The era of cheap streaming is officially over
The era of cheap streaming is officially over
To be completely fair, it's been over for a while. Even if you completely forget about infrastructure, between the endless wars for licenses, endless removals of content from platforms, shitty inconvenient apps, and regional locks, it's already a dying market.
On top of all of that, they're implementing the "don't you have 5 extra dollars" strategy, with skyrocketing monthly prices for each of these. If it was 15$ a month to watch anything, i would still pay. but it's 15$ for each of them, and they still serve you ads, and sell your data
Well, hell. I guess I'll go back to watching less and buying DVDs. I'm not watching commercials on a service I pay for. That's a non starter.
Worst comes to worse, I can dust off my eye patch, grab my parrot, and take to the high seas. I don't wanna, I prefer to pay for stuff, but ffs, if they can't be reasonable, I guess it's back to arrr me hearties.
🪢 Heave-ho! Thieves and beggars!
Never shall we die! 🏴☠️Jellyfin / Plex downloads 📈📈📈
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
“The advertising marketplace for streaming is picking up,” Iger told investors on the quarterly earnings call. “It’s more healthy than the advertising marketplace for linear television. We believe in the future of advertising on our streaming platforms, both Disney+ and Hulu.”
This is extremely important for them. Netflix's excellent deal for most of its streaming existence was obviously a thorn in the side of many other businesses. Even if streaming services can get you to pay an exorbitant amount of money on an ad-free tier, advertisers are frothing for the chance to advertise to you regardless. They want you to see their ads so badly. And let's not forget all the big tech companies, Netflix included, were riding high during the free money days of 0% interest loans. Those days are over, and the bill is due. Wall Street wants its money. And we are all the ones who have to pay up. Cheap streaming is officially over.
This is why these companies, including Netflix, have all introduced ad tiers. Not only is it a great way for them to juice their revenue streams, but also every other company wants a permanent residence in your brain, and then some. Given the way things have been going since duo-eras of the COVID pandemic and corporate profit-based inflation, they don't even need to collude on prices. All the execs need to do is look at the business press and say, "Hey, they're getting away with increased prices and password sharing crackdowns. We can do the same thing. The pay pigs keep paying!"
It’s an ironic end to the streaming wars. After pouring billions and billions of dollars into constructing supposedly revolutionary streaming platforms, and decimating the business models that had offered the industry stability for decades, the ultimate product looks awfully similar to what companies and consumers were trying to break free from in the first place.
I'll still take streaming any day over cable.
No contract and you can put everything in rotation. Sign up for a month, binge, cancel, next.
I realized a year or so ago (after a letter from my isp) that I didn’t actually need to torrent anymore. There are websites like bflix.io (and I’m sure many others) that have basically everything streaming for free. Fuck subscriptions. Would maybe go back to torrenting if I got a vpn sorted out, but you’re not gonna get in trouble for streaming shit on a pirate website, so for now it’s the best solution I’ve found. Certainly not paying any of these assholes. Lol. Fuck outta here with that.
We came back to another cycle of big corporations forgetting they have to be more convenient than pirating.
Can't speak for anyone else, but just having an actual no logs VPN for less than the cost of one streaming service while also using qbittorrent with the torrent site search function is so much more convenient than spending probably hundreds at this point for streaming services I might only watch anything on once a blue moon.
I think I'm gonna go sailing the seven seas again.
Around 2010 there was this "pledge" where a website people basically collected a list of things they'd require in order to stop pirating tv shows and movies and I think it came down to:
Provide easy access to large library Provide multi language support, must offer original language Allow downloads/offline viewing Be reasonably priced
Plus some additional stuff I can't remember.
When Netflix got big, they basically covered it all. Then everyone wanted a piece of the pie.
Back to piracy then. 15$ for put.io ✨🙏
I don't know, my stremio app and torrent client is still working. The era of cheap streaming may be over, but the era of free streaming never ended!
The era of free streaming is still going strong.
sings Farewell and adieu to you greedy streamers.
