The streaming service plague and why I am tired of playing by the rules.

[MadmanRB]

Not so long ago there was a streaming service that had a vast collection of old movies, old TV and more.

This service was called netflix and it was good as no more need for big DVD collections or going to a certain harbor full of seafaring criminals with eye patches and peg legs.

In 2020 however Netflix will be on life support and we will have a mass of un nessasary un wanted and un needed streaming services.

We got:

Amazon Prime

Hulu

CBS all Acess

Britbox

Disney+

Peacock

HBOMax

 

Enough is enough

 

Too many streaming services now, too much money out the door.

 

Personally I am just going to kill all my streaming service subscriptions, get a VPN and hoist up the jolly roger.

I am done playing this game, I tried to be law abiding and not break the rules but now.... screw it.

This madness has to stop.

I will probably make a plex server in the near future, rip and torrent whatever I want to watch and tear the rulebook up and throw it into the San Marianas trench where no scurvy bilge rat can find it.

Hoist away my anchor and set sail for the high seas.

 

Anyone else feel the same way?

Oh and if the mods feel this is too hot i understand, I just wanted to get this off my chest.

I know talk of not so legal methods like this is looked down upon but personally....

 

Yarrr.

 

I just dont want to invest in DVD's or blue rays, those take up room.

At least with my plex server idea i can just get a small form factor PC for it and its still will be cheaper then buying 800 boxed sets of various TV shows I like.

[rEkmAInc1csBnlM6C85H]

   Shiver Me Timbers!

I don't think I need to say more, but all these services are getting to be too much for me also.

[GrockleTD]

I am unbothered until youtube theoretically becomes a payment required service.

[TetraSky]

Eeehh, you could also just pay for 1 month, every 6 month, binge watch EVERYTHING you've wanted to see on that platform and be done with that for the next 6 month... Will still be cheaper than a cable subscription.

[Mihle]

I buy Blu-ray's currently.

 

In my perfect world there would just be something like GOG for movies (or at least steam) but had everything. Also true Blu-ray quality minimum (20+ GB per movie)

 

You would not have subscription, but also wouldnt have to get something physical, but still own it. Best of two worlds if you ask me.

[Touch My Hamm]

All the companies listed are large enough to have their own streaming service and provide their own personal content to give incentive. You have to look at it from their point of view. They can either share the profits and live by the rules of Netflix or they can create their own which they have 100% control and can make 100% of the profits. Disney has ALWAYS had massive controls over its content so its only natural to see them bring their own streaming service. They purchased a channel just so they have control over it. The same goes for major creators like HBO. They have created massive successful shows and they could sustain their own streaming service. 

Everything is going the way of streaming services since its a constant stream of income. It also provides realtime data on what is popular and what people are watching. Video game creators will go the same route, we see EA as an early adopter. Google has Stadia coming out where you just subscribe for a gaming machine. This is the future where we will just have screens and all the power/content will be in the control of the provider. 

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, GrockleTD said:

I am unbothered until youtube theoretically becomes a payment required service.

Isn't it already? It's currently like watching US television. Ads after ads, overlay ads and baked in sponsor spots. To the point where I'm considering actually blocking them. Eventually they will cripple it unless you are prepared to pay.

[GrockleTD]

8 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Isn't it already? It's currently like watching US television. Ads after ads, overlay ads and baked in sponsor spots. To the point where I'm considering actually blocking them. Eventually they will cripple it unless you are prepared to pay.

For me personally ads are just restroom breaks

[WkdPaul]

Gotta agree here, I have Prime and Netflix, but there's some shows coming up that I want to see on other services. "Cable cutters" won't mean much anymore since we're back to having "packages" and a solution that isn't better than what started the "cable cutting" a decade ago!

 

We went from paying a cable company an increasing amount of money to access special packages only to have access to a few channels we wanted, to now paying different companies to have access to a few shows we want to have access to ... *sigh*

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT

@MadmanRB and to everyone else

 

As a moderator, I feel like I should expand on the "no piracy" rule on the Community Standards

 

• We don't allow discussion on how to HELP with piracy (ex : how to do it generally, or posting specific links)
• Discussing piracy "in general" is fine

 

This thread falls on the second point ; we're discussing the state of a market that seems to push people towards piracy (as stated in the OP). So as long as we're talking about the unintended effect of an explosion of streaming services and no links (or how to get shows), it's going to be fine. If people post links or explain HOW to get copyrighted material, then the post is going to be removed and a warning issued.

