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I picture a meta-service that manages this. When you click to play a show, it quickly and automatically signs you up for whichever service, and if you haven't w

I picture a meta-service that manages this. When you click to play a show, it quickly and automatically signs you up for whichever service, and if you haven't watched a show on that service for more than 2 weeks, it cancels your subscription. Presumably the problem would be that streaming sites might not like customers canceling their service 4 or 5 times per year.

adjkant 7y ago
> Presumably the problem would be that streaming sites might not like customers canceling their service 4 or 5 times per year. Maybe they "bundle" to avoid the constant cancelling.
- ineedasername 7y ago
  Sure, bundle, but it would probably be done by a 3rd party aggregator. Hard to imaging competing content providers joining forces, and anyway it could be seen as monopolistic market manipulation. This 3rd part would probably want some clever branding for this. All streaming generally enters the home through a wire, so maybe they call is Wire? Though big wires are often called a cable, so maybe they just call it Cable? :)
ALittleLight 7y ago
Provided cancelling ends your service at the next billing period you should always cancel immediately rather than wait 2 weeks.
- NikkiA 7y ago
  And if people start doing that they'll implement 'eary cancellation fees' just like the cell companies.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
godelski 7y ago
It's a better alternative than consumers turning to piracy. Let's be real, it's making a comeback because of this. The market is getting too saturated for everyone to charge $15/mo. Prices have to drop or another option is needed, or else we'll again see the piracy that Netflix "destroyed".
- Klathmon 7y ago
  Not to mention that there are still gaps in various TV shows on any online service. I can't remember the show, but a year or so ago I saw like seasons 1 to 3 on Netflix, season 4 was available on Amazon for $1.99 an episode, and the current season episodes 8 through current were available via a cable subscription's on demand service. So even if you paid for it all using multiple different services, you still couldn't legally watch the first 7 or so episodes of the show. I'm normally very against pirating, but I had absolutely no qualms about doing it there.
- colechristensen 7y ago
  I would much prefer a blanket ban on production and distribution in the same company. We would have none of these problems if Netflix couldn't produce its own shows and Disney couldn't make its own streaming service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures%2C_Inc https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_P....
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Would you also be okay if software developers couldn’t distribute their own software?
    - cannonedhamster 7y ago
      You mean software companies owning their own aggregator storefronts? Yes. I'd for banning Steam or Epic from both making games and owning the storefront if it meant Apple and Google had to give them up too. No one says music companies or even movie companies can't sell their own stuff on their own site. What they are saying is that just like the antitrust laws made it illegal for movie companies to also own the theaters, no one in thIe digital age should be able to vertically or horizontally monopolize either. I.E. The law that already exists should apply today too.
numakerg 7y ago
I thought about something similar in a previous post [0]. What if you ran a service that floated a large number of accounts and circulated logins for a larger number of users? At the moment it looks like sharing accounts is legal [1] but I'm sure the services would clamp down on it they thought it costs them money. 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20732231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20732231 1. https://www.androidauthority.com/netflix-account-sharing-1006693/ https://www.androidauthority.com/netflix-account-sharing-100...
- dmckeon 7y ago
  I would settle for a meta-recommendation service by subscription. Subscriber and housemates list 40 to 100 things they want to watch over the next few months to a year, and set a monthly video budget in money and time, and the service suggests: subscribe to streaming service A for N months & watch <list of shows>, and in some future month subscribe to service B and watch <list>, C, D, etc. with suggestion updates every month, and additions to the “want to watch” list whenever. Service subscription can overlap, of course. Viewers/subscribers get to watch what they want (and perhaps a bunch of other stuff from service A, B, etc.) As time passes, want-to-watch lists get longer, or pruned, and recommendations of other shows to explore, like TiVo or Netflix, can improve.
wmf 7y ago
Prime Video and maybe Apple TV are already close to this.
ptd 7y ago
Or maybe an arbitrage/all you can eat buffet where you pay x per month to watch y shows from z services?
jbigelow76 7y ago
I now think of HBO (for GoT/The Deuce/Silicon Valley) and Showtime (for Billions) now as billed toggle switches that get flipped every few months and not really as continuously available channels.
dwild 7y ago
It could even try to optimize the cost by buying/renting movies on others platforms like Google Play. I can get GoT season 8 for 23.99$ CAD on Google Play while it would cost me (and it did) 2 months of 19.98$ CAD service over Crave + HBO.

