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Television

Streaming Execs Think TV's Future Looks a Lot Like Its Past (techcrunch.com) 106

An anonymous reader shares a report: We're at a transitional moment in streaming -- user growth is slowing and major players are looking to consolidate, but the long-promised dream of profitability finally seems within reach (especially if you're Netflix). The perfect time, then, for The New York Times to interview many of the industry's big names -- including Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Amazon's Prime Video head Mike Hopkins, and IAC chairman Barry Diller -- about what they think comes next.

There seemed to be broad agreement on most of the big themes: More ads, higher prices, and fewer big swings on prestige TV. These changes are all united by the shift towards profitability, rather than growth-at-all-costs. If the initial prices of many streaming services seemed unsustainably low at launch, it turns out they were -- prices have been steadily rising, while the streamers have also introduced more affordable subscription tiers for viewers who are willing to watch ads. In fact, some execs told The Times that streamers will keep raising prices for the ad-free tiers with the aim of pushing more customers to sign up for ad-supported subscriptions instead. The growth of ad-supported streaming could also affect the kinds of movies and shows that get produced, since advertisers generally want to reach a mass audience -- think of the heyday of ad-supported network TV, with its endless shows about doctors and cops, compared to the more ambitious fare on subscription-supported HBO.

Streaming Execs Think TV's Future Looks a Lot Like Its Past

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  • Have not noticed that in a long time...

  • by The Cat ( 19816 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:00PM (#64573855)

    TV doesn't have a future if they don't hire some writers.

  • by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:02PM (#64573863)

    think of the heyday of ad-supported network TV, with its endless shows about doctors and cops,

    No way I'm going back to that. Hundreds of the exact same show with the same characters. I'll pass on that. May as well just watch YouTube or Twitch at that point.

    • Re:No way (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:33PM (#64573961) Journal

      I've rediscovered reading in a big way. Second hand bookstores and Project Gutenberg is the antidote to advertising.

      • no mod points, but yes. exactly.
        Reading is great, listening to music is pretty good too!
      • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

        Can you recommend anything with good character development and no drama for drama's sake? I can deal with character deaths once in a while but that's about it :D.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          "Drama for drama's sake?" Do you mean "plot"?

        • Kim Harrison's books are generally good. And the cover art isn't bad either.

          The unfortunate thing about the majority of today's books is they center around magic and medieval type settings. There is not a tremendous amount of sci-fi books coming out.

          • "Zorgon the evil dragon is slain by our hero but the evil witch Zara has her own plans to take over the realm of Mordemon and enslave the population with her magic.." I wonder how many variants of this before the genre gets boring and irritating?" Maybe it's time to delve deeper into more realistic medieval plots such as diseases we don't even think about today wiping out most of a continent and open sewage canals full of human waste running right down the main village street. mmmm
        • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher), or if you don't mind only a modest amount of character development, but packed a lot of humor and solid storytelling, the Liturgical Mysteries series by Mark Schweizer.

        • The greatest character novel in history; Pride and Prejudice. In general I always recommend Jane Austen. Despite writing during their Regency period, her prose is just so damned readable, her characters well-drawn without ponderous amounts of exposition. She had an eye for the human condition that I'm not sure has ever been matched.

          Right now I'm more into history. I'm reading Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews, which, sadly, has enormous amounts of drama often ending in death.

      • Check out Better World Books for a great place to find used books at very reasonable prices.

    • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      I'd rather endlessly doom scroll algorithmically recommended videos on tiktok, instagram, X, or facebook before doing that, again.

      Mostly, I've been reading and sleeping, or writing if I'm not doing that, and don't really particularly miss the subscriptions.

      The quality of the media (shows and movies) has been horrible for years, and the last great effort the streaming services put into creating original content a couple years ago was the end of it. One or two 'big name' productions where they've put effort i

  • by Talon0ne ( 10115958 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:03PM (#64573867)

    Great... at least I could skip commercials with a DVR. Now you're forced to sit and watch stupid ads, and pay for the privilege.

    Not only that but these new 8 episode 'seasons' is absolutely killing good concepts. Wait a year to watch 8 episodes? How did shows in the 90's pull it off with 20+?

    • by Shakrai ( 717556 )

      How did shows in the 90's pull it off with 20+?

      They paid the writers and actors real money, both during and after (via residuals) production, which is precisely what the studios are trying to avoid with 8 to 10 episode seasons and shows that get killed off before they become popular.

