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Actually for most part I don't want to subscribe. And I don't want free ad sponsored. I just want to pay a reasonable (I'll get back to this) price for the t

Actually for most part I don't want to subscribe. And I don't want free ad sponsored. I just want to pay a reasonable (I'll get back to this) price for the things I actually want. Netflix was OK with me (and I think a number of others) despite being a subscription service not because it was a subscription. It was OK because it was - the only option - reasonably priced - and had "everything" one wanted So what is reasonable? I'd assume that with all the cost savings given the digitalization of the delivery at least it shouldn't be more expensive than renting a physical dvd, although I'd accept if they adjusted a little for inflation.

mike_hearn 2y ago
So use the Apple TV store (formerly iTunes Store). There you can buy nearly anything from any studio, and you pay per episode or per season. Whether the costs are reasonable or not is in the eye of the beholder but I don't feel ripped off by it.
- encom 2y ago
  >buy Nothing is for sale at the Apple TV "Store". You pay for a license to stream a piece of content, that lasts until Apple or the content owner decides to revoke it.
  - walterbell 2y ago
    Has any Apple TV purchase been revoked?
    - dwighttk 2y ago
      Not sure… I have a bundle of Downton Abbey that is no longer for sale on iTunes and I can play it, but (for a while, they may have fixed it) at the end of an episode you had to navigate to the next episode by selecting the show and scrolling horizontally through every single episode. Technically possible but very irritating. (Funny thing: I was watching the show when the switch happened… I watched two or three with the obvious play next episode in series behavior and then it suddenly stopped working… apple support finally told me it seems like it was related to it being taken off in favor of a bundle with the film included.)
  - taylodl 2y ago
    Meh. Videotape wears out. Video discs break. Books yellow and age and rot. No content you have ever bought lasts forever.
    - cesarb 2y ago
      > Books yellow and age and rot. No content you have ever bought lasts forever. Many libraries all over the world have books which have lasted for centuries, far longer than a single person's lifetime. The books I bought as a child can last longer than my own body. That's close enough to "lasting forever" for most practical purposes.
      - taylodl 2y ago
        Centuries-old books have had special care to preserve them. If you want your personal books to last most of your lifetime, then there needs to be a modicum of care taken, which isn't always possible, especially while you're in transit and moving from one place and into another. How many books have been lost that way? The whole point was someone lamenting digital license may not last forever (though Apple's has, so far) and I'm just reminding everyone that physical media doesn't last forever either.
        HappMacDonald 2y ago
        Part of the concern is "I can keep it longer if I take care of it or if I keep track of it properly", eg if it gets lost or ruined its due to some lack of care by the end user, vs "I only get to keep it until some third party decides I don't get to have it any more".
        taylodl 2y ago
        Then buy physical copies of everything. Oh sure, you lose a huge convenience factor, but at least no third party has control over it.
        JetSpiegel 2y ago
- eitland 2y ago
  That is my current solution. Still there is a number of things I cannot buy or rent.
rincebrain 2y ago
The tl;dr is that we've demanded things with such enormous production costs that were basically almost entirely subsidized on a socialized model, where the big appeal of the big ones subsidized the costs of the less successful ones, in a way that would make them not reliably financially viable in isolation. But the content that is so specific it only appeals to 1-10% of people is both the most memorable and also often the content that is basically guaranteed to not hit for 90% of people. So your math on who's going to pay to consume it changes drastically when the ceiling is so much lower, especially when the effective price required is so much higher that it's going to drive even more people away. So it's a much larger risk pool to hope you'll make your money back with the error bars so much narrower, and businesses being businesses, they go for the bland thing with a lower risk pool 99% of the time, and then wonder why their returns keep shrinking.
matwood 2y ago
> I'd assume that with all the cost savings given the digitalization of the delivery at least it shouldn't be more expensive than renting a physical dvd I'm confused. A typical streaming service has hundreds or thousands of what would typically be a physical DVD. So how much should they charge? Also, the vast majority of the cost for most content is in the creation of the content.

mike_hearn 2y ago

So use the Apple TV store (formerly iTunes Store). There you can buy nearly anything from any studio, and you pay per episode or per season. Whether the costs are reasonable or not is in the eye of the beholder but I don't feel ripped off by it.

encom 2y ago
>buy Nothing is for sale at the Apple TV "Store". You pay for a license to stream a piece of content, that lasts until Apple or the content owner decides to revoke it.
- walterbell 2y ago
  Has any Apple TV purchase been revoked?
  - dwighttk 2y ago
    Not sure… I have a bundle of Downton Abbey that is no longer for sale on iTunes and I can play it, but (for a while, they may have fixed it) at the end of an episode you had to navigate to the next episode by selecting the show and scrolling horizontally through every single episode. Technically possible but very irritating. (Funny thing: I was watching the show when the switch happened… I watched two or three with the obvious play next episode in series behavior and then it suddenly stopped working… apple support finally told me it seems like it was related to it being taken off in favor of a bundle with the film included.)
- taylodl 2y ago
  Meh. Videotape wears out. Video discs break. Books yellow and age and rot. No content you have ever bought lasts forever.
  - cesarb 2y ago
    > Books yellow and age and rot. No content you have ever bought lasts forever. Many libraries all over the world have books which have lasted for centuries, far longer than a single person's lifetime. The books I bought as a child can last longer than my own body. That's close enough to "lasting forever" for most practical purposes.
    - taylodl 2y ago
      Centuries-old books have had special care to preserve them. If you want your personal books to last most of your lifetime, then there needs to be a modicum of care taken, which isn't always possible, especially while you're in transit and moving from one place and into another. How many books have been lost that way? The whole point was someone lamenting digital license may not last forever (though Apple's has, so far) and I'm just reminding everyone that physical media doesn't last forever either.
      - HappMacDonald 2y ago
        Part of the concern is "I can keep it longer if I take care of it or if I keep track of it properly", eg if it gets lost or ruined its due to some lack of care by the end user, vs "I only get to keep it until some third party decides I don't get to have it any more".
        taylodl 2y ago
        Then buy physical copies of everything. Oh sure, you lose a huge convenience factor, but at least no third party has control over it.
        JetSpiegel 2y ago
eitland 2y ago
That is my current solution. Still there is a number of things I cannot buy or rent.

rincebrain 2y ago

The tl;dr is that we've demanded things with such enormous production costs that were basically almost entirely subsidized on a socialized model, where the big appeal of the big ones subsidized the costs of the less successful ones, in a way that would make them not reliably financially viable in isolation. But the content that is so specific it only appeals to 1-10% of people is both the most memorable and also often the content that is basically guaranteed to not hit for 90% of people. So your math on who's going to pay to consume it changes drastically when the ceiling is so much lower, especially when the effective price required is so much higher that it's going to drive even more people away. So it's a much larger risk pool to hope you'll make your money back with the error bars so much narrower, and businesses being businesses, they go for the bland thing with a lower risk pool 99% of the time, and then wonder why their returns keep shrinking.

matwood 2y ago

> I'd assume that with all the cost savings given the digitalization of the delivery at least it shouldn't be more expensive than renting a physical dvd I'm confused. A typical streaming service has hundreds or thousands of what would typically be a physical DVD. So how much should they charge? Also, the vast majority of the cost for most content is in the creation of the content.