Streaming is cable now | Seventeen years after Netflix and Hulu kicked off a streaming revolution, it’s looking more like cable than ever. (www.theverge.com)
from Dankry@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 18:56
https://lemmy.world/post/15213382

#technology

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snownyte@kbin.social on 09 May 2024 19:38 next collapse

Um, duh?

Is the author just noticing this? We've been piecing this together for the past 7 some odd years. The day hit us was when YouTube decided to be cute by adding in it's own network via YouTubeTV and with it's onslaught of ads.

zcd@lemmy.ca on 09 May 2024 19:52 next collapse

🏴‍☠️

admin@lemmy.my-box.dev on 09 May 2024 20:16 collapse

*arr!

SacredHeartAttack@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:06 next collapse

The convenience you required is now mandatory.

isles@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:09 next collapse

When the ideas run dry for infinite growth, everything old is new again.

snownyte@kbin.social on 09 May 2024 21:08 collapse

You're correct.

Social Media is the perfect example of this. Everytime a new social media network arrives, they always boast about being able to do things you could already have done with the other 9 social media networks. Sharing pictures and video, chatting .etc. They're all things we could've already have done far way back in the days of messaging software like AIM. It's nothing new, it's just recycled ideas being treated as new.

The only things that have ever improved were the amount of size of videos and pictures we can share and the speed in which we're able to do it with. That's it.

The well of finding new ideas has ran dry, because they've all been tried and done before many times. New name, same old shit.

AtariDump@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 01:34 next collapse

But Tom was my friend whereas Zuck is an alien.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/971b6b0c-5685-4ec4-aa52-616aa4fc3a94.webp">

nbdjd@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 19:51 collapse

How does Tik Tok’s success or Vine’s demise fit into this?

snownyte@kbin.social on 10 May 2024 20:54 collapse

What is Tiktok doing that is anyway different from what Vine did?

redeyejedi@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:14 next collapse

Yes, but no. Cable didn’t used to let you watch all seasons of a specific show on any given day and time of your choosing.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:31 next collapse

I’m old enough to remember when cable didn’t have ads. I was really young, maybe 5ish, but even then it was confusing to me when they started adding commercials. That was for bad TV with the antenna. Then it was only HBO that didn’t have ads, but we couldn’t afford that until I was much older.

EDIT: I guess my memories of being 5 years old aren’t very accurate.

BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:45 next collapse

Basic cable has always had commercials along with the over the air channels. Premium channels didn’t.

Kecessa@sh.itjust.works on 09 May 2024 20:55 next collapse

Yep, cable was first used to allow people to watch the same channels that were available over the air just from a more locations than what was available via antenna at their home (and with better reception), so it had the same commercials.

Premium channels were commercial-less for 7 or 9 years (can’t remember exactly) before the first premium channel decided to start running adverts.

BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:57 collapse

There also used to be product placement ads during the shows too. I feel like that’s also more insidious when Jed Clampett and Granny are telling you every episode to smoke a Winston and eat Kellogg’s.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 21:00 collapse

You’re right. I guess I was remembering premium channels and some niche channels that were cable-only. Most channels available on early cable were just piping non-local broadcast channels down a cable.

SeaJ@lemm.ee on 09 May 2024 22:01 collapse

If you got it over antenna, it most definitely was not cable.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 15:55 collapse

I didn’t say I got it over antenna. I said TV with commercials was for TV that came from the antenna.

[deleted] on 09 May 2024 20:56 next collapse

.

snownyte@kbin.social on 09 May 2024 21:05 next collapse

Pretty much.

If you missed an episode of a show on cable television. Well, you're shit out of luck unless it's a show that the network didn't mind running re-runs of, but re-runs only applied for shows that were popular. And if you missed an episode of a show that wasn't popular, again you were shit out of luck and hope to one day acquire it through a VHS or a DVD or these days, blu-ray or on streaming.

Network programming was always like this.

Huschke@programming.dev on 09 May 2024 21:19 collapse

That is also the reason everything reset to the status quo at the end of every episode.

pixel_prophet@lemm.ee on 09 May 2024 22:15 collapse

Until the show you want to watch gets removed because they don’t want to pay the licensing fee for it anymore.