 

Hope that helps.

 

[circeseye]

i sub to a few sites..its still WAY cheaper then cable tv...but some i wont sub to because they dont offer much. so those sites that have that one show i want to watch i will go to a grey site to watch it
but then theres also vpn....some shows dont show in usa in say netflix. but does show in europe. vpn to the rescue. (i hope this doesnt classify as piracy)

[Tristerin]

As an ol' Sea Dog myself, who hasn't placed a foot on the Seven Seas in a couple years (sans for specific software, not entertainment) I have to agree.  I currently have Netflix, Youtube Red, Prime, Hulu, HBOgo, and Im sure a couple others my wife likely has a sub to (not complaining, I have Origin, Daybreak, and Blizzard drafting for my monthly gaming fixes) - but at some point enough is enough.  I have a home server with free terabytes of data available I just need to fill and cut the cord a second time

[poochyena]

??????????????
You are mad that there are MORE streaming options now? wtf? why? This is a great thing. Literally what is the negatives?

51 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

"Cable cutters" won't mean much anymore since we're back to having "packages" and a solution that isn't better than what started the "cable cutting" a decade ago!

?????
Cable package system has tiers. You need one one channel to get another. With streaming, you don't need netflix to also get hulu. You can pick and choose.

[Dedayog]

Just now, poochyena said:

??????????????
You are mad that there are MORE streaming options now? wtf? why? This is a great thing. Literally what is the negatives?

?????
Cable package system has tiers. You need one one channel to get another. With streaming, you don't need netflix to also get hulu. You can pick and choose.

The negatives are Disney ripping Marvel movies off Netflix so they can host themselves.  So if you have Netflix and still want Marvel you need to pay Disney now.

 

Or how if you want to watch Seinfeld, Friends, Face Off, Forged in Fire, So You Think You Can Dance etc... have fun finding them on various services and paying each fee.

 

I know you understand the concepts, why are you pretending you don't?

 

 

[WkdPaul]

22 minutes ago, poochyena said:

??????????????
You are mad that there are MORE streaming options now? wtf? why? This is a great thing. Literally what is the negatives?

?????
Cable package system has tiers. You need one one channel to get another. With streaming, you don't need netflix to also get hulu. You can pick and choose.

If I want to watch ONE show on Hulu but couldn't care about the rest, I can't pay part of it, gotta get Hulu. And with Disney pulling their release from other platforms so it's only available on Disney+, that means another streaming service on top of what I already have, only so I can access shows and movies I had access to previously.

 

That's why I was comparing it to the tiers with cable.

 

This situation isn't the same as the game launchers/market place. I persoanlly have no issue having Steam, Uplay, Epic store, Origin, etc ... I don't pay per month to have access to those. I can shop games around and get them cheaper on X or Y store when there's a sale.

 

The number of streaming service exploding means, shows you want to see could fall on 4 or 5 different services, meaning (in my case, for example) having now a streaming bill of $50+ / month vs $20 or less prior to that.

 

Not sure how it's better to segregate content behind an expending number of paywalls. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

My personal solution : double down on my subscription and not throw money at the others until I see a market shift to something that might be advantageous to me (for example, switching to Disney+ if it turns out to be better than Netflix in the long run).

Edited September 19, 2019 by wkdpaul

[poochyena]

15 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

The negatives are Disney ripping Marvel movies off Netflix so they can host themselves.  So if you have Netflix and still want Marvel you need to pay Disney now.

And if you don't have netflix and just want to watch Disney content, its a huge plus. Netflix doesn't have all of Disney's content. You'll get getting more content if you sign up with netflix and disney. Its not like you get less, but pay more.

 

18 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Or how if you want to watch Seinfeld, Friends, Face Off, Forged in Fire, So You Think You Can Dance etc... have fun finding them on various services and paying each fee.

Its not hard at all to find where they are available to stream at https://www.justwatch.com/us

[piemadd]

23 minutes ago, poochyena said:

??????????????
You are mad that there are MORE streaming options now? wtf? why? This is a great thing. Literally what is the negatives?

