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It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
91–100 of 187 posts
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think we have, I think the problem has gotten worse. Let me try to make an example. Let's say there's one popular streaming platform, that is $5/mo. They mostly just aggregate and license content. Later on, content owners want to skip the middleman so they start making their own streaming services. So now you have 3 streaming services, which are each $5/mo. So you are now paying 3x as much. But you don't watc…
I think people preferred Netflix being the only game in town simply because then if it wasn’t on Netflix you could mostly discard it, not that there wasn’t great content not on Netflix. It’s the tomato sauce choice fallacy - many people will be quite happy just having one, as compared to having 50 because then you can’t be happy with your choice because you’ll be wondering about the other ones. In the end - just pick…
> I think people preferred Netflix being the only game in town simply because then if it wasn’t on Netflix you could mostly discard it
HN really does not understand that it does not live in a mainstream demographic, does it?
This wasn't ever true. Ever.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not owning them. You own a license to watch on Apple's terms and as long as iTunes is around. Microsoft shut down the drm servers and killed their clients' ebooks in April: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20318852
Microsoft gave their customers a full refund, what's the problem?
As a purely practical matter: maybe your ebook reader only supports the format that was discontinued; maybe the ebook has gone out of print or has a change you don't like; or maybe you brought it when there was a big discount and to re-purchase elsewhere will cost you more.
As a broader matter of principle, it proves your property rights over a DRMed ebook are weak compared to a regular physical book; if you had a physical book, the seller couldn't barge into your home and remove it, refund or no.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#94Solution: Sign up to an aggregator service that's say $15 / month and you can watch any streaming service. When the month is up your $15 is distributed between providers depending on how much you watched each of them.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's amazing how we have gone full circle in the last 15 years or so. In the old days, people complained about their cable tv bill: why do I have to pay for 250 channels when I only watch 5 of them? Let me pay only for what I watch. Now that the future is here, people are complaining that they need to sign up for too many streaming services. Why can't I just pay once for a bundle and get everything I need? I'm just a…
>why do I have to pay for 250 channels when I only watch 5 of them? Let me pay only for what I watch. But that is still the case. If I could only pay for the shows I watch, I would not complain. But if I watch one Netflix show, I can't just subscribe to that show, I must pay for a ton of stuff I'm not remotely interested in. You still have Netflix, Disney+ and all the cable channels you need to subscribe to if you wa…
There is no reason for an 'a la carte' system to be cheaper. Actually transmitting channels is basically free.
So, assuming there is 250 channels, and everyone watches 5, but a different 5, it costs the same to let everyone watch all 250, or exactly 5 of them.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not owning them. You own a license to watch on Apple's terms and as long as iTunes is around. Microsoft shut down the drm servers and killed their clients' ebooks in April: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20318852
That’s not strictly true. If the movie you purchased was from one of the five major studios that support Movies Anywhere, you can link your Amazon Prime, Google, iTunes, or Vudu account (along with others) and any movie purchased on one can be transferred to the other services. https://moviesanywhere.com/welcome
And if I want a DRM free copy so that I don’t have to ever keep track of this landscape of shifting alliances? This is way more mental overhead than I want to devote to movies.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s not strictly true. If the movie you purchased was from one of the five major studios that support Movies Anywhere, you can link your Amazon Prime, Google, iTunes, or Vudu account (along with others) and any movie purchased on one can be transferred to the other services. https://moviesanywhere.com/welcome
And if I want a DRM free copy so that I don’t have to ever keep track of this landscape of shifting alliances? This is way more mental overhead than I want to devote to movies.
You’ve never been able to buy commercial video without copy protection. Even in the VHS days you had Macrovision.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#98Well, yes and no. Nowadays it's possible to serve all niches and the mainstream market together at the same time, through the same general service offering, simply by filtering and sorting the content according to user data.
Therefore I would assume that we can't fully apply the traditional media experience to the current streaming wars.
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's amazing how we have gone full circle in the last 15 years or so. In the old days, people complained about their cable tv bill: why do I have to pay for 250 channels when I only watch 5 of them? Let me pay only for what I watch. Now that the future is here, people are complaining that they need to sign up for too many streaming services. Why can't I just pay once for a bundle and get everything I need? I'm just a…
>why do I have to pay for 250 channels when I only watch 5 of them? Let me pay only for what I watch. But that is still the case. If I could only pay for the shows I watch, I would not complain. But if I watch one Netflix show, I can't just subscribe to that show, I must pay for a ton of stuff I'm not remotely interested in. You still have Netflix, Disney+ and all the cable channels you need to subscribe to if you wa…
um, Youtube does this. you can buy movies/series for a one time viewing. If you don't watch too many it works out pretty cheap
Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> An actual 'A la carte' situation is that of the consumer being able to actually handpick the shows they want and only pay for those. This will never happen due to the industry being absolutely hostile to the idea... We've been able to do this with a substantial number of shows for years, though, by buying individual episodes or "season passes" on Amazon and iTunes. Maybe people just don't know, maybe people think t…
The problem with buying Season Passes is that they're usually a terrible option for many reasons. They're usually not available until well after the season premiered (12+ months later), roughly at the same time that the DVD/Bluray comes out. The quality of them is iffy, at best - SD or HD at poor bitrates. Fine for watching on a tablet or laptop, marginal at best on a TV/Surround system. They're tied to watching on t…
I'm still waiting for "Steam for TV series/Films". I've always felt that that approach would work better as we're unlikely to get a single streaming service with "most content" akin to music streaming". The model works well for distributing games and doesn't have any of the deal breaking problems that you listed (well except for it going out of business, but should not be a problem as long as you have access to the files). I can't really see a reason why it would not work for films or TV series.
Just provide something that isn't worse than torrents and reasonably priced and I'll happily buy the content I'm interested in.