      • Also the fact that like video games and movies the concept of the "midsize-production" has dissapeared. Either you are working on something small scale or it's full bore "prestige" with $50M+ an episode budgets.

        When I think back to the 20+ season dramas of the 90's I think "ST: The Next Generation" or "The X-Files" which when you watch today are still good but also that 85% of the scenes are simply people in a room talking and the effects are really interspersed in. While you had your occasional big setpi

        • by Shakrai ( 717556 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:47PM (#64574011) Journal

          Interesting that you mention Star Trek: The Next Generation; my partner and I have been rewatching it. It's amazing how many of the SFX scenes have aged extraordinary well (the remaster surely doesn't hurt in that regard) but likewise, how many times you can clearly see a stuntman stand in for one of the lead cast, or, how often we've caught sight of boom mikes or other obvious signs of television production. Most of the times it's just a shadow that gives it away but occasionally you can see an entire boom mike, or, a bulge under the form fitting uniforms from a remote mic.

          Most striking is how well most of the episodes have aged compared to what passes as "Star Trek" these days (looking at you Discovery and Picard) in the streaming era. Even the much maligned Seasons 1 and 2 were better in the aggregate than any Discovery or Picard season. They didn't have a fraction of the budget or technology so they told a lot more story with dialogue and acting. The need for commercial breaks and strict adherence to runtime kept the episodes well paced and left a lot for the viewer to fill in for themselves. Nothing was told you to with tediously long exposition pieces written for morons but instead from glances, facial expressions, and body language, you know, ACTING, on the part of the cast and guest stars.

          They had so many (26) episodes per season, they solicited ideas from the audience. You can see this in a few episodes that have credits like "Developed from a story written by...." Some of those episodes went on to rank amongst the series best, including Yesterday's Enterprise. That would NEVER happen in today's Hollywood.

          • how many times you can clearly see a stuntman stand in for one of the lead cast, or, how often we've caught sight of boom mikes or other obvious signs of television production.

            Oh do I have a video for you then:

            Mr. Plinkett's Super Happy Fun Star Trek: The Next Generation Mistakes Video [youtube.com]

            Yeah for sure on TNG has a timless quality I think is actually benefitted by it's very flat lighting which was done for budget but today has a distict stylistic quality to it (The Orville does a nice job grabbing from this compared to current-Trek).

            Also great point with how they did stories back then with more "writer for hire" stories like TOS and older sci-fi was pulp writers submitting their own

            • Funny you mentioned the lighting.. And the parent mentioned "Yesterdays Enterprise", I just watched that episode last night. It's stark how the Wrong Timelines lighting was so dark - just like STD...

    • by Altus ( 1034 )

      Lets be honest, the quality in those shows was much lower and there was a lot of filler to get to those 20+ episode seasons.

      But at the same time, I so frequently find a season 2 coming out for something I enjoyed but it has been so long since I watched the last season (only 8 episodes) that I don't really remember where things left off and who is who and the previously on is often kind of wanting when these seasons take so long to produce. With the impact of the strikes a lot of things are coming out 2 yea

      • >>Lets be honest, the quality in those shows was much lower and there was a lot of filler to get to those 20+ episode seasons.

        True. I can't even remember the last time I saw a clip show. It was probably on The Simpsons (though they are still doing 20+ episode seasons).

        • I don't recall StarTrek ever doing a clip show, but StarGate was famous for them.

          • Season two when Riker is injured and he’s being worked on in sickbay.

            • Technically the TOS 2-part episode "Menagerie" is a also clip show. It used clips from the never-aired pilot episode so I'll forgive it, but it still has that awkward clip show format.

            • I think I repressed that one. Season 3 was when TNG started to find its stride.

              • No argument that S3 was Peak TNG but I was surprised by how many gems there were in S1 and S2 on a recent rewatch. Skipped over them forever but finally resolved to watch the show in order. Even the stinker episodes are more "Trek" than much of the crap Discovery and Picard shoved down our throats. Neither of those shows produced anything remotely as good as "Measure of a Man", "11001001", or "Q, Who?" Some of the lesser regarded episodes, e.g., "The Naked Now" or "Justice", yeah, they're silly, but as
            • That clip episode happened because of a writerâ(TM)s strike. Wasnâ(TM)t intentional.
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              TNG also reused a lot of establishing shots of the ship, as was and remains fairly normal. The bridge was the old movie Enterprise set redressed, IIRC. They re-used a lot of movie special effects too, like explosions, Klingon ships, starbase models and shots etc. Lots of props as well.