?????
Cable package system has tiers. You need one one channel to get another. With streaming, you don't need netflix to also get hulu. You can pick and choose.

Before you could get literally anything on netlix(packaged with some phone carriers), and if not it was probably on prime video(free with a prime subscription) or hulu(generally packaged with phone carriers and sometimes spotify), so you would be paying maybe 25 bucks/month MAX for everything. Now its 80 or 90 a month for the same shit.

[Dedayog]

Just now, pierom_qwerty said:

Before you could get literally anything on netlix(packaged with some phone carriers), and if not it was probably on prime video(free with a prime subscription) or hulu(generally packaged with phone carriers and sometimes spotify), so you would be paying maybe 25 bucks/month MAX for everything. Now its 80 or 90 a month for the same shit.

InB4 = But you get more shit now!!

 

Yeah, don't WANT more shit tho.  Same negatives as cable, paying more for MUCH more that I don't want.  

[poochyena]

3 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

If I want to watch ONE show on Hulu but couldn't care about the rest, I can't pay part of it, gotta get Hulu.

This is what makes this good. Instead of paying $12 for a bunch of shows you don't want, we get smaller streaming services for less money, meaning you are paying less for content you don't want.

 

5 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

that means another streaming service on top of what I already have

you don't have to pay for it

 

5 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

only so I can access shows and movies I had access to previously.

Disney+ will have shows and movies not previously on netflix.

 

6 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

The number of streaming service exploding means, shows you want to see could fall on 4 or 5 different services, meaning (in my case, for example) having now a streaming bill of $50+ / month vs $20 or less prior to that.

you don't have to subscribe to multiple streaming sites at once. If you choose to, then you are getting more content. Of course getting access to more content will cost more per month.

4 minutes ago, pierom_qwerty said:

so you would be paying maybe 25 bucks/month MAX for everything.

Those 3 services did not have anything close to "everything".

 

[Dedayog]

Just now, poochyena said:

This is what makes this good. Instead of paying $12 for a bunch of shows you don't want, we get smaller streaming services for less money, meaning you are paying less for content you don't want.

 

you don't have to pay for it

 

Disney+ will have shows and movies not previously on netflix.

 

you don't have to subscribe to multiple streaming sites at once. If you choose to, then you are getting more content. Of course getting access to more content will cost more per month.

Those 3 services did not have anything close to "everything".

 

You're intentionally being argumentative and refusing to acknowledge the obvious.

 

I'm out.

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, poochyena said:

This is what makes this good. Instead of paying $12 for a bunch of shows you don't want, we get smaller streaming services for less money, meaning you are paying less for content you don't want.

BAHAHAHA!

You really think they are going to charge smaller amounts for less content? They are going to charge more and call it a bonus or some hogwash. Depending on what you watch and if you want to watch all your shows you need something like 3 or 4 services at a minimum. Let's say your shows are on CBS + Netflix + Hulu + Disney. Heaven forbid if you want HBO as well. Just those 4 alone and that's almost $50 at which point you'd be better off going with a single app like Playstation Vue and watching it live for the same price.

 

Oh, and you're ignoring the obvious, now I need to switch apps every time I want to watch something else not on the current app I'm in so I have to jump through more hoops just to get to what I want OR you pay MORE MONEY for an aggregator app.

[poochyena]

9 minutes ago, Lurick said:

You really think they are going to charge smaller amounts for less content?

yes, Hulu and Netflix are the only streaming services that cost $12/month. All other services are cheaper.

10 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Just those 4 alone and that's almost $50 at which point you'd be better off going with a single app like Playstation Vue and watching it live for the same price.

If you pay for all 4 at the same time, which you don't need to do. Streaming services don't have contracts, you can cancel any time.

 

11 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Oh, and you're ignoring the obvious, now I need to switch apps every time I want to watch something else not on the current app I'm in so I have to jump through more hoops just to get to what I want OR you pay MORE MONEY for an aggregator app.

well yea, whats the alternative? Have one streaming service? I rather not have a monopoly and be charged a huge amount for many shows I don't want to watch. Paying hulu one month and netflix the next is cheaper than netflix having all the content, but paying twice as much.

