4 ms·
> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive. No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-in
by arcticbull 3y ago
> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive.
No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-indexed content, without notice, as licenses shift and expire. Each silo behind their own separate paywalls. New ones pop up and shut down. Their feature matrix changes. They introduce geo restrictions, device restrictions, they force you to sign in from your 'home location' every few weeks to keep features like live TV running. Of course they'll charge you even if you don't, because you've been traveling for a while, in a geo where you can't even access the content you're paying for in the first place.
I don't care about the money, within reason. I care about being able to sit down and watch the show I want, in 4K, with Dolby whatever whatever. Without having to think about it. I'm trying to relax here dammit, lol.
This isn't about Max wanting a few extra dollars, it's just a price hike. We'd whine if they moved the price point up in the same way we're whining they kept the price the same but de-contented it. That's not the part that sucks.
Chasing down which of the 11 streaming services has the TV show you want to watch on a Mario-esque "the princess is in another castle" adventure sucks. When you find it, being greeted with a message saying that you've changed IP address too many times this year so better luck next year sucks. Then trying to figure out why it looks like it was filmed with a potato because you missed the email saying unless you act now and pay more, you're only getting 480p - sucks.
- at_a_remove 3y agoI only recently got into this pirating thing. I was completely willing to have a Netflix subscription, and Amazon Prime, and HBO/Max. Now I feel like I am being milked. So screw it, I literally spent money on some stream pirating software, going hog wild. I have JustWatch and spreadsheets. My targets are listed and I knock them down. Sure, I'll do your service for a whole month, during which I will slurp down the TV shows (anywhere from two to twenty) I want for myself, my mother, and some friends. Then move on to the next. If I do my homework beforehand, that week-long free trial is all I need most of the time. Track movies that are coming on whatever service that month, grab what I can get. I'll manage all of that later. Tubi, despite the low-res films, is the great equalizer, but Roku and Freevee don't hurt either. I would have been fat, dumb, and happy at a hundred bucks a month but they can't resist The Squeeze. We're dropping the resolution. We're limiting the number of simultaneous screens. We're tightening out catalog. We're putting out Originals, locked to us, instead of your old favorites. Just another two bucks a month. We're introducing ads into your tier. Any and every kind of shrinkflation, with a service almost like you're used to just another few bucks a month away. They can't help it, they just see it as leaving money on the table if they can't tighten the coils just a little bit every year. "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
- throwaway5959 3y agoThat sounds more expensive than just paying money for content.
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- crooked-v 3y agoIt's even more striking in comparison to music, where with a subscription to either Apple Music or Spotify you've covered pretty much the entire 'current mass-market music' ecosystem.
- Voultapher 3y agoSomething Apple Music tried to change by dumping money into exclusive deals. Which luckily failed. I think the core difference is upfront capital investment required between music and TV/Film content. Which leads to different incentives and effects down the line.
- causi 3y agoOne of my most common google searches is "what service is ____ on" because I never know where the hell to find anything.
- omegabravo 3y agoI find justwatch to be reliable. Sometimes I even find something new to watch on there too.
- zappb 3y agoThis is something that JustWatch is useful for.