              It continued into the Voyager era, where much of the impetus to do Borg stories was because they had a load of costumes and props left over from the First Contact movie. In fact large parts of Voyager were just "how can we rec

        • >>Lets be honest, the quality in those shows was much lower and there was a lot of filler to get to those 20+ episode seasons.

          True. I can't even remember the last time I saw a clip show. It was probably on The Simpsons (though they are still doing 20+ episode seasons).

          It's not even about filler episode so much as the style of show.

          Prior to streaming most TV shows were episodic, there might be a season long main plot, but the individual episodes were self-contained stories. A viewer could drop in after skipping a season or two and the show would still work since things hadn't changed much. Can you imagine doing that with something like Stranger Things? You couldn't even skip an episode without getting lost. The only similar things back then were mini-series, but those wer

          • Yeah, it's hard to make a comic book into a real story.

            But before simpletons decided what programming to show the even stupider simpletons, "hour-long" episodes were as long as 52 minutes. Some series' had 35+ episodes per season and no trouble filling time because the writers were creating content for people who had attention spans not measurable by an egg timer.

            The fact that such things can't happen on broadcast TV any longer speaks to the decreasing intelligence of the viewers. Sad but true. Being born

            • Yeah, it's hard to make a comic book into a real story.

              But before simpletons decided what programming to show the even stupider simpletons, "hour-long" episodes were as long as 52 minutes. Some series' had 35+ episodes per season and no trouble filling time because the writers were creating content for people who had attention spans not measurable by an egg timer.

              The fact that such things can't happen on broadcast TV any longer speaks to the decreasing intelligence of the viewers. Sad but true. Being born after 1990 automatically places one in the less intelligent television viewer category.

              Yeah... bad look repeatedly insulting people's intelligence while misunderstanding the point and actually getting things backwards.

              No one, outside of soap operas, were actually making those 35+ episode seasons with episode to episode continuity and changes. The episodes were standalone so they could later hit syndication and be shown in any order.

              The Sopranos was one of the first "long form" television series where they had real plot advancement between episodes, and they did 13 episode seasons.

              Long form te

      • That's how I feel about 'House of the Dragon'... I just don't care, though I remember it was ok-ish.

    • by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @02:59PM (#64574193)

      How did shows in the 90's pull it off with 20+?

      One thing is the lack of syndication in streaming today. It's the big part of the old model that has basically vanished in the current model. Basically production companies sold shows to network at a break-even cost, sometimes at a slight loss, sometime (for popular shows) they might make an OK profit. The idea was shows that hit that could hit the 80-100 episode count would get sold into syndication where the production company would make the majority of their profit on the show. So it benefited them to have long seasons. And since broadcast TV is linear, the networks wanted shows to cover their broadcast seasons so they liked the 13+back 9 system as well.

      Today shows are basically financed up front, which makes them a hell of a lot more expensive. Streamers are also shooting for high-production values and getting bigger named actors involved, so shorter episode counts help with all of that (working on a show can be much more work schedule wise for the actors involved compared to doing movies).

      • by hawk ( 1151 )

        "seasons" predate viable syndication. half a year of weekly episodes isn't what they started with. Rather, it drizzled down to that. ("Hey, we dan rerun *all* the episodes." It reached or approached that by the end of the 60s. I think Star Trek was just a couple ave that each season, for example.

        And *then* they discovered the joy of syndication, particularly with shows (e.g., Gilligan's Island) for which they didn't have to pay residuals.

        And then there was the discovery that 100 or so episodes was the

    • >"Great... at least I could skip commercials with a DVR. Now you're forced to sit and watch stupid ads, and pay for the privilege."

      Exactly. This is why I still use cable and a DVR (TiVo). And have for decades. It is a usable experience. I *will not* watch forced content but can deal with skipping through stuff. And there is some really good content....

      However, the good to bad content ratio is getting worse and worse every year. Part of it is because of "reality TV" takeover. And I think another pa

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I've taken to just grabbing stuff from The Pirate Bay and buying the box sets if I like it. Most of the streaming apps refuse to work on VPNs and I can't be bothered to turn mine off just for them. I'd pay for an ad and DRM free download, but they don't offer those, so I have to wait for the discs. I never even remove the plastic wrap, I just download a rip someone else has made and checked, uses less electricity that way.

      • Agreed.

        I record loads of TV and have done so for years. I also collect my preffered shows as DVD/blu-ray box sets as well as movies too.

        When terrestrial TV is switched off I'll largely just revist those recordings and stuff in my collection. I have loads of stuff to watch.