[WkdPaul]

14 minutes ago, poochyena said:

This is what makes this good. Instead of paying $12 for a bunch of shows you don't want, we get smaller streaming services for less money, meaning you are paying less for content you don't want.

????????????????????

 

what??

 

No, streaming services are NOT going to lower their prices. While Disney+ is going to be bundled with Hulu, that's not the case for the rest of the streaming services. I'm also in Canada so I have to account for the higher prices, and while that might not be an issue for everyone, it's an issue for me.

 

So here's my personal situation ;

 

Netflix = $10 CAD

Prime = $10 CAD (through the yearly fee, but it has other perks)

Tou.TV (local streaming service) = $7

Disney+ bundle (that has Hulu) = $17 CAD

CBS = $8 CAD

+ VPN to access US only services ...

 

So while I already have Netflix and Prime, I would have to add Disney+ and CBS if I wanted to see all the shows I want (only 4 for now)

 

Now, explain how it's better in anyway? I already have shows I'm watching on Netflix, Prime and Tou.TV, I'm interested in shows on CBS (Start Trek) and Disney+ ... for now, I have missed those shows because I'm not ready to have a $50+/month bill for streaming when I walked away from that with cable and was happy with Netflix and Prime (and the fact that I see Prime as an add-on rather than a streaming service only).

 

That's the current state of things, if more players to jump in, the price will just go up from there to access other shows.

 

 

To be clear, I'm not saying we should get all that for free, far from it. I pay for Netflix, Prime and Tou.TV so I can get access to legitimate content. If cable had changed their ways and offered single channels VS tiers that included channels people didn't want, we wouldn't be here. And it seems we're going back into that type of mentality with each and every production company creating their own streaming services.

[LogicalDrm]

53 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Its not hard at all to find where they are available to stream at https://www.justwatch.com/us

 

Pretending that you misunderstand points here isn't gonna end well for you. Just FYI. You know full well that main point of that part was about paying for multiple services to gain access to single show. At that point buying it becomes better option, but sadly streaming has taken that away prety much.

 

48 minutes ago, poochyena said:

This is what makes this good. Instead of paying $12 for a bunch of shows you don't want, we get smaller streaming services for less money, meaning you are paying less for content you don't want.

 

IF this would be the case. Yet it isn't or won't last. Sure, if you want to watch at SD as HD/4K are more expensive.

 

Quote

you don't have to pay for it

 

Explain.

 

Quote

Disney+ will have shows and movies not previously on netflix.

 

This just is not the case. Disney owns rights to Marvel, Star Wars franchise, 20th Century Fox (IIRC) and probably will obtain even more. Why they would lease those brands to outside rather than gain more viewers with exclusive content? Since thats how Prime and Netflix have gain their viewers (and why consoles still exist at such large amounts).

Edited September 19, 2019 by LogicalDrm
My English skillz

[poochyena]

3 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

No, streaming services are NOT going to lower their prices.

I didn't say they would. I said that streaming services with smaller libraries are cheaper than ones with larger libraries. thats an objective fact.

 

4 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

I would have to add Disney+ and CBS if I wanted to see all the shows I want (only 4 for now)

So you pay more money to get more shows.... whats the problem here exactly?

 

5 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

when I walked away from that with cable and was happy with Netflix and Prime

Why are you not happy with just those two now? They didn't have all the shows cable had.

 

[poochyena]

3 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Pretending that you misunderstand points here isn't gonna end well for you.

You said, quote; "have fun finding them on various services and paying each fee." Paying each fee isn't a big deal since, in a capitalistic economy, getting more means paying more. Thats to be expected. So it sounded like to me your point was finding the shows was the unexpected struggle.

5 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

You know full well that main point of that part was about paying for multiple services to gain access to single show. At that point buying it becomes better option

But that has always been true. Its cheaper to buy a movie than one month of streaming.

6 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

IF this would be the case. Yet it isn't or won't last.

So netflix, prime, crunchyroll, vrv, and funimation all cost the same? I thought the ones with smaller libraries cost less. Feel free to prove me wrong.

8 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Why they would lease those brands to outside rather than gain more viewers with exclusive content?

They wouldn't, and thats why I said Disney+ will have shows and movies not previously on netflix.