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This is the dynamic that every corporation and government entity leverages. I feel like a frog noticing the water is starting to get hot as I see everything: wa

This is the dynamic that every corporation and government entity leverages. I feel like a frog noticing the water is starting to get hot as I see everything: water, power, trash, internet, groceries, registration fees, etc. getting more and more expensive and I just for sanity have to pay each one and forget it. Just this morning I was thinking how every single streaming service pushed out a version with ads and a more expensive ad-free version recently. It just comes to ~$20/mo to upgrade them all, but how much more can they pile on before people just have nothing left?

mindslight 2y ago
I haven't noticed Kodi or nfs-ganesha pushing out a version with ads? There are many markets that have been captured by duopolies and turned into inescapable extraction gauntlets, but when you've got some actual market power you've got to exercise it!
metadaemon 2y ago
I think about this a lot. It's certainly not sustainable for streaming companies to consistently increase end-user pricing. I understand why they are doing it, but there will only be an increasing number of individuals unwilling to watch X amount of ads or pay X amount a month.
mmcconnell1618 2y ago
Large companies consolidate industries and have the asymmetric advantage of more resources than individuals. They can leverage AI and other economic models to extract more and more from individuals. As we saw recently with Justice Department case against RealPage, the large companies can collude without officially colluding through better information access. The end result is that there is less slack in the economic system. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for individuals to leverage inefficiencies. It means there is less room to be human. Less room to make mistakes.
danaris 2y ago
This is enshittification[0], and while it's not a completely new phenomenon, it has expanded enormously since the end of zero interest rates. It is just the latest way of transferring wealth from the many to the few. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
sensanaty 2y ago
I'm back to just pirating everything, except for (many) games It's like Gaben said, piracy is a service problem, not entirely a cost problem. The same 20 euro subscription would've gotten be 100x more movies and shows a few years ago, whereas now it's split to a million random services. Sometimes one season of a show is on 1 service, while the next one is on a different one. You also can't get 4K anywhere, every service has shit quality. So why bother paying, when radarr lets me get 4k content of anything I'd ever want to watch, completely for free?
- sharpshadow 2y ago
  Absolutely I was shocked to see almost all movies on that Amazon streaming service are 4€ to watch onces. Why pay for the service when most movies are not included and need additional purchases. I would like to see some data actually about each streaming service content availability in a chart by country with over time changes.
  - Suppafly 2y ago
    I really feel like amazon does themselves a disservice by mixing paid for content in with the 'free with prime' content. By not clearly differentiating which is which, I'm sure they make money from people just happy to have the content and willing to pay for it, but it pushes a lot of other people away from the service altogether, although maybe they are ok with that, since those people will still pay for prime for the free shipping.
- consteval 2y ago
  I don't even necessarily mind the cost of streaming services. I would happily pay 100 bucks to get it all ad-free. What I DO mind is how shitty it all is. I don't want to search through 8 apps just to find what I want. I don't want to open something called Super Freebie Movie to watch season one and then go to Amazon Prime Video for season two. I don't want to have some that inexplicably only play at low quality and there's no settings to turn the quality up. I mean, the apps suck ass. We need a common interface for this, like we had with TV. If we're gonna be breaking up the content into a million different places I should damn well be able to see it all with 1 interface, 1 website, that's fast, reliable, and easy to use.

mindslight 2y ago

I haven't noticed Kodi or nfs-ganesha pushing out a version with ads? There are many markets that have been captured by duopolies and turned into inescapable extraction gauntlets, but when you've got some actual market power you've got to exercise it!

metadaemon 2y ago

I think about this a lot. It's certainly not sustainable for streaming companies to consistently increase end-user pricing. I understand why they are doing it, but there will only be an increasing number of individuals unwilling to watch X amount of ads or pay X amount a month.

mmcconnell1618 2y ago

Large companies consolidate industries and have the asymmetric advantage of more resources than individuals. They can leverage AI and other economic models to extract more and more from individuals. As we saw recently with Justice Department case against RealPage, the large companies can collude without officially colluding through better information access. The end result is that there is less slack in the economic system. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for individuals to leverage inefficiencies. It means there is less room to be human. Less room to make mistakes.

danaris 2y ago

This is enshittification[0], and while it's not a completely new phenomenon, it has expanded enormously since the end of zero interest rates. It is just the latest way of transferring wealth from the many to the few. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

sensanaty 2y ago

I'm back to just pirating everything, except for (many) games It's like Gaben said, piracy is a service problem, not entirely a cost problem. The same 20 euro subscription would've gotten be 100x more movies and shows a few years ago, whereas now it's split to a million random services. Sometimes one season of a show is on 1 service, while the next one is on a different one. You also can't get 4K anywhere, every service has shit quality. So why bother paying, when radarr lets me get 4k content of anything I'd ever want to watch, completely for free?

sharpshadow 2y ago
Absolutely I was shocked to see almost all movies on that Amazon streaming service are 4€ to watch onces. Why pay for the service when most movies are not included and need additional purchases. I would like to see some data actually about each streaming service content availability in a chart by country with over time changes.
- Suppafly 2y ago
  I really feel like amazon does themselves a disservice by mixing paid for content in with the 'free with prime' content. By not clearly differentiating which is which, I'm sure they make money from people just happy to have the content and willing to pay for it, but it pushes a lot of other people away from the service altogether, although maybe they are ok with that, since those people will still pay for prime for the free shipping.
consteval 2y ago
I don't even necessarily mind the cost of streaming services. I would happily pay 100 bucks to get it all ad-free. What I DO mind is how shitty it all is. I don't want to search through 8 apps just to find what I want. I don't want to open something called Super Freebie Movie to watch season one and then go to Amazon Prime Video for season two. I don't want to have some that inexplicably only play at low quality and there's no settings to turn the quality up. I mean, the apps suck ass. We need a common interface for this, like we had with TV. If we're gonna be breaking up the content into a million different places I should damn well be able to see it all with 1 interface, 1 website, that's fast, reliable, and easy to use.