Farewell and adieu, to you subscription pains
For we're now returning to the torrents of the pirates
and we may ner see you curs'd streamers againWe'll post and we'll flame like true software pirates
we'll post and we'll flame, all over the net
Until we can find us an FTP server
And get all the slop that we're ach'n to getAnd that's me done with Disney+ - big price hikes and the removal of password sharing have killed the value in it.
Plus, I have such a massive backlog of things to watch, I wouldn't even notice.
I don't think the era of cheap streaming is over, on the contrary, it's greater than it's ever been.
My selfhosted Plex and Jellyfin are booming, and services like Netflix and Disney+ just made my family and friends to adopt the streaming services faster.
I stop paying two years ago and I've noticed no difference in quality or content.
Thanks Netflix for rekindling my love for the seven seas.
There's no way the model is sustainable once everyone starts their streaming platform.
Popcorn time :D
Cool, looks like it's time to revisit my streaming services again. We're on Disney+ legacy, which is great because we get like $8/month off with my credit card (Amex Everyday), but if they end that deal, I'll probably leave too.
Netflix is getting to be not worth it, so I'll probably go order some DVDs of TV shows my kids like, then cancel and see how that goes. We really don't watch all that much.
After seeing this many "arr"s here, I just letting y'all in the comments know that 1) you're my peeps 2) you're feckin beautiful 3) I stay seeding for you <3
My use of Kodi and debrid says otherwise.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The disruptive streaming model birthed by Netflix that dangled all-you-can-eat menus of films, shows, and endless entertainment without pesky advertisements for extraordinarily low prices came to an official close on Wednesday.
Disney boss Bob Iger announced during the company’s quarterly earnings report that the Magic Kingdom will once again hike Disney+ prices for the second time in less than a year, increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan $3 to $13.99 in October.
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
When Netflix first offered its pioneering service for only $8 a month, millions of people signed up, eager to have access to the company’s expansive catalog for just a fraction of the cost of the traditional cable bundle.
That served as the genesis of the streaming era, with legacy entertainment companies such as Disney racing to launch their own direct-to-consumer products at unsustainably low costs.
Couple that reality with the introduction of ads into streaming and the end product eerily resembles on-demand cable.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Time to get the old torrent box going agaian
I just use stremio and I can stream while I torrent, for free.
No, thanks.. As long as I can download whatever I want whenever I want (add it to nas and watch through Kodi having like Netflix experience), there is no way that those people will get my money. Most of it is just bullshit anyway. And if I like or want to support some quality release I'll go to cinema.
Rising prices is just the first stage of enshittification
Permanently Deleted
🏴☠️⛵💪
these numbers are nearly reaching the point where buying seasons of shows on iTunes, which always seemed insanely expensive, becomes the better option for people who watch specific stuff. never thought I’d see the day
They want >$100 a month to come out with maybe one movie and maybe two TV shows worth watching each year? No thanks, piracy for me has become more of a means to assuage my fear of missing out and keeping in touch with the cultural moment than actual enjoyment of the media they're putting out right now.
I do not believe the quality would go down if their budgets were cut significantly.
Well, I've canceled everything. Even amazon prime. All I had left was youtube premium and prime. Canceled both this month. Premium stops in a few days and prime will finish out the year. I canceled Netflix something kike 2 years now. I'm back to being a pirate at this point.
Time to dust off the old pirate hat...
I am currently getting my pirating machine back online. To many shows that are not availible on my usual streaming services.
Not sure what the angle of the article is (commenting before reading), but before we even get to the cost of individual services, I became disillusioned with streaming after Final Space was obliterated from existence for a tax write-off, and then hearing about what Disney pulled with Willow, and most recently the un-ordering of a whole second season of Star Trek Prodigy.
Arrrrrrr mateys sail on in the water of the high seas is fine!
They pushed the boundaries people paid up so here we go keep paying
yaaaaarrr tis cheaper than eva matey
🎶do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!🎶
Again? How many times has it ended now?