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Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

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Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#91
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad thats part of the actual video is an ad too.

That obviously doesn’t count, as there really isn’t anything YouTube can do about that.

Google could respond by forcing them into an AdWords-like program and making embedded ads unskippable.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing is, once the streaming market has dominated, there is nothing stopping it to also turning into crap full of advertisements. I remember when cable was cheap and as-free. The transition looks good because it has too (to lure customers away from cable). My bet is that it’s only a matter of time till “personilized ads” are forced upon you.

YouTube has definitely become more and more ad-ridden since its inceptions, and the ads are definitely personalized (though badly). There are now videos with multiple ad interruptions, a bit like ye olde TV. I do think one difference here is that on YouTube, if a video is full of ads, I won't keep watching long unless the content is solid and interesting. I, as a watcher, have a choice as to what I watch. Though of c…

Of course, Youtube is free, unless you have a Youtube Red subscription, in which case you don't see ads.

And the fact of the matter is, the ads they do have don't produce enough revenue to support most creators.

I suppose you could argue that's because Google's cut is too high, but in Youtube's case (as opposed to, say, Apple's App Store), I feel Google is providing a substantial service—hosting, encoding, and distributing a huge amount of data.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#93
2 weeks ago I was about to sign up for Xfinity cable and internet. At the end of long phone call with a data center rep where I carefully chose every package that I thought I would need, (for a total cost of ~90 $ before tax), the rep informed me that there was a 9 dollar "broadcat TV fee" and a 6 dollar "live sports fee" that were applied to every single cable package offered (but not mentioned in any of promo ads. I was so disgusted I cancelled right then and there. Oh, and that 90$ was a teaser fee with a 1 year contract (I've had a contract with direcTV but never cable). The entire experience was so dishonest that I didn't care if they were offering the best price (they weren't). Over the next week I demoed slingTV and the streaming direcTV service before setting on youtubeTV. Never going back.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing is, once the streaming market has dominated, there is nothing stopping it to also turning into crap full of advertisements. I remember when cable was cheap and as-free. The transition looks good because it has too (to lure customers away from cable). My bet is that it’s only a matter of time till “personilized ads” are forced upon you.

>> My bet is that it’s only a matter of time till “personilized ads” are forced upon you. Unlike cable TV in the US currently, which is either a monopoly or duopoly, there is a decent bit of competition on streaming. Currently, there is Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, among others. Yes, the content is often only partially overlapping, but the point is -- there is competition. This is much more promising for cus…

It will only take one company to jump the gun, introduce advertising and the rest will follow after a huge increase in revenue. People won’t just leave automatically, especially if their locked to service specific content.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#95
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adblockers (and youtube-dl and newpipe) still work on youtube, fortunately. It'll be a sad day when they ban those.

In the last two weeks youtube started having problems with uBlock. If it's on, youtube refuses to play videos that have ads on. At least for me. Maybe they are testing the ad-block-blockers, and I'm one of the subjects.

any videos in particular not having any issues myself

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#96
post #2

The attitude towards streaming and the whole video on demand idea 10-15 years ago reminds me so much on the attitude towards electric vehicles today: - Quality is too low - speed is too slow - many people want to own their movie, not just rent it - people don’t want to watch movies on a computer - the large studios and cable companies will never allow it And within little more than a decade that all changed.

Quality is still an issue for streaming. Anyone who's ever compared a blu-ray to what Netflix offers knows it's night and day, especially for grainy old films. Netflix so-called "1080p" frequently has compression artifacts, and banding (most visible in dark shots). There's also disturbing aliasing (most visible in logos and on-screen fonts, causing jagged edges) which is more reminiscent of DVD-era MPEG-2 encoding th…

Most people don't even set the right aspect ratio on content. They don't care about quality.

I've seen people watch warped video because they, for some reason, prefer it to bars on the screen.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#97
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad thats part of the actual video is an ad too.

That obviously doesn’t count, as there really isn’t anything YouTube can do about that.

That absolutely count. Youtube can ban this kind of video.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#98
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing is, once the streaming market has dominated, there is nothing stopping it to also turning into crap full of advertisements. I remember when cable was cheap and as-free. The transition looks good because it has too (to lure customers away from cable). My bet is that it’s only a matter of time till “personilized ads” are forced upon you.

Easy fix if ads do come along: cancel your subscription. I pay to watch what I want, not what other people would like me to see. If I’m paying to see what people would like me to see, then I will stop paying. It really is that simple.

Won't matter, a much larger percent of the frogs won't leap out of the pot. Then it becomes "normal" to charge and have ads and no "rationally behaved" corporation will do anything less.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#99
post #18
post #3

I do wonder how Netflix can stay competitive in this market. They already have lots of debt, new competitors coming up, stock price is quite high. It seems they need to produce or license new content, so people do not cancel. But licensing content gets harder as competitors start their own services.

Netflix takes in 1.4 Billion dollars every month. All the content they add stays and builds up value. If they want to branch out, they can start doing live events. https://www.statista.com/statistics/273883/netflixs-quarterl...

To be fair. Their soon to be largest competitor, Disney+, parent company Disney does $3B+ profit per quarter. And $15B+ revenue per quarter. This is before their additional Fox profits and revenue they’ll get. So soon they’ll be even more of a mammoth compared to Netflix.

Re: Streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing is, once the streaming market has dominated, there is nothing stopping it to also turning into crap full of advertisements. I remember when cable was cheap and as-free. The transition looks good because it has too (to lure customers away from cable). My bet is that it’s only a matter of time till “personilized ads” are forced upon you.

YouTube has definitely become more and more ad-ridden since its inceptions, and the ads are definitely personalized (though badly). There are now videos with multiple ad interruptions, a bit like ye olde TV. I do think one difference here is that on YouTube, if a video is full of ads, I won't keep watching long unless the content is solid and interesting. I, as a watcher, have a choice as to what I watch. Though of c…

I have a Play Music subscription which includes YouTube Red. I haven't seen an ad in years.
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