        I do watch Netflix and Amazon Prime for the odd current shows and they are useful for watching things like Anime which I'm never going to see broadcast and may not wish to have physically.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Great... at least I could skip commercials with a DVR. Now you're forced to sit and watch stupid ads, and pay for the privilege.

      Not only that but these new 8 episode 'seasons' is absolutely killing good concepts. Wait a year to watch 8 episodes? How did shows in the 90's pull it off with 20+?

      The reason is budget, when it costs millions per episode, you're going to reduce the number of episodes. Game of Thrones cost US$6-15 million per ep, depending on season.

      I suggest you go back and watch series from the 90s with 20 eps and tell me how many were good. I can tell you how they did 20 episodes per season, fillers. Things like character episodes, clip episodes, holodeck episodes, episodes where they went back in time to the modern day to save on special effects episodes, *shudder* Christmas epi

    • > Great... at least I could skip commercials with a DVR. Now you're forced to sit and watch stupid ads, and pay for the privilege.

      They didnt like you doing that. VHS, followed by the DVR was something they hated.

      Now sit back and take your medicine, they finally won. You could use an adblocker but then they will detect that and punish you.

      Black Mirror had an episode about this, you live in a box room where all the walls are screens and you must watch the mandated advertising. Close your eys and the adve

  • by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:13PM (#64573903)

    Well, Amazon's experiment didn't really resonate well with me. Started watching a half-assed show Saturday night, tolerated the initial 15-second ad, but then halfway through the 30-minute episode they had another minute and half of obnoxious ads. Wife and I immediately switched to Netflix and watched something else. If ad-infested content is the only option with streaming then we will cut it out. As it is, we only watch 4-5 hours a week.

    Maybe the tik-tok hipsters see it differently, but my time is worth much more than the value of the ads.

    • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:33PM (#64573959)
      Arr, I know where ye can find yer shows without ye ads, matey!
      • Well, that was enough to get both my wife and I to break out in laughter! A solution to every problem...

      • by pacinpm ( 631330 )

        Arr, I know where ye can find yer shows without ye ads, matey!

        That's exactly what I thought. This is also an answer for lack of syndication. To have access to every show on the market I would have to subscribe to dozens of streaming service. They really should create something like common coin to pay per show. If not I will just torrent what is missing from my subscribed platforms.

      • Ar, but we only sail in certain waters...

    • by jetkust ( 596906 )
      Pretty soon we'll play the Ads instead and get a minute and a half of show at the halfway mark.
    • Stream and rip my friend. Binge rip the series you want to watch and then pause or even cancel your subscription for 3-4 months.

      Hit their pocketbooks. They don't care about any negative feedback or lost customers because they're colluding are as an industry are the only game in town. Cancellations are meaningless to streaming companies. They lose some to a another service and gain a few from another.

      Stream and rip. Turn off the money faucet.

  • The Future is Here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ironicsky ( 569792 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:19PM (#64573917) Homepage Journal

    Back in the day, Netflix was great. It consolidated media content in to a single, cost effective platform.

    As all the big networks realized they could build their own OTT platforms (poorly, I might add), they stopped licensing content to Netflix, and launching their own.

    Now, you need to choose some or all of
    - Netflix
    - Prime
    - Disney+
    - Crave
    - Paramount+
    - Hulu
    - and others.

    Aside from Netflix, they all have ads now, even though you are paying a direct subscription fee.

    The logic in the old days was, Ads pay for the broadcast, and subscription fees support the infrastructure.

    Both cable companies and media companies got greedy.

    Now, the media companies have cut out cable companies for direct media distribution, but on top of paying a subscription fee + being forced to watch ads, we are still paying for infrastructure costs through internet plans.

    So, instead of being charged twice to consume media, we are being triple charged.

    Welcome to the future.
    Piracy is friendly again.

    • To add some context and history, I would point out that Netflix was only able to open the door to the streaming market because they were sending DVDs via USPS. The copyright cartels (aka the Big Six) had been hording their content with numerous attempts to try and bleed their customers via highly restricted services. Even though the advent of P2P sharing had opened the doors for customers being more than willing to host and stream digital content at their own expense, the cartels wanted to find ways to mo
    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      >Aside from Netflix, they all have ads now, even
      >though you are paying a direct subscription fee.

      Paramont-super-duper (or whatever they call it) doesn't have ads, at least on anything we've tried so far. Well, there is what is apparently the stub that only appears one enough to display the "you can skip in. . ." for a second or two.

