The problem with streaming services

Sweet Snow

Sweet Snow

Dreams delight
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Let's say you're a fan of Adventure Time, your friend shows you this, wowwie, new episodes?! That's so cool! You assume it will air on Cartoon Network as usual, maybe on Adult Swim or Boomerang? Then you see the logo, it's on another goddamn steaming service, you been dupped.

There is far too many of them, want to watch the new Twilight Zone? Pay up for a CBS service. Why not air it on TV? People like the Twilight Zone, they like Jordan Pele, they are very much cutting content to make sure they make more money.

What's that? CBS due to shows like Survivor and Big Brother already make a lot of money? Welcome to the blinding graspe of Greed, where is "a lot" is not the goal, instead the goal is "more", what are they even going to do with the money? Who cares?! Power is addicting.

The problem begins with Netflix, the orginal mail in service was an alternative to Blockbuster (r.i.p), the streaming service was an alternative to cable, it didn't have orginal shows at first, but the fact you can watch a lot of series anytime you want without going broke buying all the DVDs was awesome.
Then it got content that only can be seen on Netflix, you had rewatchable content from all the big companies plus enganging tales that introduce a new way to bring fantasy!
Remember my CBS rant? In the begining, all big companies were in on it, sharing the pie, but in the greedy world of business, the goal isn't "a lot", the goal is always "more", even though after awhile it makes no sense.

The success of Netflix and the greed of companies made a ridiculous amount of these services, flat out no one can afford all of these services, the oversatrion of these services will make some them flat out fail, the creators will blame the failure of the well received stories on everything but their arrogance, they could of still have success if they still were on Netflix, they would still make money.

It makes cable look reasonable in comparison, the very thing it set out to destroy, as cable has one price for all content beaides add ons, with most companies, dvr and on demand, cable was being trashed, this made us realize how good we had it.
Not helping is the redundancy, Disney flat out owns Hulu, why does Disney plus have to exist, much less bundled with it and ESPN+?

Another fault is avaliblty, Tuca and Bertie will not have another season as the studio unioned, Netflix, something so big that it started a trend, can't stand making slightly less money, but hey, more Big Head tho! You can hardly get the orginal content anywhere, this is a bad thing, unlike video game consoles, that have forms of exclusives, are mostly physical disks, you can still play them even after copies stop being made, as for Netflix, I have only seen dvds for House of Cards and Dreamworks shows.
Keep in mind, soon you will no longer leagally can see the dub of LWA, as it is getting delisted, this is the only option that doesn't invole torrents.
As for the Defenders shows, unless they get transfered to Hulu, once the lincese is gone, so is the shows.

So yeah, viva la unity
 
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at this rate, with streaming services getting their content chopped up into tiny pieces with their own subscription fees and with the prospect of cloud gaming with the likes of stadia, as well as freaking everything else needing a fucking subscription (hello adobe, hello nintendo switch online), the subscription fees pile up and up (as it's a lucrative way to get cash) from services you don't even need. i honestly think stadia's concept of cloud gaming (where you need to be always on with a good connection, that you don't physically own any games anymore, that you're at the mercy of their servers, that you also need a subscription for the best service) is enough to make me throw up in my mouth.
 
Wow, after the writers said with so much confidence that Adventure Time was done..
 
Baby Luigi Rescuing Mario said:
cloud gaming
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>make it so that you need to continuously stream hd video to even play the game
>refuse to build internet infrastructure capable of doing this in 90% of the world
nice meme capitalists
 
I know that sucks! Really faced a similar issue, and I dunno what to do. I just wanna smash my laptop and my tablet.
 
As someone who doesn't actually watch much tv or movies (haha free YouTube for life), I haven't had to deal with a lot of streaming stress. But I get that for the tv and movie watchers out there, it's quite a predicament. Most of the time, competition between companies benefits the consumer, but in the unique case of the streaming service (which is supposed to be an all in one, one stop subscription), the competition is actually hurting the consumer. Companies are resorting to "exclusives", which makes it almost impossible to choose just one service.

And on the more general topic of subscriptions, they can often be a problem. Most people (unknowingly) are subscribed to way too many, all of them slowly sucking the life out of said consumer's bank account. That's why I keep a keen eye on which subscriptions I absolutely need (for instance: why YouTube Premium when you have free adblockers?) I always weigh in on exactly how many benefits there are for me, and if it's worth the money. If not, I don't need it
 
June said:
As someone who doesn't actually watch much tv or movies (haha free YouTube for life), I haven't had to deal with a lot of streaming stress. But I get that for the tv and movie watchers out there, it's quite a predicament. Most of the time, competition between companies benefits the consumer, but in the unique case of the streaming service (which is supposed to be an all in one, one stop subscription), the competition is actually hurting the consumer. Companies are resorting to "exclusives", which makes it almost impossible to choose just one service.

