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This is the same path trod by cable television. Originally you paid for premium channels like HBO, then over time ads crept in until they were as terrible as t
by gumby 3y ago
This is the same path trod by cable television. Originally you paid for premium channels like HBO, then over time ads crept in until they were as terrible as the free channels.
I was pretty sure this would happen to streaming and here we are.
- WillPostForFood 3y agoCan you clarify? Ads never crept into the premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Movie Channel. At least no third party ads beyond the internal promotions between uninterrupted movies/shows. I haven't had cable for ~5 years, so maybe things have changed?
- ASalazarMX 3y agoThose self-ads were time fillers so local operators could replace them with local ads. Some did, other didn't. Now everyone does it.
- WillPostForFood 3y agoSo local operators are selling ads on HBO between programming? Replacing what used to be trailers/interviews etc? I'd definitely say that is terrible and an example of enshittification.
- ASalazarMX 3y agoCable operators in my city do, you get ads about local businesses between shows, and if the ads sometimes don't cover all the filler, you see parts of the original ads.
- hedora 3y agoParamount+ has ads, and that borg’ed showtime a month or so ago.
- WillPostForFood 3y agoSo Showtime is gone from cable, replaced by Paramount+, which is still a premium/extra charge, and you get ads? That sounds terrible.
- hhhhhhfhhhhh 3y agoI wouldn't say HBO became "as terrible as the free channels". I would say perhaps HBO is now as bad as the free channels once were, and the free channels are worse than ever. The last time I visited my grandmother I saw a few minutes of daytime network TV out of the corner of my eye and good god, I don't have anything else to compare it to. It reminds me of an article I read a long time ago about the continual decay of pretty much any publishing organization. It showed magazines when they were new, and the same magazines the year before they went out of business. At the end, the magazines were 75% ads, 25% "content". TV is the same way. At some point in the future, some new competitor will come in promising all the things HBO used to deliver. And in time they'll decay as well.
- danaris 3y agoSorry, I think you've missed the mark a bit on your history: Originally, all cable channels were ad-free, because you paid for them. Over time, ads crept in until everything but premium cable became equally infested.
- WillPostForFood 3y agoOriginally, all cable channels were ad-free, because you paid for them. There were several tiers in cable. Over the air channels being retransmitted (mostly with commercials, except PBS) A small number of premium channels led by HBO that were an extra fee. Then "basic channels" a bunch of non premium channels like TBS, ESPN, MTV, USA Network that had ads. Some basic cable channels didn't have ads. Then there were public benefit channels without ads like C-Span, and local public access. But from the earliest days, there were ad supported cable channels.
- Simulacra 3y agoI wonder if the writers strike has anything to do with it. The studios are not going to make "less" money, so instead they will just increase the money, squeezed out of consumers by running commercials, and raising prices.