      We currently have it as a six month freebie from Walmart+. The basic package has been part for years, but I found it unusable. Rewind ten seconds for some words you coul

  • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:32PM (#64573951)
    I'm old fashioned. I just want a show I enjoy that has been on for 8 seasons and stands to be on for 10 more and watch it regularly.
  • by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:33PM (#64573957)

    ...fewer big swings on prestige TV

    This strikes me as the biggest shame here. Hollywood has become so risk adverse it turns out a fraction of the decent movies it used to for me. For quite some time shows on streaming networks have been making up for this as many have enjoyed good budgets and writing, now it seems we're losing that as well.

  • Relying on a business to provide us with products and services was our first mistake.

    Something something our own streaming service something blackjack something hookers.

    • Something something our own streaming service something blackjack something hookers.

      Literally doable for years with a Plex/Emby/Jellyfin server. And despite some people saying that no one knows how to pirate content anymore, pirating is actually easier now than before with other tools.

      Also if you don't want to make your own Netflix you can choose to subscribe to a pirate streaming service and still come out with a better deal from a price and content selection standpoint.

  • And fewer big swings on prestige TV. Why would the consumer be on board with that? If streaming offers less value than pirating then back to the high seas I go.
    • by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:42PM (#64573999)

      You ask why the consumer would be on board with it, but that's asking the wrong question. These executives don't think in terms of people being people and expecting value for what they pay in. They see people as a solid block of available funding. Now, that block may grow or shrink, but the actions they take, the moves they make within their company, has, in their minds, zero affect on the block of available funding unless it's being manipulated with backroom deals between them and their chronies/buddies in some other boardroom. To them it's simply, "There is this much potential, and we need to gather as much of that potential as we can." They never have been able to put together the concept that raising prices will inevitably lead to less people purchasing the product, because the block is too large and they simply don't want to see negative results for their own actions. Therefore, "More ads, increased fees, less quality" to them is "increase revenue, increase revenue, decrease cost to produce" which is "win, win, win" and has no negative possible outcome.

      Greed is God. Profit above all. Logic need not apply until it smashes them in the face like a brick hurled by hurricane force winds.

    • And fewer big swings on prestige TV. Why would the consumer be on board with that? If streaming offers less value than pirating then back to the high seas I go.

      Most consumers have no idea how to pirate nor put p with some of challenges, they just want their TV.

      • Google can direct them. There're ads for that ;-)

  • by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:44PM (#64574003)

    Finally, we got "what we asked for" and got a la carte content. And now they're breaking that using the same methods they used the last time around. We've seen this movie before. I'm literally down to a single streaming service and now that Prime is injecting commercials I'll probably blow that off too.

    Wake me up when it's over.

    • One thing that has held so far was breaking up sports and news from other TV viewing.

      As individual sports get their own streaming services, it's a huge benefit over the days of having to subscribe to a bunch of sports channels showing a dozen or more different sports when you only really are interested in one or two. As someone who really dislikes news delivery via talking head or political talk shows consisting of people shouting over each other, I don't want to have to subsidize 24/7 news channels.

      Histori

  • by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @01:55PM (#64574031)

    No. Never. Ever. Period. No Exceptions
    I will pay for ad-free as long as the stuff I pay for is worth the price
    If not, I will find something else to do

    • by cshamis ( 854596 )
      Do TV execs think they have any influence over cord cutters? Or do they think they can afford to let them walk?
    • I agree, I stopped watching most ads before the DVR era. I'd record to tape and time shift, skipping the ads.

      I wonder about pricing and cost. Have we reached the point where we aren't just paying ad companies to support ad companies rather than pay for the show? Let's say there was a normal, ad-supported TV show. While it might have good ratings, it might not have the long tail revenue of Seinfeld or Big Bang Theory, so they want enough ad revenue to get 200% ROI from the first run and one repeat.
    • Same. I will watch TV with ads or not at all.

    • by jonwil ( 467024 )

      I subscribe to Disney+ here in Australia right now (on the standard plan since | only need it on my PC and I don't need anything above 1080p and stereo audio) and there is enough content on there (old and new) that I feel I am getting my moneys worth.

      The day Disney+ removes the option to buy a plan without ads is the day I drop Disney+

    • News I can use. Thank you so much.
      Next up, the "I don't own a TV guy."

  • Now I have to clean my keyboard. On the plus side, I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

  • If TV is going to go back to the past, so am I. Where's the good place to host seed boxes now?