And on the more general topic of subscriptions, they can often be a problem. Most people (unknowingly) are subscribed to way too many, all of them slowly sucking the life out of said consumer's bank account. That's why I keep a keen eye on which subscriptions I absolutely need (for instance: why YouTube Premium when you have free adblockers?) I always weigh in on exactly how many benefits there are for me, and if it's worth the money. If not, I don't need it
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I hate these constant payment models because it piles up on top of the other constant monthly payments you have to partake in (like financing a car, house, insurance, bills), so it's just more shit to keep track of. "Oh," you might say, "40 bucks a month isn't all that bad" but it all fucking adds up, which is the point of these nasty things. Sometimes, I just want to pay a single upfront fee in these things and just be done with it.
 
I'm not gonna quote the OP since it's from 2019 but comparing streaming to cable and saying that 'it makes cable look reasonable' is complete nonsense and one of those weird arguments I see about streaming (along with people claiming that 'streaming has just turned into cable') that I just do not understand and think it comes from people who forget how utterly awful cable was (and still is).

Cable is fuckin expensive, like I still pay for cable and our monthly cable bill is about $300. Meanwhile I did some math and you could subscribe to Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+, Max, Paramount+, and Peacock for less than $100 a month total. And I should be specific that I ain't talking about the cheapest options where you can only stream in 480p on one device with adverts, this is the total price if you want to be subbed to the versions that are ad-free and full HD+ video quality.

Not only that, but cable also tries to hide the actual price of what you're going to be paying under smaller text and hidden fees. I have Xfinity, for example, and here are the channel packages available at my address and the price they advertise themselves as:
- Choice TV - $20/mo
- Popular TV - $60/mo
- Ultimate TV - $80/mo

Now that sure sounds great, I mean even the most expensive option is still cheaper than being subbed to all the streaming services, clearly cable is the better option here?

Well here's what they ain't telling you:
Choice TV? That's just 10+ channels. Literally other than your local channels (which are free if you have an antenna), the only other channels you get are C-SPAN, some shopping networks like HSN, QVC, and Jewelry Television, and Music Choice.

Also, in addition to the advertised prices, there are also additional fees. The $20 Choice TV option? You gotta pay an additional $24.40/mo broadcast TV fee. The $60 Popular TV and $80 Ultimate TV options? Additional $24.40/mo broadcast TV fee and a $16.50/mo regional sports fee.

So the actual prices are $44.40/mo for Choice TV, $100.90/mo for Popular TV, and $120.90/mo for Ultimate TV.

EXCEPT THOSE ALSO AREN'T THE ACTUAL PRICES YOU'RE GOING TO BE PAYING EITHER BECAUSE SALES TAX AND EQUIPMENT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE PRICES.

Let's say I decide that I want the biggest channel package from Xfinity, so I go for the (ostensibly) $80/mo Ultimate TV option. Well you can also customize and add additonal packages. I ain't going to be ridiculous and add ALL THE ADDITIONAL PACKAGES, but let's say I decide to add the Xfinity StreamSaver bundle (which includes Netflix Standard w/ ads, Apple TV+, and Peacock Premium with ads) for an additional $15/mo and I'm into sports so I go for the More Sports & Entertainment package so I get some more sports channels like MLB Network, NBA TV, CBS Sports Network, etc. for an additional $9.95/mo.

Now I gotta add the TV boxes, obviously you get one TV box by default but most people are gonna have more than one TV. So let's say I got a TV in the living room and both bedrooms, so I'll need a total of three cable boxes. Those are $10/mo each, so that's an additional $30/mo for those.

DVR too, you get 20 hours of included DVR for free, but let's say 'Well we record a lot of TV, so let's just go for the $10/mo option that allows for 150 hours worth of recordings'.

So how much would ALL of this shit cost me per month (estimated)? $203.88/mo.

Over $200/mo for a plan that they promote as being $80/mo. Again: you can get Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+, Max, Paramount+, and Peacock - all sans adverts (remember cable TV still has advertisements) - for sub-$100/mo.

Meanwhile let's compare that with streaming...uhh you pay what the plan says, maybe slightly more due to tax depending on where you live (I know streaming services here in Florida have slightly higher prices because of taxes), but that's it. They're not tacking on extra fees that they don't advertise up-front, you don't have to rent equipment from them, and the biggest thing - YOU'RE NOT LOCKED INTO A CONTRACT WITH THEM.

A lot of cable companies nowadays offer no-contract plans, thankfully (the plan I was using an example is a no-contract one), but back in the day you would literally be locked into a 12 mo/24 mo contract with no way out unless you wanted to pay an early termination-fee.

With streaming, you can cancel at any time. You're not locked into having a service you don't use.
 
Only thing I don't like about streaming services is unskippable ads. Like, other than that, they're fine. I HATE ads LOL. In particular, I'm talking about Paramount Plus. So maybe not accurate to refer to all streaming services as doing that. Because besides that and Max I haven't used any other ones.
 
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