plex with TV feeds is Cinedigm, which operates around a dozen linear online channels, Including the Bob Ross channel, ConTV and standup-focused Comedy Dynamics. Cinedigm only began developing linear channels a little over a year ago and already has 13.5 million monthly viewers for these channels on smart TVs. "There is a lot of power in lean-back entertainment," said Cinedigm Digital Networks President Erick Opeka.
Executives freely admitted in a conversation with Protocol that their take on live TV doesn't provide a 1:1 replacement for individual cable channels, but they argued that it's a good-enough experience. "It becomes a dirt-cheap way to replace cable," said co-founder and Chief Product Officer Scott Olechowski. One of the companies supplying Plex with TV feeds is Cinedigm, which operates around a dozen linear online channels, Including the Bob Ross channel, ConTV and standup-focused Comedy Dynamics. Cinedigm only began developing linear channels a little over a year ago and already has 13.5 million monthly viewers for these channels on smart TVs. "There is a lot of power in lean-back entertainment," said Cinedigm Digital Networks President Erick Opeka.
Ad supported, commercial skipping? (Score:2)
Re:Ad supported, commercial skipping? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does it allow me to record programs off these linear online "live TV" channels and then skip the commercials when I play it back?
At this point, I couldn't possibly watch a show with ads. I don't have the patience anymore.
And I haven't watched live TV in more than a decade and have no interest in returning to it. Of course, still paying the "Broadcast TV" fee on my cable bill...
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At this point, I couldn't possibly watch a show with ads. I don't have the patience anymore.
Same here.
I was over at my BIL's house a few weeks ago and the TV was on...I was blown away at just how insanely intrusive and relentless the ads are. I couldn't follow whatever program was on because every ~7 minutes I would be bombarded by commercials for cat food, tampons, time-share opportunities, cars, shampoos, etc etc etc.
Then the show would resume and I'd be like, "Oh right, there was a show on...."
I'd completely lost interest whatever the show was about (??) and I couldn't even recall what the fuck
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This probably has to be the best thing about shows produced for ad-free streaming. I've noticed this a lot since dropping cable and watching stuff on Netflix. A lot of broadcast shows will spend tons of the episode just working around the commercials. They spend a couple minutes building up to each commercial break, to make sure you don't want to leave. And then after the commercial break they spend another couple minutes recapping what happened before the break, because, you may have forgot, or even if
Re:Ad supported, commercial skipping? (Score:4, Insightful)
Heck I don't even like watching shows that are ad-free that were INTENDED for ad-supported networks.
They often design around the problem you describe. They'll cut to a title card for a second before the break, then there is the (supposed) ad-break, and then cue another title card, and then 45-90 seconds worth of "review" time where they're repeating things they just said to catch you back up into what was going on.
EG, I want a lot of ghost story shows (I don't believe in ghosts but love listening to the supposedly "true" tales). A lot of stuff from the Travel channel and such eventually makes it to Amazon Prime ad-free, but its still annoying as hell to watch compared to content that was intended to be ad-free from the start.
Re: Ad supported, commercial skipping? (Score:2)
I'm not. It is weird, that of all countries, the US needs a liberalization of the broadband market ... And funny that to achieve that liberalization, you need regulation. :) (Anti-corporste regulation, at that.)
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The only reason I miss my cable is because of live sports. Currently there doesn't seem to be a good solution. Most pro sports have some kind of streaming option, but the rates are way too high.I think the price makes sense if you are a huge fan and are going to watch every single game, but there there isn't really a good option for people who just want to watch the odd game here and there. I would easily chip in a dollar or two to watch games on a per game basis as long as they gave me a good high quality
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Do you not have the option to use an OTA antenna? I've found that usually at least the "local" team and big stuff like the Super Bowl are always on broadcast if I really want to watch them.
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Up here in Canada, we have OTA antennas, but you don't tend to get a lot of sports on them. All the sports are broadcast on cable, with only a few games shown on network TV. The main sports networks are SportsNet, which is owned by Rogers, the main cable operator in the country. There's also TSN, which is owned by Bell, who is the other provider of TV/Internet/Satellite services in the country. All the sports have been moved off broadcast to cable only networks. If you're close to the border you can somet
Endless scrolling (Score:2)
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It depends, I suppose. As someone who loves Plex and uses it every day, I have no ads or skippable ads in the following:
1) CDs, DVDs, and blu-rays I've ripped and loaded into Plex have no ads.
2) Digital purchases I've stripped of DRM and loaded into Plex have no ads.
3) Live OTA content has skippable ads (so long as you're behind by enough that there's something to skip forward to, of course).