  • I think they may be rather optimistic on the idea of reintroducing ads (at least the traditional TV ads that directly interrupt the boradcast). They have at least three problems:

    1) People have become accustomed to ad-free content, and very few are eager to switch back. Every once and a while I will visit someone's house (usually someone over 50) who still subscribes to linear TV with ads and find them incredibly jarring. There is already a generation being raised on TV without ads. Kids who are 10-15 years

    • Another issue is none of the services make use of a show's natural commercial breaks. They just algorithmically decide it's time to annoy the viewer and insert a commercial break. Many times this results in: start of an action; inserted commercial; completion of an action; coming-up-preview-announcement; episode recap; next commercial break. Ain't happening.

      • by chrish ( 4714 )

        I've seen this happen mid dialog on things like Stack TV.

        I wasn't even watching it (my wife was) and I was livid.

  • Viewers don't want to spendn$10- 15 extra a month to watch one or two decent series on anyone's streaming service And rhey sure as fuck fom't want commercials. Forcing consumers to add entire channels of steaming shit and advertising from a studio to their streaming subscription for a single series makes those new 12-20TB drives look very attractive. The studios have forgotten how piracy hurt them before and they need a reminder.

    Binge streaming into ripper app for a week or two will make that content local forever for the cost of some drive space and a month's streaming subscription. Stream and rip, then pause your subscription for 3-4 months. Hurting their bottom line is they only thing they'll notice. Your outraged emails and social media posts are nothing more than masturbation. They accomplish nothing

    I'm not advocating piracy. Just sanity. Charge a reasonable amount to view a series and profits will rise. Just like broadcast channels, streaming services are full of garbage shows. Stop forcing people to pay for shit they don't want. Let us pick our programming.

    MBAs and lawyers fuckaway everything they touch. Steel, textiles, automobiles, computer chips, etc. If there's a way to make a fast buck now, they'll fuck everything and everyone and the future to get that dollar.

    Hang them all.

    • >"Binge streaming into ripper app for a week or two will make that content local forever for the cost of some drive space and a month's streaming subscription. Stream and rip, then pause your subscription for 3-4 months."

      And instead of "learning their lesson" what they WILL do is one or more of the following:

      1) Start limiting the number of shows an account can watch to something they define is "reasonable" or "normal"
      2) Charge overages for what they define isn't "reasonable"
      3) Raise prices of monthly-onl

      • You're either terribly niave or very young.

        Before you begin by responding with ire at my assumptions, may I suggest you examine the history of torrents, USENET, and anonymous file sharing sites?

        If you still feel your statements about their reactions are pertiinent (no argument that they're valid) and want the to scream at me for my assessment of you, feel free. No one cares that the streamers will get bitchy at binger-ers anymore than they did when rhe music labels wanted a war. It was simply business as us

  • With plans as asinine as all that a new uptick in piracy is all but a certainty.
  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Monday June 24, 2024 @05:04PM (#64574587) Journal

    Go back to the founding father's copyright terms. 7 years, renewable to 14.

    Every show made before 2020 would today be free of copyright for any streaming service to provide, including Joe's Basement Streaming.

    Instant competition and shakeup of the streaming world would ensue.

  • atsc 3.0 may be on the path to pay tv over the air coming back like was in place in the 80's.

  • Sponsored content will result in lower quality content. Ads will result in me personally watching the amount of TV that I watched prior to ad free streaming services: None.
  • One of my streaming providers introduced ads in shows for the cheaper option and the so called ad free tier would show ads if you paused a show. I immediately unsubscribed as I won't tolerate this and I'll drop any other service that does this. We've had an ad free experience for so long that going back to even a short break is intolerable so increase prices if you must, but forget about ads.

    • You won't escape - shows are rife with blatant product placement to the point characters will have out of place dialogue praising products.

      And live video replacement technology already exists for broadcast sporting event billboards. It won't be long before TV shows have zones in sets intended to have current ads inserted into them regardless of when you stream them.

  • I think we about peaked at the amount of original ideas for content people will watch, and all there is left is plot rehashes and rearragements. "Suzy is jealous of Sally, has her killed/put in prison, detectives are on the case but stumble upon a terrorist bomb along the way..".and pumped out almost like fast food burgers. The only thing about left that may be considered original is really abstract shit but that typically does not attract mass audiences. Who wants to watch a swirl named GZYZXIZ bouncing e
  • Told them so!

    I'll stick to Freeview/Freesat as long as they transmit. After that I'm fine with my extensive dvd/bluray collection.

Science and religion are in full accord but science and faith are in complete discord.

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