8 ms·

I predict that as content producers attempt to exert more control over how people consume media they will be met with a new "cord cutting" movement that will ci

by gardnr 7y ago

I predict that as content producers attempt to exert more control over how people consume media they will be met with a new "cord cutting" movement that will circumvent the systems put in place to exert such power. We will eventually settle on slow burn for everything with a value added fee on a per-show basis. A mix of the Spotify and the iTunes model, if you will. Unless, everyone gets so used to pirating things that they ignore the evolutions in pricing models and find it easier to just pirate content.

LocalH 7y ago
Piracy is the ultimate cord cutting method
- retbull 7y ago
 Getting more and more tempting over here. I am tired of my monthly video bills going higher and higher just to watch a couple of shows I like.
 - WilliamEdward 7y ago
 I've been pirating since age 11. You can have it set up so that it is essentially as easy as streaming netflix.
 - WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
 I used to pirate a lot but I just ended up finding a streaming site to watch the 5 or so movies that I like to watch. Just make sure to wear your internet condoms (VPN, Ublock, Ghostery)
 - dspillett 7y ago
 That is still piracy: you are knowingly taking part in unlicensed distribution. The networks don't care if you are downloading for later watching or streaming live, they just care if you are paying or not.
 - CameronNemo 7y ago
 Uploading is a criminal offense. Downloading is just civil (for now, that is).
- petepete 7y ago
 When the product is better (easier, cheaper, higher quality) it's bound to happen. When Netflix streaming (and Spotify, Steam) became popular it made consuming your favourite content easy, cheap and decent quality. Now, with so many competing platforms, watching your favourite shows is more expensive and more difficult (having to have loads of accounts and remember which show is where, etc). Piracy will bloom.
 - jkoudys 7y ago
 As a Canadian, it's definitely hte "remember which show is where" part that has me really disliking where streaming has gone in the past year. Time was I'd open Netflix and my shows were there. Now I have Netflix, Prime, and Crave, and sometimes I'll have the same show on two of them, but different seasons. Maybe I'll start using an aggregator that will launch the streaming service that has my show, which seems like what Netflix was originally supposed to be.
 - projproj 7y ago
 https://www.justwatch.com https://www.justwatch.com may be close to what you are imagining, though it's a bandaid over the problem you describe.
- paulddraper 7y ago
 Pirating is possible, but IMO takes a bit of work. Out of curiosity I looked to see if there were any bootlegged Beauty and the Beast (original) available for my kids to watch. Couldn't find anything that (1) worked and (2) worked with Chromecast.
Pxtl 7y ago
I wouldn't mind going back to buying stuff a la cart if it weren't for the fact that buying access to an individual season of an individual show costs more than an entire month of service at the buffet.
distances 7y ago
I'm myself going back in time and just last week got my first Blu-ray player. They, and the discs, are quite well priced now, often below streaming prices. I'll keep Netflix though, but won't be getting another service.
laumars 7y ago
These days it seems people are doing one of two things: 1. Sharing account details. eg four people in a circle of friends, one will have Netflix, another Prime Video, someone else will have Now TV and so on. And each of them will use the others account so all of them get access to all of the services. 2. Some of the more well off individuals or less socially connected will sign up to two or three services and pirate everything else. Whichever way you look at it, basically consumers have gotten fed up with the vendor lock ins and have gone back to sharing content. It has always been this way though. Even when VHS's were a thing, you'd get families which would share videos with each other. Sometimes those films and TV shows were just recorded straight off the TV. This is also why I think there is a culture where people don't care about downloading content because there has always been an understanding that it was fine to record stuff on the TV and radio for personal consumption back before the internet was in every home. The daft thing is the TV and film industry had a massive opportunity to disrupt this culture but instead their own greed has just encouraged people back into old habits. I know regulation isn't a popular topic on here but I do wonder if it's time someone stepped in and said "You guys need to start cooperating together!"
- derekp7 7y ago
  I have a couple primary services (Netflix, Hulu), then I will cycle through something else to binge-watch a season, cancel it and sign on to another service for other content one month at a time).
- Cd00d 7y ago
  How does one share Prime Video credentials without giving blanket access to one's Amazon account? Asking for a friend.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    You can add a “child” to your account and set it so you have to approve all purchases.
- kuschku 7y ago
  > 1. Sharing account details. eg four people in a circle of friends, one will have Netflix, another Prime Video, someone else will have Now TV and so on. And each of them will use the others account so all of them get access to all of the services. Sadly Disney is now lobbying to make that a crime
wayneftw 7y ago
Here's my reaction: I just stopped watching for the most part and started doing other things instead. If I'm not doing something active now and I just want to sit - I read the funny pages (reddit), I read hacker news, I find questions in my mind to research, I play video games, read a book, start a side-project and/or listen to some music. My wife still watches all sorts of garbage TV and if not for her I'd have cancelled cable a long time ago.
- RodgerTheGreat 7y ago
  I made a tool which wraps around youtube-dl to manage fine-grained subscription and automatic downloading of various youtube channels. When I want passive entertainment, I have a directory full of interesting, high-quality videos that cater to specific niches I like. The end result is much better than TV ever was- no ads, access whenever I want- even offline- and content made by passionate hobbyists rather than mass marketers. I feel much happier paying a handful of content creators via Patreon than spending money on a cable or streaming service subscription.
  - justsubmit 7y ago
    That sounds really interesting. How do you manage the library, especially in regard to storage limits, expiring old content, etc?
    - RodgerTheGreat 7y ago
      So far I just handle it manually. I've dialed in pretty good preferences for incoming content, (for example, using regex-based whitelists and blacklists to weed out material I'm not interested in from channels that aren't already organized into appropriate playlists) and when I browse the videos directory to find something to watch I delete things that have been sitting there a while which I don't expect to get around to. There would be a lot more work to do if I wanted to "product-ize" the tool, and periodically youtube breaks it by adding a new feature or moving something around. For personal use, though, it's very needs-suiting. The whole approach is also less of a tempting distraction than browsing youtube itself, so it's easier to manage how much time I spend watching videos. If I ever run out of content, I just go for a walk, or read a book!
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
krisgee 7y ago
We'll have another "piracy epidemic" where streaming services have hysterics and try to ban piracy. This will predictably not work as it hasn't the last few times. Someone will make purchasing content easy again and everyone will use that. Corporations will get involved, jack the prices up, throw in ads and try to invent cable again. Repeat.
subpixel 7y ago
Content producers have no voice, unless they are the owner which in many cases they are not. Case in point: all I want right now is to stream the award-winning film “Give me Liberty”. It is over a year old and available precisely nowhere. And when it comes available, the chances are high it’s not on one of the several competing services I pay for on a monthly basis.
tcbawo 7y ago
The movement towards streaming exclusively is probably intended to eliminate ambiguity and traceability from the pirated sources. I wouldn't be surprised if PII is/will be encoded into the content. Once media ownership has been phased out, content owners will start going after infringers.