4) Recorded OTA content has no ads or skippable ads. Plex can be told to automatically strip TV ads from OTA recordin
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You could pay for youtube and the ads go away.
I do since youtube is my primary viewing medium. Music, lectures and stupid stuff mostly. It would hard to go back to youtube with ads.
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Pluto TV (Score:4, Informative)
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I mean, unless you're just being facetious, cable TV subscription rates are certainly DROPPING and most of those are going to streaming services, but the majority of US households still have some form of cable. It's not really a question of if "anyone" is watching TV like this - MOST people still are.
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I watch the shit out of Pluto news channels. I like being able to flip between all the competing narratives just like I could in the 90s. Also, the MST3K channel makes better background noise than youtube as it's the same show for a couple of hours and it's actually funny.
It took me a while to get used to Ads again though, I mean, I am a Plex lifetime member with a serious wealth of content on my personal server. Kinda funny with Pluto ads, sometimes you get the same ads like 4-5x in a row. wtf?
Re: No MLB, NFL? (Score:2)
Those who can, do.
Those who can't, play.
Those who can't play, spectate.
(The ladies edition is gossip rags of the rich and famous, by the way.)
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Those who can, do.
Those who can't, play.
Those who can't play, spectate.
That's why I hated sports in high school. Then later, this whole new category of activities opened up that I could actually go out and do.
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No thank you then. Baby needs his SportsCenter.
And so you shall remain a baby.
Same old, Same old (Score:1, Insightful)
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Re: Same old, Same old (Score:1)
Riiight. Claiming manipulative assault on your neurons is a no-cost thing.
You know, marketing departments have surprisingly precise numbers on how much more they made us pay (that we did not need to) with their "marketing".
Aka cost, to us.
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They typically already do this - it's just that it usually costs more than people want to pay. If you go to Amazon Prime you can buy a season pass to almost any show . . . . at like $2 per episode. At that rate 2 shows that are airing weekly (ie, 4 shows per month) will exceed the cost of almost any streaming plan.
Let the old format die. (Score:1)
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My memory isn't quite at the "shit" stage yet, but there's not a show in the world that I would wait a week for between episodes.
Zero, zip, nada. I don't care what it is, I'm not going to wait a week for the next installment of a TV program.
Besides, binge watching a 2 or 3 or 4 episodes at a time is way better. The continuity and story line(s) are better when viewed consecutively, at least in my opinion.
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My memory isn't quite at the "shit" stage yet, but there's not a show in the world that I would wait a week for between episodes.
Zero, zip, nada. I don't care what it is, I'm not going to wait a week for the next installment of a TV program.
Besides, binge watching a 2 or 3 or 4 episodes at a time is way better. The continuity and story line(s) are better when viewed consecutively, at least in my opinion.
Yeah I think this, combined with constant ads is really what will spell the end of that sort of TV programming.
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Either this is a recent development or you're not quite as "old" as you insinuate. In the pre-DVR days this was basically the ONLY way to watch shows - though as a result back then shows were more "episodic" and any larger story arc was fairly minor - typically a start unfolded and wrapped up all in one episode so that if people missed an episode here or there it didn't really matter.
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Either this is a recent development or you're not quite as "old" as you insinuate. In the pre-DVR days this was basically the ONLY way to watch shows -
Yes, I know, and I hated it then just like I hate it now. But I've been away from broadcast TV for a loooooong time now and I'd forgotten just how wretched it was.
As for me...I was about 6 when the original Star Trek aired; does that qualify me as "old"? 'Cuz it sure feels that way....
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Yeah, I couldn't imaging a show like Dark working on regular weekly network TV. the story line is just way too convoluted for people to keep track. I had to rewatch the first 2 seasons before watching the third to make sure I could understand what was going on. It's an amazing show, but it would never work on network TV with a week between episodes and a month off for christmas holidays.
Plex and ad supported content sucks big time (Score:5, Informative)
Full disclosure: I'm a Plex Lifetime Pass purchaser. The platform has been and continues to be fantastic for playing back and remotely accessing content you keep on your own server. That's what I bought the Lifetime Pass for . . . not for Tidal, not for Plex' DVR functionality, and certainly not for their ad-laden "free" movies (I tried to watch one last month and it was the most frustrating experience ever -- it literally stopped the movie in the middle of a scene every 10-15 minutes or so and played back the SAME AD for General car insurance -- for the ENTIRE movie!). For that reason alone I'd never watch one of Plex's "free" movies again.
My guess is that the "free" TV channels will be the same crappy streamed content you can get over the internet but with ads generously inserted everywhere as above. They're literally driving people to piracy because the consumer's experience sucks so badly.
