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It looks like these streaming services have been hemorrhaging cash for years now and they just can't hide it any more. They're going to have to take drastic st

It looks like these streaming services have been hemorrhaging cash for years now and they just can't hide it any more. They're going to have to take drastic steps to try to become profitable - remains to be seen whether customers will bite. OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals.

paulmd 3y ago
> OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals. amazon is perfectly capable of doing the old disc-based netflix/blockbuster model if they want - actually it would complement their pivot into distribution and shipping perfectly. Just some mylar mailers and a bunch of BD-R blanks - licensing is another matter but what is the logistical problem? Print QR code and put on disc, send it out, get it back, scan QR code when it's "returned" and goes back to inventory...
- schlauerfox 3y ago
  I suppose they mean that your phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV have no optical drive so no way to watch physical media unless it came on a new format like a usbC device or something which the studios historically refuse on copyright infringement reasons.
- VanTheBrand 3y ago
  not saying I agree with the OP but player install base would be the infrastructure hurdle more than the discs
  - paulmd 3y ago
    Late reply but yup probably fair.
joshspankit 3y ago
Too bad they’re unwilling to seriously consider P2P distribution for streamed media. Would cut costs way down.
- callalex 3y ago
  My residential wired home internet in Silicon Valley has an unreasonable data cap that I hit every month, so I would not be able to use a service that also requires upload. (Which is very intentionally anticompetitive because they will happily sell you access to their streaming service that doesn’t count towards the cap).
  - joshspankit 3y ago
    They would have to make allowances for people with data caps yes
- snird 3y ago
  Isn't the content and licensing costs are the majority of their costs? Honestly asking, I never assumed infrastructure and bandwidth might be the majority
  - joshspankit 3y ago
    It depends on the service. For Disney and Paramount+ they already own the IP and the costs then would be storage + bandwidth + metadata/transcoding servers + engineer time. Of those, the bulk would be bandwidth. Similar for content that’s owned by the platform. Netflix, Apple, and others invested in to original programming and in those cases there’s again no need to license.
    - soco 3y ago
      However the prices of all those are similar. By this interpretation, either Disney does a very bad and expensive engineering job, or Netflix is losing big money. And I don't think either is the case... so there must be something else (and I can't tell what).
      - joshspankit 3y ago
        In this case you can’t look at prices as an indicator of profitability. Pricing is all marketing right now, and only barely connected to real business numbers.
selcuka 3y ago
> OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals. We already have streaming rentals. I believe while monthly subscription models are not profitable, pay per view still makes money.
deleted 3y ago
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paulmd 3y ago

> OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals. amazon is perfectly capable of doing the old disc-based netflix/blockbuster model if they want - actually it would complement their pivot into distribution and shipping perfectly. Just some mylar mailers and a bunch of BD-R blanks - licensing is another matter but what is the logistical problem? Print QR code and put on disc, send it out, get it back, scan QR code when it's "returned" and goes back to inventory...

schlauerfox 3y ago
I suppose they mean that your phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV have no optical drive so no way to watch physical media unless it came on a new format like a usbC device or something which the studios historically refuse on copyright infringement reasons.
VanTheBrand 3y ago
not saying I agree with the OP but player install base would be the infrastructure hurdle more than the discs
- paulmd 3y ago
  Late reply but yup probably fair.

joshspankit 3y ago

Too bad they’re unwilling to seriously consider P2P distribution for streamed media. Would cut costs way down.

callalex 3y ago
My residential wired home internet in Silicon Valley has an unreasonable data cap that I hit every month, so I would not be able to use a service that also requires upload. (Which is very intentionally anticompetitive because they will happily sell you access to their streaming service that doesn’t count towards the cap).
- joshspankit 3y ago
  They would have to make allowances for people with data caps yes
snird 3y ago
Isn't the content and licensing costs are the majority of their costs? Honestly asking, I never assumed infrastructure and bandwidth might be the majority
- joshspankit 3y ago
  It depends on the service. For Disney and Paramount+ they already own the IP and the costs then would be storage + bandwidth + metadata/transcoding servers + engineer time. Of those, the bulk would be bandwidth. Similar for content that’s owned by the platform. Netflix, Apple, and others invested in to original programming and in those cases there’s again no need to license.
  - soco 3y ago
    However the prices of all those are similar. By this interpretation, either Disney does a very bad and expensive engineering job, or Netflix is losing big money. And I don't think either is the case... so there must be something else (and I can't tell what).
    - joshspankit 3y ago
      In this case you can’t look at prices as an indicator of profitability. Pricing is all marketing right now, and only barely connected to real business numbers.

selcuka 3y ago

> OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals. We already have streaming rentals. I believe while monthly subscription models are not profitable, pay per view still makes money.

deleted 3y ago

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