The original content is often very mid.

tedu on 09 May 2024 20:34 next collapse

What is this "world of content" the author is talking about? 17 years ago, the streaming options on Netflix were the previous season of Friday Night Lights, and... that was it. A few years later they got The Office, but never the current season. So you were always behind. These articles never seem to include a graph of available content over time.

reddig33@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 20:46 next collapse

It’ll be cable when they start making you contact customer retention in order to cancel.

lobut@lemmy.ca on 09 May 2024 21:09 next collapse

I have a reminder to cancel Amazon Prime in a month. I never really used the TV portion until a few months ago and was like, fine … the selection sucks but it’s alright. After they introduced the ads now, it’s unusable to me. I’m getting rid of it entirely and not rewarding this type of behaviour.

MehBlah@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 21:21 next collapse

MUuuhhaaaaa. I worked for a cable company for a little over a decade. I remember commenting when people everywhere were talking about its death that streaming would soon be just like cable. They called me a fool. MUuuhhaaaaa!

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 09 May 2024 22:06 collapse

This is what you made me think of

<img alt="1000002368" src="https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/2966a55d-6fd4-4b97-8341-74d19dc7de23.webp">

[deleted] on 09 May 2024 22:15 next collapse

.

irreticent@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 07:58 next collapse

Do you mean Rizon? What about it?

pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 May 2024 11:11 collapse

Tizen IRC chat ???

UckyBon@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 22:21 next collapse

If you don’t watch it it looks like nothing.

irreticent@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 07:57 collapse

Rice cakes taste like nothing. Eat beef!

UckyBon@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 20:19 collapse

Fuck off you racist piece of shit.

irreticent@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 20:55 collapse

Racist? How so?

UckyBon@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 21:33 collapse

Broken-English speaking Asians. I’m one of them. No go on and fuck your fat white bitch. The racist mods here will ban me soon for calling ya’ll out. Ruud is a racist too. Fuck him and his Nazi gang.

It’s not for nothing that Lemmy.World defederates from the non-racist instances. Ever thought about that?

Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtf on 09 May 2024 22:28 next collapse

Hulu is owned by cable companies, they didn’t learn everyone hates advertising

pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 May 2024 11:10 collapse

now it’s mostly Disney or even fully disney, i forgot

kratoz29@lemm.ee on 09 May 2024 22:30 next collapse

What is that Hulu you are talking about, we never got that in Mexico (nor Pandora now that I am talking about it).

In this day and age where everyone wants its piece of the cake it is weird to me that they never cared about more countries xd.

freebread@lemm.ee on 10 May 2024 00:00 next collapse

Another streaming service that started around the same time as Netflix’s. More focused on TV shows and now owned by Disney.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 00:58 collapse

It may have been more difficult and expensive than you’d expect. My understanding was distribution contracts tend to be per country. Netflix can’t just stream all the stuff from north of the border, but have to start over with buying rights to everything in a new country

This made more sense when distributors were all per country but not so much for streamers

knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works on 09 May 2024 22:51 next collapse

The music industry figured it out. Now the video streaming industry needs to. Until then, arrrrrr.

Adalast@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 23:12 next collapse

Yo ho ho my friend. Yo ho ho.

unreasonabro@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 00:22 next collapse

Oh sure, great idea! Henceforth, actors don’t get paid any more. that’s what you’re advocating, that’s what the music industry has “figured out” - how to steal all the money and give it to people who had no involvement with actually making the music.

You should be pirating the fucking music not supporting the pricks who walked in off the street and stole everything and who make nothing at all themselves

edit: bitching about the facts just makes you more wrong

IntheTreetop@lemm.ee on 10 May 2024 00:41 next collapse

No problem, friend. I have time for both.

abhibeckert@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 03:46 collapse

Spotify pays more to artists than physical stores selling CDs ever did. And they certainly pay better than FM radio.

Sure - if you were one of he top 1000 artists in the world the old system paid more… but it’s not like those artists are starving now — Spotify alone pays millions per year to the top thousand artists, and they also get paid by YouTube, Apple, TikTok, etc etc.