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One big value-add of the Plex Pass is lots of curated metadata about the content. E.g., for music playback, there are nice links to artist bios, related artists, albums, upcoming shows, very high-quality (non-pixellated) large album art that looks good on a big HDTV screen, etc. It's all professionally done and maintained -- no crappy "fan contributed" mis-spelled / incorrect garbage. Their new version of Plexamp [plexamp.com] is an awesome little music player with very high-quality cross-fades of mixed-format files,
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The reasons that pushed us to signing up for a Lifetime Pass after just one month were:
- Multiple accounts. My wife and I have different tastes, so while we wanted everything in one place, we each wanted to be able to just view the stuff that was of interest to us. Likewise, we knew we wanted kids, so managed accounts would be necessary at some point. Pretty sure this is freely available now.
- Hardware transcoding. Our server at the time was a decade-old Mac Mini. It went from barely creaking along to churn
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Full disclosure: I'm a Plex Lifetime Pass purchaser. The platform has been and continues to be fantastic for playing back and remotely accessing content you keep on your own server. That's what I bought the Lifetime Pass for . . . not for Tidal, not for Plex' DVR functionality, and certainly not for their ad-laden "free" movies (I tried to watch one last month and it was the most frustrating experience ever -- it literally stopped the movie in the middle of a scene every 10-15 minutes or so and played back the SAME AD for General car insurance -- for the ENTIRE movie!). For that reason alone I'd never watch one of Plex's "free" movies again.
My guess is that the "free" TV channels will be the same crappy streamed content you can get over the internet but with ads generously inserted everywhere as above. They're literally driving people to piracy because the consumer's experience sucks so badly.
This is my experience. And the Android app is atrocious.
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Plex Pass Lifetime subscriber here as well. I agree with everything you just said (I've disabled or unpinned all of the "free" content as well), except for one thing: you really shouldn't write off Plex DVR.
While the feature to automatically strip commercials from recordings is hit-or-miss, everything else is outstandingly great (and there's nothing stopping you from skipping any commercials it misses). It took only a minute or two to set up, the TV tuner we paired with it lets us record or view up to four
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fasten (Score:3)
FTS: it could further contribute to cord cutting and fasten the shift from cable bundles to online video
So they are going to tie down the shift from cable bundles? You'd think someone that considers themselves to be an author would have a dictionary.
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FTS: it could further contribute to cord cutting and fasten the shift from cable bundles to online video
So they are going to tie down the shift from cable bundles? You'd think someone that considers themselves to be an author would have a dictionary.
FTS: it could further contribute to cord cutting and fasten the shift from cable bundles to online video
So they are going to tie down the shift from cable bundles? You'd think someone that considers themselves to be an author would have a dictionary.
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Only if you play along. (Score:2)
My money goes exclusively to creators.
Not to "distributors", "rights holders" or any other useless leeches, nor to their whores.
And after they have been paid for the actual work, then the mere information is shared freely. (Which is advertisement too.)
So e.g. Patreon-using YouTubers or musicians on the street, or real concerts.
If everyone would do it like this, "Netflix" would probably a sharing site, owned by creators.
There's always enough idiots to sustain socially enforced idiocy as the norm though, it s
I'm just about over Plex (Score:1)
Live TV has lost diversity. (Score:2)
They seem to try to following the Binge Watching method that is popular on streaming. So Cartoon Network will have hours of Teen Titans Go!, Learning Channel will have hours of 600 lbs life...
While they may be the popular show for the network, it is not giving enough time for their other products. Cartoon Network for example, a few years ago had some interesting new series, such as Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe. But for the life of you, you wouldn't be able to watch them, because they wer
Binge broadcast + DVR = full library (Score:2)
A few years ago, I created a record-everything season pass for Whose Line is it Anyway on my TiVo - right before one of the cable channels decided to do a marathon of everything they had.
I came back from Xmas vacation to something like 400 shows captured. I could watch one a day for over a year before exhausting them, and successfully got through them almost twice...
before my TiVo hardware croaked and made it all inaccessible.
This time, I'm going to back them all up to something reliable.
My favorite show on there (Score:1)
What's a TV? (Score:2)
Asking for a friend.
Ad-supported (Score:5, Insightful)
Ads (Score:2)
>"It becomes a dirt-cheap way to replace cable,"
Not if your prerequisite is that you refuse to watch ads or any other type of forced content. And I am far from alone in such a requirement. I have not been forced to watch ads in 20 years, and I am not about to move backwards.
With cable and DVR, I am not a captive. It is expensive, but at least I have my sanity.
> "There is a lot of power in lean-back entertainment," said Cinedigm Digital Networks President Erick Opeka."
Not to me. "Lean-back" enterta