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Wow it's 2017 and they still haven't understood this. Nobody will pay for a Disney service, a HBO service, a Netflix Originals service, an Amazon Originals serv

Wow it's 2017 and they still haven't understood this. Nobody will pay for a Disney service, a HBO service, a Netflix Originals service, an Amazon Originals service, .. Not because people can't afford it, Americans happily paid $120 for cable, but simply because the balkanization throws convenience out of the window and nobody wants to deal with that.

timfrietas 9y ago
People said the same thing about HBO and Hulu and Amazon. Add Netflix and ESPN/Disney and we are still talking less than the average cable bill. Addendum: I think you updated your comment as I replied with the note on balkanization, but subscriptions are "set it and forget it"--it's why paper magazines still exist.
- AnotXOR 9y ago
  There are so many subscription providers now on Amazon it's ridiculous, although it seems we're moving much closer to true ala carte options than with traditional cable.
BryantD 9y ago
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/13/hbo-now-subscriber-growth-is-accelerating.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/13/hbo-now-subscriber... > Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes announced that the company surpassed 2 million domestic HBO Now subscribers during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. He later added that subscriptions tripled in 2016 compared to the end of 2015, which implies closer to 2.4 million subscribers. That's a fraction of Netflix's US subscriber base, but it's not nobody.
pwinnski 9y ago
People absolutely are paying for separate services. There's a limit to how many, but many, many people are paying for Netflix + HBO, or Amazon + HBO, because they believe HBO delivers value for the money. In contrast, I suspect very few people are likely to sign up for the CBS service, Star Trek or not, because I don't think many people believe CBS delivers value for the money. Disney is banking on people believing they deliver value for the money. For parents of young children, maybe they do. Certainly more than "nobody" will agree.
- fasdfdsafas 9y ago
  Hopefully Star Trek will give me a reason to start torrenting TV shows again, but I know I shouldn't get my hopes up.
- jff 9y ago
  I'm glad to see someone bring up Star Trek and CBS's streaming service. They seem to think the new Trek series will save CBS All Access; I would contend that CBS All Access will kill their Trek series. I've heard from people who tried it, they said the stream quality is terrible from both an audio and video perspective. If you're going to bet on your own streaming platform, you really shouldn't cheap out on the tech.
- chris_7 9y ago
  I'm interested to see what will happen to HBO Now subscriptions after next summer. Will it be sticky enough?
ashark 9y ago
My thoughts on best strategies given this ongoing fragmentation: 1) Subscribe to only one or two services at a time. Binge the stuff you missed while you weren't subscribed, then drop it and switch. Works if you don't care about discussing stuff with people as it airs. Less good if many of the services penalize short-term subscriptions. 2) Abandon digital-delivery TV/Movies. Use the friggin' library, and spend what you would have on streaming buying discs instead. Downside: storing stuff sucks, library less convenient than streaming but honestly we're talking about giant wasteful time sinks to begin with so oh well. 3) Just pirate. If there's stuff not commercially available that you want you'll be doing this anyway, and it's barely more effort/expense to maintain the hard drives, backups, and playback infra for a handful of your shows/movies than it is to do so for all your shows/movies.
- norea-armozel 9y ago
  I wonder how long until the big media companies start squeezing libraries for more pennies than they already lack.
- schraitle 9y ago
  #1 is my current method of dealing with all the content out there. I keep a list of movies/shows on each platform that I'm interested in watching. When the size of the list grows to a critical mass for a given platform, I'll subscribe for a month or two and binge them all. I wonder if companies like HBO plan for this type of usage and schedule their shows to start and end at times that would necessitate paying for an extra month of service.
Mindwipe 9y ago
Disney already did this in other territories, such as the UK. People did deal with it. Which is why they're expanding it.

timfrietas 9y ago

People said the same thing about HBO and Hulu and Amazon. Add Netflix and ESPN/Disney and we are still talking less than the average cable bill. Addendum: I think you updated your comment as I replied with the note on balkanization, but subscriptions are "set it and forget it"--it's why paper magazines still exist.

AnotXOR 9y ago
There are so many subscription providers now on Amazon it's ridiculous, although it seems we're moving much closer to true ala carte options than with traditional cable.

BryantD 9y ago

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/13/hbo-now-subscriber-growth-is-accelerating.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/13/hbo-now-subscriber... > Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes announced that the company surpassed 2 million domestic HBO Now subscribers during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. He later added that subscriptions tripled in 2016 compared to the end of 2015, which implies closer to 2.4 million subscribers. That's a fraction of Netflix's US subscriber base, but it's not nobody.

pwinnski 9y ago

People absolutely are paying for separate services. There's a limit to how many, but many, many people are paying for Netflix + HBO, or Amazon + HBO, because they believe HBO delivers value for the money. In contrast, I suspect very few people are likely to sign up for the CBS service, Star Trek or not, because I don't think many people believe CBS delivers value for the money. Disney is banking on people believing they deliver value for the money. For parents of young children, maybe they do. Certainly more than "nobody" will agree.

fasdfdsafas 9y ago
Hopefully Star Trek will give me a reason to start torrenting TV shows again, but I know I shouldn't get my hopes up.
jff 9y ago
I'm glad to see someone bring up Star Trek and CBS's streaming service. They seem to think the new Trek series will save CBS All Access; I would contend that CBS All Access will kill their Trek series. I've heard from people who tried it, they said the stream quality is terrible from both an audio and video perspective. If you're going to bet on your own streaming platform, you really shouldn't cheap out on the tech.
chris_7 9y ago
I'm interested to see what will happen to HBO Now subscriptions after next summer. Will it be sticky enough?

ashark 9y ago

My thoughts on best strategies given this ongoing fragmentation: 1) Subscribe to only one or two services at a time. Binge the stuff you missed while you weren't subscribed, then drop it and switch. Works if you don't care about discussing stuff with people as it airs. Less good if many of the services penalize short-term subscriptions. 2) Abandon digital-delivery TV/Movies. Use the friggin' library, and spend what you would have on streaming buying discs instead. Downside: storing stuff sucks, library less convenient than streaming but honestly we're talking about giant wasteful time sinks to begin with so oh well. 3) Just pirate. If there's stuff not commercially available that you want you'll be doing this anyway, and it's barely more effort/expense to maintain the hard drives, backups, and playback infra for a handful of your shows/movies than it is to do so for all your shows/movies.

norea-armozel 9y ago
I wonder how long until the big media companies start squeezing libraries for more pennies than they already lack.
schraitle 9y ago
#1 is my current method of dealing with all the content out there. I keep a list of movies/shows on each platform that I'm interested in watching. When the size of the list grows to a critical mass for a given platform, I'll subscribe for a month or two and binge them all. I wonder if companies like HBO plan for this type of usage and schedule their shows to start and end at times that would necessitate paying for an extra month of service.

Mindwipe 9y ago

Disney already did this in other territories, such as the UK. People did deal with it. Which is why they're expanding it.