The real way to make money in the music industry is and always has been live performances. A solo artist can make a couple hundred bucks a night doing simple cover songs, and a popular band can make a lot more.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 01:10 collapse

The music industry figured it out: I listen to way more music than ever before and I willingly pay more than ever before

Video streaming keeps trying to make my experience more frustrating, less value to me. They’re scrounging for dollars is driving me away. I’ve considered my options for making video entertainment enjoyable again, and I’m just tired of the whole thing. I’m spending more time in projects, more time online, more time reading ebooks from my library. I’m watching less video than before, enjoying it less, getting less value for my money and it’s just all not worth it. Their efforts to profit more from my attention are getting them less of it and losing my willingness to pay

abhibeckert@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 03:35 collapse

The big difference is exclusive content. Music has a few exceptions but in general sign up for one service and you can listen to anything.

That forces music services to compete on the overall experience (and price), while video services pretty much exclusively compete based on what content is available and literally none of them offer all of the things a person wants to watch. So nobody will ever be happy with any streaming service.

Cort@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 14:30 collapse

I think exclusive content is only a symptom of the larger problem, which is that we’re letting movie production companies run their own (new-fangled versions of) theaters again.

JCreazy@midwest.social on 09 May 2024 23:12 next collapse

I went from cable to satellite in 2008 and then went strictly streaming in 2010. I’ve had Disney + and Netflix off and on over the years but I’ve found that I don’t need any of them. There are plenty of things to watch for free elsewhere and plenty of other things to do than watch shows that will be canceled after the first season.

InternetUser2012@midwest.social on 10 May 2024 00:31 collapse

I won’t watch a show unless it’s done. This bullshit of cancelling after one season is ass.

Adalast@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 23:18 next collapse

My hot take, in the digital age, all direct marketing should be opt-in with the platform. Opt-in for industries with the ability to ban specific advertisers.

teamevil@lemmy.world on 09 May 2024 23:59 next collapse

That article was worthless… basically streaming is expensive and not as awesome as it once was. There you go whole article

PlantJam@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 00:39 next collapse

It’s still way more awesome than cable ever was. Sure you can have all the services all at once and pay as much as a cable bill, or you can rotate your subscriptions and pay way less.

RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 01:10 next collapse

I’m not sure about that. Popular shows get canceled, unfinished. Huge price hikes, and you can’t jump to another provider to watch the shows at a new rate or call and threaten to cancel to get a new rate. Sure, there are a few good series, but it’s still mostly crap. Sure, you can watch some older movies on demand, but plenty aren’t available, are available on some other service, and/or require you to pay a rental fee if you can find it. Prices keep climbing, ads are constantly a threat, and they place more restrictions on how many devices you’re allowed to watch on.

They are doing everything they can to re-insert the worst aspects of cable.

abhibeckert@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 03:33 next collapse

The real difference is you can watch what you want to watch on demand instead of being limited to their selection of shows on their schedule.

Also, you can sign up for a month, watch a series, then cancel and sign up to some other service. Pay for several services and sure, it’s expensive. But one or two? Still a hell of a lot cheaper than Cable ever was.

The fact most content is crap is irrelevant - there’s more good content available than any reasonable person has time to watch.

Daft_ish@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 20:18 collapse

Few good series 🧐?

I probably couldn’t list all the absolute master pieces I’ve watched since streaming became a thing. This is some serious rose tinted glasses for the cable Era.

I like reruns of Stargate and law and order as much as the next guy but cable was absolute shit when it came to compelling series.

I hope it’s just the literal flood of content we get hit with every some odd months that is warping your perception. You know, rather than the 4 month long weekly episode drops we use to have to suffer through so they could jack up prices on what ever ad they wanted to run in prime time.

That’s not even mentioning the vast graveyards of pilots for series that where DOA based solely on air time.

Fredselfish@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 12:17 collapse

I sure soon they will introduce contracts making sign up for 6 to 1 year up front to prevent just that.

TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 01:40 next collapse

@teamevil, the hero we need, not the hero we deserve.

dan1101@lemm.ee on 10 May 2024 13:19 collapse

The biggest change to me is how much the streaming services are pushing commercials now. Paying to watch commercials really completes the transition back to cable.

barsquid@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 13:31 collapse

Paying to watch commercials will be a no from me. I remember people did this but it is still hard to believe. 1/3 of the content per hour is ads, they are all repetitive and stupid. Except now they are repetitive and stupid despite selling all your data to the advertisers.

