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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

#191

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…

Well, except if your kids want it. Disney is probably in a good position there

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Netflix Is Why AT&T bought Time Warner, and Comcast and Disney want Fox. The comma after the 'and' in English lists allows us to apply 'why' to both "AT&T bought Time Warner" and "Comcast and Disney want Fox"

This is called the Oxford comma, if I’m not mistaken.

Is it? I'm not aware of the Oxford Comma being useful in a list of two. Maybe it's because we have the "Comcast and Disney"?

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

#193

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…

People don't want to pay $100 a month for cable TV either, but they did it anyway (for decades) and continue to do so. Now we're being asked to buy a bunch of streaming services and we'll bitch and moan, but ultimately we'll pay because every major platform will have at least one show that justifies their existence. I associate CBS with bland procedural crime dramas and awful three-camera sitcoms. CBS All Access woul…

I've paid for 2 months of CBS All Access, once at the end of each season of The Good Fight. That one show only gets me to pay a bit less than $1/month.

Comedy Central doesn't have a streaming service, so I have to pay for shows individually on Amazon. That also ends up being a lot cheaper than CBS All Access, and it cuts me off from learning about their other shows. I think all the Comedy Central shows I used to watch have been cancelled, so they won't be getting any of my money going forward unless I somehow learn about their new shows. That's a lot easier to do if my existing services start recommending Comedy Central shows to me.

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

#194

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…

We have the nexus for music and I assume for books, not sure why video is still a hold out except I believe music and books are more regulated.

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

#195
Loads of comments regarding what "I" want or someone else wants. I think it's irrelevant and perhaps even dangerous to have the focal point on such popularities because the matter at hand is far more simple. Copyright grants a distribution monopoly >> Monopolists makes money monopolists style >> Internet breaks the distribution monopoly >> And now: copyright distribution monopolist buys ISP's ( distributors ) in order to regain control of the market. This is not about you, me, "people", it's simply business.

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

#196

Companies focus on buying content while ignoring the quality of the broadcast experience. I am tired of competitors that skimp on this. Netflix doesn’t shove ads in your face, works on every platform and almost never has mysterious transmission failures. And now they have excellent content too. They have figured out so much more than some of the last-century providers.

Hulu is the worst goddamn experience, not even just because of ads, but the entire platform is so buggy and fragile. The Netflix playback experience is somehow still highly underrated. Amazon got the playback experience right pretty quick as well - I really want to know what is stopping Hulu.

I suspect that both Netflix and Prime are run like an engineering company, while Hulu is run like a media/marketing company.

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

#197

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…

People don't want to pay $100 a month for cable TV either, but they did it anyway (for decades) and continue to do so. Now we're being asked to buy a bunch of streaming services and we'll bitch and moan, but ultimately we'll pay because every major platform will have at least one show that justifies their existence. I associate CBS with bland procedural crime dramas and awful three-camera sitcoms. CBS All Access woul…

Lord of the Rings is Amazon

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

#198
post #180

Why does cable TV cost money? Wouldn't the advertising cover the distribution/production costs?

If they can charge for it, they are going to charge for it. Since there's no competition, there's no pressure to not charge the highest price.

Now that Netflix or other streaming services threaten this business model, the old guard is scrambling to get back to the same business model.

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

#199
post #5

If those company think it’s about content libraries they’re going to lose. All those companies think: we own a lot of media, we can just build a streaming media platform. And I think they’re way underestimating how hard it is to build the technology stack and processes that Netflix has. Netflix has an engineering team and a development and deployment process that has some production studios attached to it. Disney can…

Getting the engineering to scale fast would be difficult, but IMO isn't a fundamental issue. Streaming video is basically a solved problem and is not where the money is. People subscribe for the content, not the technology. HBO isn't a tech first company but is probably doing a disproportionate amount of subscriptions thanks to Game of Thrones.

People do subscribe for the content, but the tech still has to work well for people to continue subscribing. If the stream stutter or otherwise fail constantly, the user experience is gonna drive customers away. Tech is a functional requirement, not a feature.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. But Devil's Advocate here... Aside from stack, whatelse does Netflix have going for it? Pre-internet Blockbuster had an overpowering / dominate "stack" and that was their downfall. If VR is the next progression in home entertainment, who is best poised for that? Who has the tech + creativity DNA?

> Pre-internet Blockbuster had an overpowering / dominate "stack" and that was their downfall. That is because the internet replaced them. Streaming is a direct replacement for video rentals. It's the exact same movie but you don't have to drive to the video store to get it. The industry itself doesn't go away. There isn't any apparent new distribution method that will do to the internet what the internet did to bric…

The closest might be game/software subscription. You pay Steam a monthly fee, and have access to their entire backlog of games.
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