by gardnr 7y ago

LocalH 7y ago

Piracy is the ultimate cord cutting method

retbull 7y ago
Getting more and more tempting over here. I am tired of my monthly video bills going higher and higher just to watch a couple of shows I like.
- WilliamEdward 7y ago
 I've been pirating since age 11. You can have it set up so that it is essentially as easy as streaming netflix.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
 I used to pirate a lot but I just ended up finding a streaming site to watch the 5 or so movies that I like to watch. Just make sure to wear your internet condoms (VPN, Ublock, Ghostery)
 - dspillett 7y ago
 That is still piracy: you are knowingly taking part in unlicensed distribution. The networks don't care if you are downloading for later watching or streaming live, they just care if you are paying or not.
 - CameronNemo 7y ago
 Uploading is a criminal offense. Downloading is just civil (for now, that is).
petepete 7y ago
When the product is better (easier, cheaper, higher quality) it's bound to happen. When Netflix streaming (and Spotify, Steam) became popular it made consuming your favourite content easy, cheap and decent quality. Now, with so many competing platforms, watching your favourite shows is more expensive and more difficult (having to have loads of accounts and remember which show is where, etc). Piracy will bloom.
- jkoudys 7y ago
  As a Canadian, it's definitely hte "remember which show is where" part that has me really disliking where streaming has gone in the past year. Time was I'd open Netflix and my shows were there. Now I have Netflix, Prime, and Crave, and sometimes I'll have the same show on two of them, but different seasons. Maybe I'll start using an aggregator that will launch the streaming service that has my show, which seems like what Netflix was originally supposed to be.
  - projproj 7y ago
    https://www.justwatch.com https://www.justwatch.com may be close to what you are imagining, though it's a bandaid over the problem you describe.
paulddraper 7y ago
Pirating is possible, but IMO takes a bit of work. Out of curiosity I looked to see if there were any bootlegged Beauty and the Beast (original) available for my kids to watch. Couldn't find anything that (1) worked and (2) worked with Chromecast.

