3 ms·

> Careful what you wish for? The big desire then was a la carte, and right now you can bounce between streaming services at will, and they're all still far easi

> Careful what you wish for? The big desire then was a la carte, and right now you can bounce between streaming services at will, and they're all still far easier to cancel than cable. I feel like people say they want a la carte but that's not actually what they want. What they want is all the good content and none of the crap filler content, for cheap. People pushed for a la carte because in their mind all content costs the same, so they figured that by removing the content they don't want and only keeping the content they do want, they would save tons of money. They don't understand that the good content (live sports, FX, AMC, HBO, et al) is precisely what studios are charging a premium for and what is driving most of the cost in packages in the first place. It's roughly akin to someone looking at a Vegas buffet that costs $100 and features 100 entrees and saying "well there are 100 entrees but really all I want is the cheese, prime rib, crab legs, and caviar, so if I remove the other 96 entrees then this should cost $4" then being shocked when they are still charged 40 dollars. Sure it's cheaper but in their minds it should be an order of magnitude cheaper than it is.

baq 5y ago
Remember that streaming services don’t only compete with each other, but they also compete with torrents. Netflix won not because of being cool or good, but because it was way more convenient than torrents for the majority of content. This isn’t true anymore, as all major studios want in on the market, which makes the TAM smaller due to fragmentation and lost network effects. (It is common to hear people saying they won’t pay for more than 1, 2, maybe 3 services.) Ice is thinner than it seems, but streaming services know this.
- chii 5y ago
  > Ice is thinner than it seems, but streaming services know this. but would streaming services rather compete with piracy than another big player? With piracy, they have the law on their side - they can lobby for rules to punish piracy using state resources, rather than their own. They cannot do so for their competitors.

baq 5y ago

Remember that streaming services don’t only compete with each other, but they also compete with torrents. Netflix won not because of being cool or good, but because it was way more convenient than torrents for the majority of content. This isn’t true anymore, as all major studios want in on the market, which makes the TAM smaller due to fragmentation and lost network effects. (It is common to hear people saying they won’t pay for more than 1, 2, maybe 3 services.) Ice is thinner than it seems, but streaming services know this.

chii 5y ago
> Ice is thinner than it seems, but streaming services know this. but would streaming services rather compete with piracy than another big player? With piracy, they have the law on their side - they can lobby for rules to punish piracy using state resources, rather than their own. They cannot do so for their competitors.