• CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      They’re making it like one of those grandfathers who recently found Infowars and is slowly becoming unhinged.

  • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    1 year ago

    “This deal keeps getting worse all the time.”

    I’ve been quitting streaming providers left and right. I lost count of how many services I had, but it was probably up to $150 per month or more. Because I like the ability to just watch whatever I want, I’d sign up for a service to get a particular show or movie, then just not cancel. I’d forget I had a service, then find some movie in a search, and suddenly remember I had showtime or shudder.

    Once they started banning family sharing of accounts and increasing prices, I was done. I could have gone on for years like that - I love movies and I binge television shows, but one of my main uses is watching in remote sessions with isolated family members.

  • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    We get Max free through our cell phone plan; I don’t think the merger changed that (we still get it for free), but I’m honestly not sure how this will affect it, if at all. If it ever stops being free, there will be a few shows I’ll miss having instant access to, but nothing that cleaning the sails for a voyage on the high seas can’t fix.

  • Hairyblue@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think there should be a 4k tier. They should be tiered on ads and number of users. Why should quality be a tier?

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why should quality be a tier?

      The cost of storing and serving 4k content is much, much higher than 1080p.

      • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        The cost of storing and serving 1080p is much, much higher than not storing or serving any content yet they still do that. It’s what we’re paying them for. Furthermore ‘streaming 4k’ is pretty compressed already and comes nowhere near the level of bitrate of a 4k bluray.

      • Pavidus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        I would say that was a valid argument a decade ago when 4k came out. I’m completely baffled that we STILL market 1080 as high quality. Furthermore, I would say that was a valid argument if these fucks weren’t taking in record profits over and over and over again. It’s not a cost issue. It’s a greed issue.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not really. I mean there is, but both bandwidth and storage get cheaper by the day. Delivering 4k content today is probably an order of magnitude cheaper per bit than delivering HD content was a decade ago.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Storing is done once by simply offering a 4k option*.

        Bandwidth is an ongoing cost per view, but no where near the increased plan cost to cover it.

        *technically more than once because of distributed CDNs which would need to scale to demand. But negligible.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I mean they cache it all via CDN. In some cases that means they’ve got 1000 copies of a popular show sitting on CDNs around the world, and in some cases that means they are dynamically pushing content to CDNs on demand.

    • DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s the smartest thing ever people should read about marketing tactics and schemes to get people to pay more money. The smallest thing can be locked behind a $5 increase and people are still going to buy it. It’s all about knowing your audience.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s the smartest thing ever people should read about marketing tactics and schemes to get people to pay more money.

        I strongly agree with this. In fact, just seek out a college level textbook. Here’s a free one. Its like having a secret decoder ring to a huge chunk of society you interact with daily. You’ll be able to quickly identify an advertising pitch, and identify why its appealing to you and if it is deceptive. You’ll also see the gaps as in “okay product A exists and product C exist, so product B probably does too. Now why am I not seeing that one?”. It also lets you see that you are sorted into a specific bucket because of your age, race, level of education, income, and geography. There are huge parts of marketing that you don’t see because those are for other market segments which you aren’t in.

        Its like have a cheat code to society.

    • Goronmon@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why should quality be a tier?

      Because it costs more to stream 4k content than lower quality content?

      Not agreeing with it, but the justification is easy to make.

      • thesprongler@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        It costs inconsequentially more to host large files, sure, but the cost is usually on the consumer vis-à-vis their ISP to stream larger files.

        • Goronmon@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          It costs inconsequentially more to host large files, sure, but the cost is usually on the consumer vis-à-vis their ISP to stream larger files.

          You are wording this like you are disagreeing, while still agreeing with what I said.

  • generalpotato@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Take away common features (4K and HDR) from an already existing plan to squeeze out $4 from users at the cost of good-will and subscribers, which is the inverse of increases in subscriber count, which is what matters most to a streaming service along with content.

    That’s some smooth brain Exec MBA product strategy right there.

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    “One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” explained Newell during his time on stage at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s (WTIA) Tech NW conference. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”

    I’m done with streaming for reasons like the one in the article but damn, the arr suite, a Synology NAS, and Plex on my Apple TV are a fantastic combo. Any show, movie, book, or music I want, at the highest quality, and no getting fucked around by greedy media corporations.

    I still spend money on media but now I try and make sure as much as possible goes straight into the pockets of the people who make it.