Streamer Plex Launches Its Long-Promised Movie Rentals Store (techcrunch.com) 27
Sarah Perez reports via TechCrunch: Fresh on the heels of its $40 million fundraise, streaming media company Plex is today announcing its expansion into a new business: a movie rentals storefront. The addition, which will initially be offered to U.S. customers, will give the streamer another means of generating revenue beyond its subscription products and ad-supported streaming -- a diversification that will prove critical as the ad market continues to be unpredictable.
At launch, the marketplace will offer movies from top studios, including WB, Paramount, MGM, Lionsgate and A24, which means Plex users will be able to rent titles like "Barbie," "Wonka," "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," "Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning," "The Color Purple," "Expend4bles," "PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie," "Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," "Mean Girls" and others. Plex says there will be just over 1,000 titles available to rent starting at $3.99, but the number of titles will grow over time. Titles will also move in and out of windows, so the number of rentals will fluctuate over time, as well. [...]
Once users rent a movie, they have 30 days to watch. After starting the rental, you'll have 48 hours to finish viewing it, similar to other marketplaces. The movie will also appear in the "Continue Watching" section on Plex's home screen if you don't finish watching it upon your first go. The company plans to add more studio partners to its movie rentals store over time, it says. [...] The new movie marketplace will launch across platforms, Plex notes, including its apps on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV/Google TV, Roku, smart TVs (LG, Hisense, Samsung, Sony, VIZIO), game consoles and Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.
At launch, the marketplace will offer movies from top studios, including WB, Paramount, MGM, Lionsgate and A24, which means Plex users will be able to rent titles like "Barbie," "Wonka," "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," "Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning," "The Color Purple," "Expend4bles," "PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie," "Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," "Mean Girls" and others. Plex says there will be just over 1,000 titles available to rent starting at $3.99, but the number of titles will grow over time. Titles will also move in and out of windows, so the number of rentals will fluctuate over time, as well. [...]
Once users rent a movie, they have 30 days to watch. After starting the rental, you'll have 48 hours to finish viewing it, similar to other marketplaces. The movie will also appear in the "Continue Watching" section on Plex's home screen if you don't finish watching it upon your first go. The company plans to add more studio partners to its movie rentals store over time, it says. [...] The new movie marketplace will launch across platforms, Plex notes, including its apps on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV/Google TV, Roku, smart TVs (LG, Hisense, Samsung, Sony, VIZIO), game consoles and Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.
Don't care (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Don't care (Score:3, Insightful)
They don’t care either. (Score:2)
Somewhere buried a dozen pages deep into the EULA, they probably give the re-definition of the term “lifetime”, in order to bring it in line with our new-and-improved definition of “free” we use today.
Gotta just love this new world we live in now where we just re-define everything until it strokes the right egos and payrolls. I feel for the kid just learning the English language these days. A dictionary will be considered “racist” soon.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
BS like this is why I, as a lifetime plex pass holder, completely abandoned plex in 2019. I got sick of they constantly adding all of these new monetizations and never actually fixing any of the long standing issues. No one asked of tidal integration, no one asked for ad supported content, no one asked for a digital move rental system.
Re: Don't care (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah what a terrible idea for a "rental" plan. If you've ever rented a movie for kids, you know they'd want to watch it 4-5 times.
rent starting at $3.99.....lololol (Score:1, Troll)
Oh boy! (Score:4, Insightful)
More features I don't want that will be unreasonably difficult, or impossible, to turn off!
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None of Plex's features have in any way been difficult or impossible to turn off.
"Streamer Plex" WTF ? (Score:3)
We're talking about a software company that's known for their self-hosted server software, not for whatever generic ad supported TV streams you could get otherwise in 5 other places for free if you have nothing better to do.
"will prove critical as the ad market continues to be unpredictable" - who cares about the streaming, I mean sure if they make an extra buck from it (as it was surely the plan), whatever, if not just axe it and that's it, most customers weren't thrilled about it anyway. It's paid software (either a relatively expensive lifetime subscription or a monthly one), most importantly there is no "piracy" to speak of (as in people "pirating" Plex itself) as it calls the mothership (and on the other hand the resources for authentication and metadata aren't breaking the bank for sure). If they let the software development on life support (as it is anyway except for the new ads, renting, and whatever else they want to put on top) I'm sure they can do just the regular support for next to nothing. It'll take a "special" kind of management to flop this, there's a solid base of customers and they're for better or worse by far number one in what they do.
Re:"Streamer Plex" WTF ? (Score:4, Insightful)
We're talking about a software company that's known for their self-hosted server software
You haven't looked at Plex at all in the past decade have you. No they haven't been what you've described in a very very long time.