adjkant 7y ago

> Presumably the problem would be that streaming sites might not like customers canceling their service 4 or 5 times per year. Maybe they "bundle" to avoid the constant cancelling.

ineedasername 7y ago
Sure, bundle, but it would probably be done by a 3rd party aggregator. Hard to imaging competing content providers joining forces, and anyway it could be seen as monopolistic market manipulation. This 3rd part would probably want some clever branding for this. All streaming generally enters the home through a wire, so maybe they call is Wire? Though big wires are often called a cable, so maybe they just call it Cable? :)

ALittleLight 7y ago

Provided cancelling ends your service at the next billing period you should always cancel immediately rather than wait 2 weeks.

NikkiA 7y ago
And if people start doing that they'll implement 'eary cancellation fees' just like the cell companies.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

godelski 7y ago

It's a better alternative than consumers turning to piracy. Let's be real, it's making a comeback because of this. The market is getting too saturated for everyone to charge $15/mo. Prices have to drop or another option is needed, or else we'll again see the piracy that Netflix "destroyed".

Klathmon 7y ago
Not to mention that there are still gaps in various TV shows on any online service. I can't remember the show, but a year or so ago I saw like seasons 1 to 3 on Netflix, season 4 was available on Amazon for $1.99 an episode, and the current season episodes 8 through current were available via a cable subscription's on demand service. So even if you paid for it all using multiple different services, you still couldn't legally watch the first 7 or so episodes of the show. I'm normally very against pirating, but I had absolutely no qualms about doing it there.
colechristensen 7y ago
I would much prefer a blanket ban on production and distribution in the same company. We would have none of these problems if Netflix couldn't produce its own shows and Disney couldn't make its own streaming service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures%2C_Inc https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_P....
- scarface74 7y ago
  Would you also be okay if software developers couldn’t distribute their own software?
  - cannonedhamster 7y ago
    You mean software companies owning their own aggregator storefronts? Yes. I'd for banning Steam or Epic from both making games and owning the storefront if it meant Apple and Google had to give them up too. No one says music companies or even movie companies can't sell their own stuff on their own site. What they are saying is that just like the antitrust laws made it illegal for movie companies to also own the theaters, no one in thIe digital age should be able to vertically or horizontally monopolize either. I.E. The law that already exists should apply today too.

numakerg 7y ago

I thought about something similar in a previous post [0]. What if you ran a service that floated a large number of accounts and circulated logins for a larger number of users? At the moment it looks like sharing accounts is legal [1] but I'm sure the services would clamp down on it they thought it costs them money. 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20732231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20732231 1. https://www.androidauthority.com/netflix-account-sharing-1006693/ https://www.androidauthority.com/netflix-account-sharing-100...

dmckeon 7y ago
I would settle for a meta-recommendation service by subscription. Subscriber and housemates list 40 to 100 things they want to watch over the next few months to a year, and set a monthly video budget in money and time, and the service suggests: subscribe to streaming service A for N months & watch <list of shows>, and in some future month subscribe to service B and watch <list>, C, D, etc. with suggestion updates every month, and additions to the “want to watch” list whenever. Service subscription can overlap, of course. Viewers/subscribers get to watch what they want (and perhaps a bunch of other stuff from service A, B, etc.) As time passes, want-to-watch lists get longer, or pruned, and recommendations of other shows to explore, like TiVo or Netflix, can improve.

wmf 7y ago

Prime Video and maybe Apple TV are already close to this.

ptd 7y ago

Or maybe an arbitrage/all you can eat buffet where you pay x per month to watch y shows from z services?

jbigelow76 7y ago

I now think of HBO (for GoT/The Deuce/Silicon Valley) and Showtime (for Billions) now as billed toggle switches that get flipped every few months and not really as continuously available channels.

dwild 7y ago

It could even try to optimize the cost by buying/renting movies on others platforms like Google Play. I can get GoT season 8 for 23.99$ CAD on Google Play while it would cost me (and it did) 2 months of 19.98$ CAD service over Crave + HBO.