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Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

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Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#111

Post by macspoofing »

MisterTea wrote: post #3

These companies are obsessed with fragmenting the market for the sake of owning content from production to delivery. I have bad news for them: you're going to lose. People don't want to go back to paying $100/month for a dozen streaming "channels" with one or two good shows and a the same crap the rest of the other "channels" have. We want an on-demand nexus. A single hub. Just the other day I had the urge to watch g…

>I have bad news for them: you're going to lose. People don't want to go back to paying $100/month for a dozen streaming "channels" with one or two good shows and a the same crap the rest of the other "channels" have.

No. That's not the correct way to think about this. You are dreaming if you think media and production companies are going to leave $90/mo on the table. You will see prices rise. You will see multiple streaming services. You will see bills in the same ballpark as those of cable/satellite ... because that's about the sweet spot for people willing to spend monthly for media content.

>We want an on-demand nexus. A single hub.

You won't get it. Nobody is going to let anyone control all media distribution.

>So I have to pay an addition $7/month to watch a single show?

Yeah. Or you can just pass on that single show.

>Off to a torrent site or asking around to see if someone has rips or a box set. I have better things to do with $7 like buy dinner.

Age of piracy is going to end as well. And by the way, you are free to go and buy dinner and read a book. Nobody needs to watch the latest season of GoT - its not a human right. Talk about entitled!

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#112

Post by ryandrake »

friedman23 wrote: post #90
DmenshunlAnlsis wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, now you spend for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, Stars, CBS, and soon Disney. Plus Crunchyroll if you like anime, plus a sports package for sports. If this keeps going $100 will seem like a bargain, and piracy will surge. I also think it’s rude and out of line to tell someone that arguing with them is pointless. Do the mature thing and just stop responding, or the even more useful thing and actually try…

>Right, now you spend for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, Stars, CBS, and soon Disney. Plus Crunchyroll if you like anime, plus a sports package for sports. And why are you subscribed to every single streaming platform? Do you actually need to watch every single show you might possibly like?

I think he is simply addressing the argument that today’s environment (multiple streaming services each with exclusive content) is any different than yesterday when it was multiple cable bundles each with exclusive channels.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#113

Post by im3w1l »

MisterTea wrote: post #3

These companies are obsessed with fragmenting the market for the sake of owning content from production to delivery. I have bad news for them: you're going to lose. People don't want to go back to paying $100/month for a dozen streaming "channels" with one or two good shows and a the same crap the rest of the other "channels" have. We want an on-demand nexus. A single hub. Just the other day I had the urge to watch g…

Careful what you wish for, because that hub will be censored and the useful idiots will scream that it's not censorship if it's not the government.

I'd much rather a very very fragmented space with lots of diverse productions and perspectives.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#114

Post by EastSmith »

mmt wrote: post #100
scarface74 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without Fox, Disney has the best chance of success even if it e dis up having a smaller library. Small kids will watch the same thing over and over again. If you have kids, being able to pay $10-$15 a month for all Disney content is a great deal.

> Small kids will watch the same thing over and over again. > being able to pay $10-$15 a month That seems like a terrible deal, compared with just paying for that "same thing" once and watching it over and over for free.

That "same thing" this month is Finding Nemo, next month is Cars, next month is something else.

Also, you can buy it and they watch it half a time and never think about it again.

$10-$15 is cheaper.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#115

Post by closetCS »

lovich wrote: post #84
consumethreads wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because we are not cheap and are ok with paying for a service. How cheap should it be. There will be no service that people will pay for if they pirate content. The service they want is a service where they dont have to pay. If you are pirating you are not a customer. Any business man should not be concerned with trying to gain your market, its not profitable.

Steam, iTunes, and Spotify have almost completely killed off pirating for games and music. It's still possible but people would rather pay for those services because the services actually add a value over the actual data which is post scarcity. TV and the film industry have decided they'll make more money by making a worse product and doing everything they can to prevent users from finding alternatives

I'm not quite sure about this, but aren't the products you have mentioned also have the same problem as Netflix. Spotify is able to provide lots of music options, but for how long? They are being effectively strangled by music labels and competitors, which will eventually lead to a content fragmentation between music streaming services. Then people will turn back to pirating music just as fast and they have for video. I'm not sure about steam , but I'm sure that eventually the gaming industry will face the same problem, it's only a matter of time.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#116

Post by scarface74 »

shmerl wrote: post #106
scarface74 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean every single software as a service company business model is invalid?

