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It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

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Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#161

Post by kedean »

alain94040 wrote: post #27
illuminati1911 wrote: post #2

"For months now, journalists, industry insiders, and consumers have opined on who will “win” the streaming wars and why." The more streaming services there will be, the more likely it is that only thepiratebay and torrents will win.

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…

There's two key differences between the cable situation and the streaming situation. First, under cable, theoretically the subscriptions would all go through one provider. That's how direcTV worked (15-20 years ago, not sure if it still does), and it was a pretty cool model. Having to maintain subscriptions with a dozen streaming providers is a nightmare vs one. Amazon's channels system is more akin to it, where I can choose to pay a little extra for Shudder if I want horror content.

Second, cable channels had a genre. If you like food, you might want food network. If you like music, you might want VH1 and the MTV's. If you're into cartoons, there's Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Bravo has lifestyle stuff, Lifetime is "womens content", G4 was tech stuff, Weather Channel is weather, etc. With the streaming choices...they all serve all kinds of stuff, so picking and choosing makes way less sense. Instead of picking interests, you're picking brand loyalties, and that sucks.

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#162

Post by ce4 »

scarface74 wrote: post #74
ce4 wrote: post #53

Earlier 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

Only that I'm not part of the target audience: "Open to U.S. residents 13+". Looks interesting though never heard of it before. Some questions: How often can a movie be transferred, will it retain all audio streams, subtitle options and the quality that I bought? What if it's not available on any other platform or Disney (the parent company) decides to shut it down?

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#163

Post by parasubvert »

ce4 wrote: post #53
parasubvert wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There... is an iTunes for movies. I mean, I own hundreds of iTunes movies, some of which I purchased 13 years ago. Microsoft, Google, and Sony all have equivalents.

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

Technically we don’t own the content on DVDs and Blu-Rays either, we get a license. So long as those old players keep working....

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#164

Post by parasubvert »

_v7gu wrote: post #117
Mindwipe wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, because a la carte is always significantly more expensive. It results in higher transaction cost overhead, more risk, more cash flow volatility etc. A la carte is significantly more expensive in literally every industry, globally, for a reason.

Human behavior does not (and should not) care about the cost structure. As binge watching is popular, having digital content priced over 15$ (or whatever the monthly price of the streaming service that also hosts the content) limits the sales to an incredibly niche audience.

Incredibly niche is an exaggeration. People will spend the dough to watch what they want to watch. The vast majority of movies aren’t on Netflix!

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#165

Post by skuthus »

alain94040 wrote: post #27
illuminati1911 wrote: post #2

"For months now, journalists, industry insiders, and consumers have opined on who will “win” the streaming wars and why." The more streaming services there will be, the more likely it is that only thepiratebay and torrents will win.

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…

IMO the disconnect starts with the producers. They believe their content to be worth X, but most consumers are only willing to pay X/2

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#166

Post by scarface74 »

ce4 wrote: post #162
scarface74 wrote: post #74

Earlier 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

Only that I'm not part of the target audience: "Open to U.S. residents 13+". Looks interesting though never heard of it before. Some questions: How often can a movie be transferred, will it retain all audio streams, subtitle options and the quality that I bought? What if it's not available on any other platform or Disney (the parent company) decides to shut it down?

It’s not transferred. Once your accounts are linked, any movie that you purchase or redeem from one of the participating studios automatically shows up in all of your libraries as purchased.

Since it is only available in the US, I would suspect that it would be centered around US releases.

Even if Disney later shuts down Movies Anywhere, you’ve already “purchased” the movie according to Amazon/Apple/Google, etc. You can disconnect from Movies Anywhere once you sync the titles between services.

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#167

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

tguedes wrote: post #132
nabla9 wrote: post #75

Streaming wars are called wars because newcomers are willing to burn money for market share. Next few years Disney streaming operations are expected to make $5B loss every year. They are still profitable because they make money from everything else, including cable. This is problem for Netflix. Competitors have other sources of revenue aside from streaming services, Netflix has just streaming. Netflix hasn't had posi…

You could argue this puts Netflix in a great position. Netflix is going to live or die on streaming. For the other companies, streaming is another line on a P&L doc.

Not sure how potentially dying is a good position to be in

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#168

Post by Dylan16807 »

Mindwipe wrote: post #90
Dylan16807 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs more to buy four episodes of a single show than an entire month of a typical streaming service. That is not the "let me pick my channels" service that people often ask for.

It is, because a la carte is always significantly more expensive. It results in higher transaction cost overhead, more risk, more cash flow volatility etc. A la carte is significantly more expensive in literally every industry, globally, for a reason.

An a la carte premium doesn't explain why it's more expensive to buy a single show than the bundle it comes in.

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#169

Post by starky »

Lammy wrote: post #60
starky wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, I got rid of Netflix because they often didn't have what I wanted to watch, and only have Amazon Prime Video because I don't pay any extra for it with my Prime subscriptions. Not to mention that not every streaming service is available in Canada. If I have to worry about where to find the show I want to watch or whether it is available in my country, then I may as well just go straight to a source that I know wi…

> because I don’t pay any extra for it with my Prime subscription. I see their advertising is effective. The price of Prime was even increased recently to help fund video production.

Amazon Prime price is still $79CAD as it has been since I signed up and I definitely get my money's worth. I actually didn't even realize it came with Prime Video when I signed up. Additionally, I make use of Amazon Photos unlimited backup for ~250GB of the raw files from my camera, any other cloud backup service would cost a similar amount every year.

Re: It’s not a zero-sum game for Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+

#170

Post by WorldMaker »

sammorrowdrums wrote: post #110
Benji_San wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

Incidentally, steam does stream both standard film and VR content - just not much of it. (So steam is already steam for TV/Films in theory) For example: https://store.steampowered.com/app/468060/PADAK/

Steam briefly had a content deal with Lionsgate, but the partnership didn't work out (very few sales) and they abandoned the idea of selling TV/Films soon after the partnership collapsed. They didn't seem able to get interest from any other studio in that time, either. (Plus they were not able to and disinterested in supporting the industry standard Movies Anywhere mutual-DRM-unlocks-assurance system, so for at least some consumers their attempt was DOA from the start.)
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