Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 535 posts

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#101

Post by tracker1 »

basch wrote: post #75
tracker1 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says we want it free... There's only so many $8-15 services you can get before it's just too painful to use. I have Hulu+live, Prime, Netflix mainly. I've tried CBS all access and DCU. The later two are the same company. CBS is a pain in a few ways and not worth it in others. Most of it is on Hulu live TV. The fact that DCU is missing so much content it isn't worth it either. Disney+ is in for a shock too. Unless…

DCU is ATT WarnerMedia. CBSViacom owns Philo and Pluto. Strategically, as CBS and Viacom merge, I see CBS All Access, Philo, Pluto, Paramount, Nickelodeon merging into a family of more related apps, similar to Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+. But itll be a bit for that ship to right its course, Viacom Consumer Products and CBS Interactive wont merge efforts overnight.

Sorry thought CBS and WB were related, since CW is CBS+Warner...

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#102

Post by Dobbs »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #63
Dobbs wrote: post #4

For the love of all that is holy let us split our netflix account out! My user is on my brothers account from when we lived together a long time ago. Every year I check to see if there is a way to split the user out. Every year I remain disappointed and continue on using the same account.

Is there some sort of data you require from your user? I guess there's a preferences algorithm you may have cultivated, but that's really it. Unless you really care about having handcrafted the Netflix algorithm, it kind of feels like that's just an excuse.

Things that you have watched, things you want to watch. Movie ratings (although these seem to be going away more and more). Lots of data.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#103

Post by rayiner »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #89
rayiner wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike the book analogy because it puts on the cloak of “sharing learning.” The kinda of things people are pirating are consumer goods—created solely for the purpose of being sold for entertainment. It’s stealing candy, not stealing bread.

Let's split the difference. It'd be like parking outside the drive-in theater and watching the movie from the top of your car without having bought a ticket. Still not good, but of limited harm caused.

Sure. I don’t think that should result in a SWAT team, but should people feel entitled to do it?

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#104

Post by rayiner »

tracker1 wrote: post #79
toomuchtodo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think comparing it to looting and vandalism is a bit hyperbole. It’s closer to copying a book at the library and taking the copy home. No one is deprived of an object or the content when duplicated, they only miss out on whatever revenue they were attempting to capture.

Even then, imagine not being able to buy any given book at a few different stores. I can get just about any of them on Amazon, B&N and others. Imagine having to go to 6 different stores, with a membership club fee, to check out 6 different books. Vs a single store or library.

You mean like how I can’t buy a Surface at an Apple Store and vice versa?

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#105

Post by danaris »

ghaff wrote: post #21
magashna wrote: post #9

> “I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall,” Tom Rutledge, the chief executive officer of Charter Communications Inc., said during an earnings call last month. “It’s just too easy to get the product without paying for it.” Boo hoo. All these companies thinking they can split all their content up and get people to pay for every single service are in for a (totally expected) surprise. I'll share my plex server…

I thought everyone wanted content to be split up when it was bundled as a cable package.

I think there's a significant difference between content packaged as "channels" and content packaged as individual shows. It's the difference between knowing that your Netflix subscription comes with* 10,000 different shows, and you will probably only ever care about 1000 or so, and knowing that your cable subscription comes with 250 channels, and you will probably only ever care about 20, and definitely never care about 100 of them.

It's also the difference between the, what, $20/month? that Netflix subscription costs and the $80/month or whatever that the TV portion of a cable subscription costs nowadays.

* No actual numbers were harmed in the making of this post. All numbers presented are purely imaginary.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#106

Post by harryh »

me_me_me wrote: post #100
rayiner wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel entitled to get the product of other peoples work for free?

The moment I needed a bloody table with different companies/packages/subscription in order to figure-out how to watch that show I heard from a friend, I just go to a place where i can get it right now and watch it with my food still warm. Its not customer's fault that the only option for that is now piracy. You want my business earn it, I've yet to see people jumping hurdles and run 10km to get McD burger. Then momen…

I remember 10 years ago that the answer to rayiner's question was always "I don't want to pay a ton of money for a whole bundle of crap I don't want when all I want to watch is one specific thing." I saw it all the time.

Now people complain about the complexities of unbundling.

It's fairly clear to me that these complaints, while real, aren't the core issue which is: people would rather get content for free than pay for it. So a lot of the time they will.

The rhetoric about bundling vs unbundling is just the justification.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#107

Post by devicetray0 »

tracker1 wrote: post #88
tonyjstark wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree more. There is always one friend still using the service while you're already saturated and because of that the subscription is kept instead of cancelled. Once cancelled, a service can have a hard time to win a user back. But it seems the industry does not want to learn: don't make it harder to use your service for the honest users. They're worth it to keep happy!

I've cancelled Netflix a couple of times. What actually got me back is the fact that they didn't inundate my inbox like some services and stores do. I mean like one email every couple months. There are some stores I get at least half a dozen a week. They also didn't pull what XM/Serious do and make it nearly impossible to cancel. 4x 40m phone calls, then all I wanted to do was drop one of 3 radios when I sold a car.…

I guess instead of email, they [Netflix] have been spamming my phone about every new original show they created, usually something I'm not interested in. It got annoying enough one week to actually go turn notifications off.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#108

Post by toomuchtodo »

rayiner wrote: post #103
toomuchtodo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's split the difference. It'd be like parking outside the drive-in theater and watching the movie from the top of your car without having bought a ticket. Still not good, but of limited harm caused.

Sure. I don’t think that should result in a SWAT team, but should people feel entitled to do it?

Humans are tricky creatures.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#110

Post by lidHanteyk »

harryh wrote: post #106
me_me_me wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moment I needed a bloody table with different companies/packages/subscription in order to figure-out how to watch that show I heard from a friend, I just go to a place where i can get it right now and watch it with my food still warm. Its not customer's fault that the only option for that is now piracy. You want my business earn it, I've yet to see people jumping hurdles and run 10km to get McD burger. Then momen…

I remember 10 years ago that the answer to rayiner's question was always "I don't want to pay a ton of money for a whole bundle of crap I don't want when all I want to watch is one specific thing." I saw it all the time. Now people complain about the complexities of unbundling. It's fairly clear to me that these complaints, while real, aren't the core issue which is: people would rather get content for free than pay…

No, I'm gonna use the same answer that I'd have used 10 years ago: The cable-company upper management isn't entitled either. They appropriate the art from the artists and call it "fair compensation", but it isn't.

Keep in mind that these are the same cable companies that charge for basic broadcast channels, too. There's charging for stuff that people might not watch, and then there's charging for stuff that is freely available in the air for anybody to tune into.

Post reply on HN