History lesson for mods: (Score:4, Insightful)
To whomever modded this troll, have a history lesson: Around 2016 Plex entered the streaming business by acquiring Watchup and pivoted to being an on-demand content provider, not just a maker of a hope streaming server. Around the same time Plex launched Plex Cloud to move your content online so you didn't need to run Plex servers anymore. In 2018 Plex partnered with existing streaming services to provide users a single app from which to access multiple streams from different providers. In 2019 Plex partnered with Warner Brothers to bring their content to their own dedicated Plex streaming service. In 2019 Plex also started streaming TV shows and OTA content. In 2021 Plex announced that it plans to offer a one stop search for every streaming service you may be subscribed to make it easier to find something when you have multiple streaming services. In 2021 Plex also announced they were entering the online game business.
The distinctive feature that separates Plex from other online streaming services is that they don't produce their own content. The fact they offer a server now that you can use to add content to your Plex app that is hosted on your network is not "what they are known for" and hasn't been for a very very long time.
This is not your daddies Plex. The company fundamentally changed in the past decade. You can stick your head in the sand but modding reality "troll" doesn't make Plex anymore the company you knew a decade ago.
Re: History lesson for mods: (Score:3)
I only ever hear of plex being used to stream pirated stuff. Maybe they bought some streaming service that I have also never heard of. However I would have to guess it never gets used. So many companies do this, including Amazon- why would people choose to use their piracy-enabling app to buy content?
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I only ever hear of plex being used to stream pirated stuff.
That's ignorance talking. The Plex app does not enable any piracy. It is a streaming app that allows you to stream from many sources, your own Plex server being one such source. The Plex server can't pirate anything. It's a video player. You need to pirate something separately.
I search for a movie I see what I have on Plex server (legal content mind you, just because I have something on a HDD doesn't mean I didn't buy it on DVD, and format shifting is legal) alongside the movies from Netflix and Disney+, al
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Right, also you buy Playboys to read the articles.
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Not sure why you're being so obstinate. Plex is for streaming pirated content. This "one-stop streaming" crap is a strange and unwanted attempt to trick people into accidentally generating ad revenue from clueless family members sharing the service. Maybe you really are a troll...
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No Plex is a streamer. That's not obstinate. You can stream what you like from plenty of legal sources. You can stream from your own server full of your own legal sources. If your Plex is streaming pirated content it is because you are pirating content and putting it on your Plex server. That has zero to do with Plex. You are truly clueless.
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One can do 10,001 things with Windows OS too, and yet it’s still just a windows OS. If the Plex software of today still offers the same streaming and local storage of yesteryear, then it’s still daddies Plex.
If you jump on Slashdot right now everyone will tell you Windows 7 was the last great Windows OS and that Windows is fundamentally a system for collecting telemetry. Despite the fact that both versions of Windows contain Notepad it doesn't make them the same.
Back well over a decade ago Plex as a standalone media streamer. Try following a guide for setting it up from back in the day and see how far you get. You'll probably stumble at step one when Plex of today forces you to log in to your online Plex accoun
And it's better because...? (Score:1)
Anybody using such things from Plex? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Haven’t tried the rentals, but I tried watching Gravity in their free-with-ads part of the app one time, just to see what the experience was like. I had to stop after 30 minutes because the ads absolutely ruined the experience of building and relieving tension that you expect in film.
I’m fine with having another option for rentals, and I do get a lot of use out of Plex for my own content, but ad-supported content puts a company’s incentives at odds with my interests, rather than in alignme
Internet required (Score:2)
What other streaming type software has an "app" for smart tvs? I only know of Plex. I'd dump Plex in heartbeat if I could find one. I dumped a streaming services as they have gone the way of cable TV, ads, ads, ads, ads.
Re: (Score:2)
Strange.
I've watched my Plex offline plenty of times, it's the best thing to watch in a powercut.
You just go to the direct web interface on the device, rather than through the Plex app, or app.plex.tv etc.
Sure, I'd like an open-source version of Plex, but there isn't one that's quite the same, at least there wasn't a few years ago when I looked. And I've paid for Plex now. Until it does something I absolutely don't want it doing, I'm sticking with it.
My Plex has lived on a Netgear NAS and now lives on a R
Re: (Score:2)
Once Plex started trying to charge me for casting to my SONOS devices I moved to emby.
https://emby.media/index.html [emby.media]
They do have some smart TV support:
https://emby.media/community/i... [emby.media]
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A page that requests notifications immediately upon first load for a new visitor?
And is, on the face of it, no different from the way Plex operates?
No thanks.
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Ho and Hum (Score:2)
Who cares? I don't. Plex is on the enshitification war path adding features and services no one asked for nor really wants all in the name of "more, more, more is better". When the AntiVirus crowd did this one and two decades ago I dropped them for being too bloated and stupid. The very same could apply here if they push it too much. Emby and Jellyfin prove that there are other options that will eventually be less painful to use and less advertising-crap-infested for the average user. Next platform pl