Steve@startrek.website on 10 May 2024 00:48 next collapse

Arrrrrrrr

Audacious@sh.itjust.works on 10 May 2024 04:25 next collapse

I stopped using Hulu when it introduced ads over a decade ago and never looked back. The stock of that company did really well despite the cable-like inconveniences.

Etterra@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 05:16 next collapse

What we wanted: a-la-carte channels.

What we got: seven expensive streaming services and they all still somehow have ESPN bullshit.

Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 May 2024 14:08 collapse

What we actually need: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works on 10 May 2024 09:00 next collapse

We know, Verge.

Now go build an PC…wait nevermind.

pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 May 2024 11:06 collapse

nah, just get a thinkpad

hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works on 10 May 2024 11:11 collapse

Look up “Verge PC build” on Youtube to get it.

Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 May 2024 14:08 next collapse

!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Lemonparty@lemm.ee on 10 May 2024 17:31 next collapse

Meanwhile pirating content and streaming it has never been easier. Jellyfin and private trackers ftw

randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 May 2024 18:40 collapse

Don’t forget about newsgroups (⌐■_■)

Lemonparty@lemm.ee on 11 May 2024 00:52 collapse

Idk what newsgroups are

randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 May 2024 11:34 collapse

It’s usenet.

blog.harveydelaney.com/configuring-your-usenet-pr…

jenny_ball@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 15:18 collapse

shhhhh!

fuzzywombat@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 19:28 next collapse

With the current state of streaming services mess, I think I would have signed up for disc rental by mail. Access to nearly 100% of media at highest quality for around 10 to 15 bucks a month seems like pretty good deal right about now. Sadly Netflix killed that part of their business so I can’t even go back to that.

obviouspornalt@lemmynsfw.com on 10 May 2024 19:49 next collapse
ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml on 11 May 2024 12:09 collapse

It’s not like netflix is the only one that can offer that kind of service. You’ve still got gamefly, 3D Bluray Rental, cafedvd, redbox (if you’re fine with going to a kiosk), your public library, and probably others if you care to search for them.

Veraxus@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 19:57 next collapse

On the up-side, I can cancel subscriptions whenever I want and only subscribe to one or two at a time when they have something I want to watch. I could never do that with cable.

That said, pricing is getting way out of control. I will not tolerate ads and we’re getting to the point where purchasing content makes more financial sense than subscribing to things that load you up with caveats unless you pay premiums.

Takashiro@lemmy.today on 10 May 2024 20:10 next collapse

The “best” part you forgot , buying probably won’t be possible or available

Veraxus@lemmy.world on 10 May 2024 20:16 collapse

Unfortunately, you are absolutely right. 😞

And also, even when it is… it’s “buying” (with quotes), because in this brave new digital world… you don’t actually own anything you “buy”.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 11 May 2024 02:59 next collapse

They’re going to complicate unsubscribing next.

SeeJayEmm@lemmy.procrastinati.org on 11 May 2024 10:56 next collapse

I think that’s illegal in some places, like California and the EU.

Pixlbabble@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 15:58 next collapse

It takes like 3 steps to cancel an audible account on Amazon.

slumberlust@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 23:32 collapse

Is that more or less than it takes to sign up?

yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 May 2024 19:56 collapse

Amazon is way ahead of the curve

Crisps@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 13:52 collapse

I fear the change from monthly to annual only subscriptions is on the horizon

Pixlbabble@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 15:59 collapse

I hear you’re tired of monthly payments. How about…

SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip on 10 May 2024 20:54 next collapse

Three things:

  1. Governments need to regulate exclusive third party content so that the platforms compete on quality instead of just amount of content.
  2. Companies should go back to pay as you use. I hate subscribing to things.
  3. Users should push back hard on new bad things that the corporations do.
Mostly_Harmless_Variant@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 11:54 next collapse

Lessons from movies that streaming services didn’t learn:

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

yakimasy@startrek.website on 11 May 2024 15:08 next collapse

I’ve just gone back to pirating and buying DVDs. I don’t watch much of anything anymore.

misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 11 May 2024 15:12 collapse

same, i also abuse free trials pretty hard.

(virtual credit cards and visa gift cards with little to no money on them work great)

Pixlbabble@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 15:57 next collapse

And just like the good ol days, pirating is back in fashion.

Pixlbabble@lemmy.world on 11 May 2024 16:00 collapse

Dvd’s are still free at the library if you don’t want to pirate.