Pxtl 7y ago

I wouldn't mind going back to buying stuff a la cart if it weren't for the fact that buying access to an individual season of an individual show costs more than an entire month of service at the buffet.

distances 7y ago

I'm myself going back in time and just last week got my first Blu-ray player. They, and the discs, are quite well priced now, often below streaming prices. I'll keep Netflix though, but won't be getting another service.

laumars 7y ago

These days it seems people are doing one of two things: 1. Sharing account details. eg four people in a circle of friends, one will have Netflix, another Prime Video, someone else will have Now TV and so on. And each of them will use the others account so all of them get access to all of the services. 2. Some of the more well off individuals or less socially connected will sign up to two or three services and pirate everything else. Whichever way you look at it, basically consumers have gotten fed up with the vendor lock ins and have gone back to sharing content. It has always been this way though. Even when VHS's were a thing, you'd get families which would share videos with each other. Sometimes those films and TV shows were just recorded straight off the TV. This is also why I think there is a culture where people don't care about downloading content because there has always been an understanding that it was fine to record stuff on the TV and radio for personal consumption back before the internet was in every home. The daft thing is the TV and film industry had a massive opportunity to disrupt this culture but instead their own greed has just encouraged people back into old habits. I know regulation isn't a popular topic on here but I do wonder if it's time someone stepped in and said "You guys need to start cooperating together!"

derekp7 7y ago
I have a couple primary services (Netflix, Hulu), then I will cycle through something else to binge-watch a season, cancel it and sign on to another service for other content one month at a time).
Cd00d 7y ago
How does one share Prime Video credentials without giving blanket access to one's Amazon account? Asking for a friend.
- scarface74 7y ago
  You can add a “child” to your account and set it so you have to approve all purchases.
kuschku 7y ago
> 1. Sharing account details. eg four people in a circle of friends, one will have Netflix, another Prime Video, someone else will have Now TV and so on. And each of them will use the others account so all of them get access to all of the services. Sadly Disney is now lobbying to make that a crime

wayneftw 7y ago

Here's my reaction: I just stopped watching for the most part and started doing other things instead. If I'm not doing something active now and I just want to sit - I read the funny pages (reddit), I read hacker news, I find questions in my mind to research, I play video games, read a book, start a side-project and/or listen to some music. My wife still watches all sorts of garbage TV and if not for her I'd have cancelled cable a long time ago.

RodgerTheGreat 7y ago
I made a tool which wraps around youtube-dl to manage fine-grained subscription and automatic downloading of various youtube channels. When I want passive entertainment, I have a directory full of interesting, high-quality videos that cater to specific niches I like. The end result is much better than TV ever was- no ads, access whenever I want- even offline- and content made by passionate hobbyists rather than mass marketers. I feel much happier paying a handful of content creators via Patreon than spending money on a cable or streaming service subscription.
- justsubmit 7y ago
  That sounds really interesting. How do you manage the library, especially in regard to storage limits, expiring old content, etc?
  - RodgerTheGreat 7y ago
    So far I just handle it manually. I've dialed in pretty good preferences for incoming content, (for example, using regex-based whitelists and blacklists to weed out material I'm not interested in from channels that aren't already organized into appropriate playlists) and when I browse the videos directory to find something to watch I delete things that have been sitting there a while which I don't expect to get around to. There would be a lot more work to do if I wanted to "product-ize" the tool, and periodically youtube breaks it by adding a new feature or moving something around. For personal use, though, it's very needs-suiting. The whole approach is also less of a tempting distraction than browsing youtube itself, so it's easier to manage how much time I spend watching videos. If I ever run out of content, I just go for a walk, or read a book!

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

krisgee 7y ago

We'll have another "piracy epidemic" where streaming services have hysterics and try to ban piracy. This will predictably not work as it hasn't the last few times. Someone will make purchasing content easy again and everyone will use that. Corporations will get involved, jack the prices up, throw in ads and try to invent cable again. Repeat.

subpixel 7y ago

Content producers have no voice, unless they are the owner which in many cases they are not. Case in point: all I want right now is to stream the award-winning film “Give me Liberty”. It is over a year old and available precisely nowhere. And when it comes available, the chances are high it’s not on one of the several competing services I pay for on a monthly basis.

tcbawo 7y ago

The movement towards streaming exclusively is probably intended to eliminate ambiguity and traceability from the pirated sources. I wouldn't be surprised if PII is/will be encoded into the content. Once media ownership has been phased out, content owners will start going after infringers.