> Does that mean every single software as a service company business model is invalid? I'm OK with someone offering digital renting, if there is an option to buy the same thing (though I wouldn't use it if it has DRM). I'm not OK with it, if renting only is mandated. Software as a service isn't exactly the same case as buying books, films, music, games and etc. For instance Web search is software as a service and I'm…

How is Netflix, Hulu, etc. not the same? You pay $10.99 a month and get unlimited access to an entire library of content. What device that you own can’t play Spotify music?

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#117

Post by henrikschroder »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #88
axaxs wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. TV for me is a nicety, I enjoy it from time to time. I'm already a bit putoff from having both Netflix and Hulu, forgetting which show is on which, two apps, etc. I have a feeling we're heading towards each player making their own ecosystem, apps, monthly charges. If/when that happens, I'll either not watch TV at all, or use the 'free' options widely available. I want to give them money, but not if it makes m…

>forgetting which show is on which On my Android TV device (Mi Box $60 at WalMart) if I search a show it aggregates results from all my apps so it doesn't even matter which app it's on I just click from the results and it opens what I want. Disclaimer: Not affiliated with anything I just mentioned just a happy customer.

My current and my previous Samsung TVs had this built-in as well. It can search the channel guide in the cable-box, the installed apps, as well as some pay-per-view alternatives.

Works pretty damn well, actually.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#118

Post by DrJaws »

macspoofing wrote: post #111
MisterTea wrote: post #3

These companies are obsessed with fragmenting the market for the sake of owning content from production to delivery. I have bad news for them: you're going to lose. People don't want to go back to paying $100/month for a dozen streaming "channels" with one or two good shows and a the same crap the rest of the other "channels" have. We want an on-demand nexus. A single hub. Just the other day I had the urge to watch g…

>I have bad news for them: you're going to lose. People don't want to go back to paying $100/month for a dozen streaming "channels" with one or two good shows and a the same crap the rest of the other "channels" have. No. That's not the correct way to think about this. You are dreaming if you think media and production companies are going to leave $90/mo on the table. You will see prices rise. You will see multiple s…

some poeple will just go back to p2p and there is nothing they can do.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#119

Post by mmt »

EastSmith wrote: post #114
mmt wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Small kids will watch the same thing over and over again. > being able to pay $10-$15 a month That seems like a terrible deal, compared with just paying for that "same thing" once and watching it over and over for free.

That "same thing" this month is Finding Nemo, next month is Cars, next month is something else. Also, you can buy it and they watch it half a time and never think about it again. $10-$15 is cheaper.

Thanks (I'm not a parent). In those cases, yes, that pricing would make sense.

Of course, it doesn't really matter if they control all the distribution anyway. They can just make "buying" a non-option, which I believe Disney has tried for certain titles already.

Re: Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox

#120

Post by falcor84 »

rayiner wrote: post #49
sosborn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Off to a torrent site or asking around to see if someone has rips or a box set. The other option is to just not watch it.

The down voting you’re getting is emblematic of the entitlement mentality among tech folks when it comes to content. There is no right to consume entertainment someone else produced for free. If you don’t like the terms on which they’re selling the fruits of their labor, don’t buy it.

Human rights are a very politically controversial topic, so let's instead reverse our focus and address this via Dawkins's concept of memetics. Looking at a piece of well-designed popular consumer entertainment content, we can see that its main reason of being is to spread out as if it were an epidemic, infecting people's minds and getting them to pass it around.

Continuing with the epidemiological metaphor, there are several possible vectors for the content to spread, and the prevalence of each depends on the particular circumstances of specific hosts or communities of hosts. For example, if the vector of "Alice advising Bob to consume it on subscription service X" is effective in a particular community (and this effectiveness obviously depends on several different parameters), then piracy wouldn't be an issue there. But if all such legal vectors are ineffective in that community, while the content is still very potent in its memetic properties, then it will still spread out, in one of several forms of alternative less legal vectors.

To paraphrase John Gilmore's famous quote about the internet, society treats inconvenient content providers as if they weren't there and routes around them, creating alternative distribution methods.

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